Last week I decided to tumble some of my more interesting non-ferrous finds from 2018. This week I’m hoping to start tumbling some of my more interesting iron relics.
I think its part of the responsibility we have as detectorists to either reuse, re-purpose or recycle the items we find!
I start by tumbling the items in ¾” aquarium gravel, a ½ cup of beach sand and liquid dish soap. I let this tumble for 24 — 36hrs, I then rinse it out, refill the tumbler with the same mixture and let it tumble for another 2 days. After a couple of days, I’ll then empty the tumbler, rinse off the items and re-tumble for another 2 — 3 days with just the gravel and the dish soap. There’s no need to seal the metal, as brass will start to ‘dull down’ again after just a couple of days exposure to the air. Sometimes I’ll brush on a light coat of mineral oil and bees wax, which can be washed off later with soap & water if desired. I started tumbling in 2012 with a small Loretone Model 45C tumbler, but I soon realized that I needed a larger capacity tumbler. In 2016 I bought a Loretone QT12, which allows me to tumbler larger items and more items at once. I quickly found that the more I detected, the more I found and want to keep.
Relic Tumbling
•Next time you go to the beach, gather some small ¾” – 1” pebbles and sand.
•Put your relics in the tumbler, add the pebbles, and about 2 tablespoons of the sand to make the tumbler about 3/4 full. Fill with water (to a little below the top of the pebbles) and add a touch of liquid detergent. Put the lid on and shake it to distribute the relics and pebbles evenly.
•Let it tumble for about 2 - 4 hours. Open it up and drain off the dirty water. Refill with clean water, add a touch of liquid detergent more sand if desired and tumble for another couple of hours or overnight.
•Open it up and pour into a strainer or screen that has holes large enough to let your pebbles and sand fall through, but not your coins. Rinse the relics well then spread them out on newspaper or on a towel to dry. I tumble brass and copper things that have corrosion on them too, like buckles and buttons and keys, etc. I prefer to separate the copper, brass, iron and silver items when they tumble. I have tried it both ways, and if you decide to tumble them together or let them tumble too long, your brass & copper will turn a brown colour. This is easily removed with another tumbling with more sand and gravel.
DO NOT MIX THE DIFFERENT METAL GROUPS!
•In a tumbler barrel, (remember not to mix the metal groups), then add aquarium gravel to a little less than ⅔ to ¾ full. Cover the mixture with water (do NOT over fill); add 1 SMALL squirt of liquid dish soap.
•After 1 - 2 of tumbling, pour out the tumbler of relics and gravel into a strainer. Rinse it all well while 'stirring' or turning it over so that beach sand washes out leaving only the aquarium gravel. Once all the aquarium gravel has been separated from the metal, rinse the metal with hot water. This helps increase the drying time.
•Pour the rinsed relics onto a towel on a counter top and allow them to dry. Continue with the next batch of metal to be tumbled. Once all relics are completely dry, they can be stored or put on display.
Thanks very much for looking,
Dave
If historical societies are not an option for you or they don't want the artifacts, take a small percentage of the best artifacts, and make a few display cases for yourself. Currently I have 8 that I rotate in any 4 at a given time in a curio cabinet. Then take 3 empty boxes (label "keep", "Goodwill" and "Scrap to sell", respectively) and a garbage can begin sorting through what is left. Depending on your choices, this may reduce the number of boxes you keep considerably. You'll probably need to do this every few months in the beginning to really narrow down what you want to keep and prevent the "keep" boxes from becoming overwhelmed with this season's finds. Good luck!
