Cleaning plastics

Hal P. Blagbrough Jr. <johs<-a t->inlink< . >com> writes

>I am looking for information on how to clean Bakelite, and other
>early plastics such as Celluloid. Any help would be appreciated.

I have some experience cleaning old cellulose nitrate and acetate
films and I usually end up using a mixture of water and isopropyl
alcohol applied by q-tip. A little bit of rubbing with a q-tip seems
to remove any scum and even seems to remove a yellowed surface layer
which is characteristic of aged cellulose nitrate. The films are
extremely easy to scratch and quite soluble in a wide range of
organic solvents thus prohibiting their use. More info about what
form your object is in (film, coating, statue, etc) would be useful
though.

                                  ***
                  Conservation DistList Instance 11:16
                 Distributed: Thursday, August 14, 1997
                       Message Id: cdl-11-16-005
                                  ***