Tinware

In response to Melissa Heaver's question on kitchen tinware let me
first say that David Harvey's explanation of the corrosion mechanism
was very impressive!  Assuming that "simple and easy to teach
volunteers" are the operative terms in the request I'd suggest
cleaning with mineral spirits (taking care for personal safety of
course) followed by light waxing with microcrystalline wax would put
these collections ahead of the game. Notice from the latest
discourse on coatings (see "mild steel" string of entries) requires
a serious commitment to maintenance.  The matters of corrosion
removal and polishing (if any) are best left for conservators since
there is a significant chance of doing damage in these operations.
As an aside to David, its long been my hunch that corrosion around
solder joins may be exacerbated by flux residues.

Kory Berrett
Berrett Conservation Studio
3054 Reisler Road, Oxford PA  19363
610-932-2425

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 12:9
                  Distributed: Thursday, July 9, 1998
                        Message Id: cdl-12-9-005
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