New to this. Cleaning tips

[JC Florida]

Hi
I've been at this for about 6 months now so I still have a lot to learn. I recently worked a beach right after the storm a few days before Thanksgiving. There is one of the 1715 fleet wrecks located about 700 yards out from where I was detecting. I didn't find any silver or gold but I did get a couple of iron relics. One has a shell formation (?) that looks like a small container with a round top sticking out of the encrustation. I get metal hits on some of the surface area of this clump. The second is a small round metal object attached to a flat stone. Any suggestions on how to figure out what these are without destroying them? What is the best way to clean and preserve things like this?

 

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[Davers]

Man ,that,s a good question .."I" would likely leave the "container" bottle to looking piece as is. It looks cool to me inside the matrix ,& would think trying to remove it would destroy whats left.
As for the other iron piece in stone as it could be a nail [or whatever] its hard to tell the size from the pics, just use your best judgement . Just my opinion ... Good Luck ..Davers

 

[Frankn]

What the pro's do is slowly chip away the crust then use electrolysis to clean them up or in the case of iron, remove the salt. If you want something nice, you have to work for it. Frank...
PS Keep the iron in water or it will crumble.

 

[The Huntress]

To do electro litic reduction, a quick crude way is: Hook up a battery charger negative clip, with a small alligator clip to the metal piece, and another positive clip to a piece of stainless. Submurge, laid on a plastic tray, into a caustic solution, like 10% draino {lye} in water. Run a trickle charge, it is the opposite of gold plating the encrustation is attracted to the stainless with the positive charge. If you think you have a real good find in an encrusted object, good to take it for an X-ray if you have that ability.

 

[TheNewCatfish]

Check with the archeology department of any local college. They know all kinds of inexpensive ways to get'er done. I learned how to make my own "Clay-B-Gone" solution from scratch instead of buying it off the internet. All you need to dissolve red clay is a free ion of floride and a free ion of hydrogen. A squirt of floride toothpaste and a splash of hydrogen peroxide in a gallon jug of water works just fine. Turns clay balls into soup. Add some more water to your pan and pour out the clay. All that's left is water and sand.