Tumbled Finds with a very cool Surprise!

[ANTIQUARIAN]

I've been 'experimenting' with tumbling various relics I've found this year. I've tried using more and less hot water, longer & shorter tumbling times, beach sand mixed with 3/4" polished aquarium gravel or rough gravel and backing soda ... this is my latest batch of 'tumbled finds'. Three of these relics came from the 'Martingale site' in Eastern Ontario and the 'horse bit ring' came from the site where I found all of the 'brass buckle shields'. The 'surprise' is that one of the finds that I thought was iron and was initially going to dis-guard following the hunt now turns out to be brass! It looks to me to be a relatively early (19thc) casting with a lot of detail on it.

These finds tumbled for 72hrs and I changed the solution every 6 - 12 hours, I think the metamorphosis is pretty amazing myself!

Let me know what you all think,
Dave

 

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[coinsareawesome]

Those finds are very interesting and very historical. A great match!

 

[ANTIQUARIAN]

Those finds are very interesting and very historical. A great match!

Thanks for your post Wonderbread, I don't wanna know you got that name bud!
I don't know whether I'd consider these finds 'historical' ... hysterical maybe!

Best of luck to you,
Dave

 

[Argentium]

Yeah , that's quite a transformation - nice technique there !

 

[ANTIQUARIAN]

Yeah , that's quite a transformation - nice technique there !

Thanks very much Argentium!
Sure beats tossing them in the scrap bucket!
Dave

 

[beez0404]

Am I the only one who doesn't see photos?

 

[BDinutah]

The transformation is quite impressive! Thanks for sharing. HH

 

[tyrocksalot]

She polished right up. Looks great. HH

 

[Tnmountains]

I have not tried tumbling my relics yet. The results look impressive. The last time I tumbled was me into the creek! Nice job.

 

[dirtlooter]

the tumbling did wonders for those, but I guess one has to be very careful not to over do it.

 

[Garrett424]

What difference!!

 

[beez0404]

The relics look great! Next time you have some more stuff to tumble consider trying this. Instead of water use white vinegar with a bit of regular table salt. I use smallish aquarium rocks that are a little rough as well. For pennies for example I run the tumbler for 3 hours and they come out nice and clean.

 

[ANTIQUARIAN]

The transformation is quite impressive! Thanks for sharing. HH

Thanks very much for your post BD!
Best of luck to you,
Dave

She polished right up. Looks great. HH

Thanks Ty!
I refer to these relics as 'cleaned', as I don't 'polish' any of my finds ... unless it's a silver ring of course!
Dave

I have not tried tumbling my relics yet. The results look impressive. The last time I tumbled was me into the creek! Nice job.

Sorry to hear about your recent 'fall' into the creek Tnmountains!
At least the creek water cleaned 'you' up a bit ... now it's time to tumble those relics!
Dave

the tumbling did wonders for those, but I guess one has to be very careful not to over do it.

That's a very good point dirtlooter!
I found this out in 2012 when I tumbled a Canadian Military Hat Badge which didn't really need to be tumbled, but I thought I'd tumble it to 'improve it's look.
Here are the before and after pics of that mistake ... this is a good reason why you should be careful to not over do it!
Dave

What difference!!

Thanks Garrett!
Dave

The relics look great! Next time you have some more stuff to tumble consider trying this. Instead of water use white vinegar with a bit of regular table salt. I use smallish aquarium rocks that are a little rough as well. For pennies for example I run the tumbler for 3 hours and they come out nice and clean.

Thanks very much for your suggestion and for coming back to post beez!
I just might have to try that on my next batch of pennies!
Dave

 

[Zodiacdiverdave]

Thanks for post this Dave, your finds turned out quite nice. I normally take my iron finds and soak them in apple cider vinigar for a few weeks and the rust just falls off but it takes it right down to bare metal so you have to treat them after that. Your method produces a nice, more natural look. I will give it a try.
ZDD

 

[johnnyblaze]

Nice digs Dave that tumbler did a nice job i just purchased a double barrel tumbler and i will use your method on some of my relics

Blaze

 

[ANTIQUARIAN]

Thanks for post this Dave, your finds turned out quite nice. I normally take my iron finds and soak them in apple cider vinigar for a few weeks and the rust just falls off but it takes it right down to bare metal so you have to treat them after that. Your method produces a nice, more natural look. I will give it a try.
ZDD

Thanks for your post Dave.
The way I 'clean' my relics works well for me, I realize everyone else has there own method ... this is just what works best for me.
I also realize that you guys on the east coast find quite a bit in the ocean, so you're dealing with salt water, as well as, in the soil to some extent I'm sure.

By showing everyone the results I've achieved, I'm hoping people will better appreciate that not all the relics we find are junk and can be easily preserved for display.

Best of luck to you,
Dave

Nice digs Dave that tumbler did a nice job i just purchased a double barrel tumbler and i will use your method on some of my relics

Blaze

Thanks for your post Johnny!

I'm glad to hear that this was a help to you my friend!
Dave

 

[johnnyblaze]

 

[Msbeepbeep]

Great rediscovery and cleaning method!
I use the tumbler for my coins and have no trouble spending them anywhere!

That's a good warning to always recheck your junk finds, they could be full of surprises...good ones!

I'm gonna try the white vinegar & salt!

 

[ANTIQUARIAN]

Great rediscovery and cleaning method!
I use the tumbler for my coins and have no trouble spending them anywhere!

That's a good warning to always recheck your junk finds, they could be full of surprises...good ones!

I'm gonna try the white vinegar & salt!

Thanks for your post BB!
I'm sure that there must be dozens of different 'solutions' that people use to clean their tumbled finds ... I'd be interested in hearing what these are!

Best of luck to you,
Dave

 

[deepseeker3]

Vinegar is great on pennies, but any clads that are in with them seem to get coated with what comes off the pennies. I would do the pennies by themselves with vinegar.

I have a heck of a time getting clads clean. Any advice?