electrolysis for cleaning civil war iron

MonkeyBoy · Jan 9, 2009

OK so I just cleaned my first piece of old dug iron via electrolysis.. an ax head from around the 1870s I think. hat is when the mountain I hunt was logged so it make sense. I started off with a 5 VDC 2 AMP adapter and it took hours to get any kind of bubbling started. Sooo, I pulled that I used a 12VDC/ 6AMP since it was a huge piece of iron. It has a lot of pits on it.. but is other wise pretty good. I took before and after pictures.. but some how managed to delete the before picture!! I have a bunch of other dug iron to try, so I will have pics of those.. I think next in is a huge iron lock I have.. the goal it to clean the larger chucks of artty iron I have.. just frags no live shells..

MB

Hutch911 · Jan 9, 2009

I just finished cleaning about 20 pieces of frags and quite a bit more pieces of iron things I have found this year. I got this power supply from Radio Shack 13.8VDC 3-Amp Power Supply and works great. I used baking soda so I was able to keep it in the house. It took about 6-8 hours to clean the frags really good and about 3 days for the whole shells. Takes a bit longer but did not have to deal with the chemicals.The only down fall is you will dust allot I got a white powder every where from the water evaporating.

Have fun with it I glad I am done next time I won't wait till I have so much

tymcmurray · Jan 9, 2009

Isn't it amazing how good the pieces look once they are done?
I don't have a nice set up like hutch, so it takes a little longer for
mine to finish.

woody50 · Jan 9, 2009

Guys, electrolysis is great for certain items, but be careful with the fumes! Also watch the item carefully, if you forget and its a small object it will just disappear at those ampers.... This is good for large work, but if you try it on a small silver coin and leave it in more that a few seconds/minutes.... Pity that you could not find a 3 amp variable power supply, variable voltage and current. Then you can regulate the work.

For some information read my post at Cleaning and Preservation:

http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,203624.msg1447607.html#msg1447607

MonkeyBoy · Jan 9, 2009

woody50 said:
Guys, electrolysis is great for certain items, but be careful with the fumes! Also watch the item carefully, if you forget and its a small object it will just disappear at those ampers.... This is good for large work, but if you try it on a small silver coin and leave it in more that a few seconds/minutes.... Pity that you could not find a 3 amp variable power supply, variable voltage and current. Then you can regulate the work.

For some information read my post at Cleaning and Preservation:

http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,203624.msg1447607.html#msg1447607

Thanks.. and fully understand.. I can't see where I would even think of putting a coin in the bath?? I set it up for iron only... I was using a 3AMP setup at first but given the size of the axe head decided to bump it up to the higher amps.. it worked well... For anything I really care about I would rather take my time and use the 3amp... oh.. and I was using baking soda... to avoid the gases... and it is in my workshop.. I do have a variable volt/amp power supply around here "someplace' need to find that!!!

Thanks Again!
MB