Metal polishes

I am a student in the Collections Conservation and Management
program at Fleming College in Peterborough, Ontario and am doing an
independent study for one of my courses this semester on silver and
brass polishes used in conservation. I would like to find out what
conservators are using, what is recommended and what has been done
in the past in regards to polishing shiny metals.

In my project, I will also be testing the polishes and recording my
observations on things like abrasion, residues/streaking, each of
application, time needed and amount of product used. The polishes I
will be using on my samples of silver and brass are:

    Hagerty's Preventive Silver Polish
    Hagerty's Copper and Brass Polish
    Twinkle Silver Polish
    Twinkle Brass and Copper Polish
    Silvo
    Brasso
    Precipitated chalk

I'd like to get the thoughts/opinions of conservators on these
products as well as silver/brass polishing in general. What I'd also
like to know is if there are any other methods or products that
conservators use for polishing shiny metals? What products were used
in the past and if they are no longer used, why? And finally, are
there any polishes/methods that are heavily debated in the
conservation world regarding their appropriateness to use in
conservation?

Any opinions/thoughts would be greatly appreciated and I of course
will give appropriate credit in my paper. Thanks so much for taking
the time to read this,

Mary Margaret


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 20:45
                  Distributed: Friday, March 16, 2007
                       Message Id: cdl-20-45-026
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