Metal cleaner

Description

Tarnish and residue are cleaned from metals by removing fractional amounts of the surface. Hard abrasives and hard rubbing tends to remove substantially more than softer abrasives and chemical dips. Examples of some products that have been used for cleaning metals are: pumice, chalk, silica, emery flour, jewelers' rouge; paraffin oil on fine wire wool (iron and steel), Goddard's Glow (pewter), Silver Dip (silver, Britannia metal), Vulpex Liquid (ormolu), Brasso (brass, bronze and copper), etc. Some polishes contain a mixture of abrasives (pumice, rouge, etc.), reactive compounds (oxalic acid), and residual tarnish barriers (paraffin wax).

Synonyms and Related Terms

metal polish; Metallreiniger (Deut.); limpiador de metal (Esp.); limpador de metais (Port.):

Examples: Brasso; Duragilt; Instant-Dip® [Casabar]; Silver Dip [Hagerty]; Goddard's Glow; Vulpex; Biox Conservation Liquid; Renaissance Metal De-corroder [Picreator];

Resources and Citations

• Selwyn, Lyndsie S. and Charles G. Costain, Evaluation of Silver-Cleaning products, Ottawa, Canadian Conservation Institute, 1991.

• G.Wharton, S.Lansing, W.Ginell, "A Comparative Study of Silver Cleaning Abrasives" JAIC 29:13-31, 1990. LINK

• J. Moss "Ammoniated Cleaning Solutions" British Horological Institute Journal, August 1997, online at http://www.antiqueclockconservation.com/scc.htm

• G.S.Brady, Materials Handbook, McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York, 1971

• Pam Hatchfield, Pollutants in the Museum Environment, Archetype Press, London, 2002

• Tom Rowland, Noel Riley, A-Z Guide to Cleaning, Conserving and Repairing Antiques, Constable and Co., Ltd., London, 1981