Removing brass polish residue

Marysara Naczi <mnaczi [at] gmail__com> writes

>I am a conservation intern trying to determine the most effective
>way to safely remove polish residue from a large collection of
>historic brass objects.  Many of these objects are incised or
>pierced with residue in the interstices. ...

I have found that working some (comestible) oil on the residue and
then washing with hot water did work quite well. Since now I live in
France, there is a traditional soap sold in supermarkets called
"Savon Noir" which contain linseed oil, does a grand job and as long
as one removes all of it with very hot water or a suitable
detergent, it works beautifully *but* somebody should perhaps look
into it more closely before applying it to historical artifacts.

Dominique A. Rogers, MA. BSc (Hons), ACR
Lieu-dit Maubin
47200 Beaupuy
France
+33 533 000 501


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 25:40
                  Distributed: Saturday, March 3, 2012
                       Message Id: cdl-25-40-007
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