Clean and restore Militaria
- NewCollector
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- Joined: 26 Jul 2015, 19:13
- Location: Sweden
Clean and restore Militaria
A guy I know was in Berlin and went to some sort of flea market. He found a german cross type of medal which I identified as an War Merit Cross 1st class. It's hard to tell the authenticity of militaria from those types of flea markets but that is not why I am here. I would like to know if I could possibly restore and clean this medal. Here you can see a comparison between my Cross compared to a more restored one. If someone could explain to me how one could restore a metal war decoration or atleast polish it a bit, thanks
My War Merit Cross front My War Merit Cross back A random War Merit Cross
My War Merit Cross front My War Merit Cross back A random War Merit Cross
Nihil Impossibilis Est
- matthew4108
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- Joined: 18 Jul 2013, 18:27
Re: Clean and restore Militaria
Your medal is made out of zinc while the second example is a tombak based specimen. Zinc by its very nature is a dull metal so any polishing it will be short lived at best. Furthermore- the cavities that are evident on your specimen are lost material and can not be brought back, at least not at the collectors, do it at home level. You can conserve it, making sure the aging process is drastically slowed down with a coat of vaseline or Renaissance Wax but complete restoration is unfortunately not possible.
BTW- the second medal pictured looks to be a good conditioned original piece rather than a restored one, at least to my untrained eye.
cheers
Matt
BTW- the second medal pictured looks to be a good conditioned original piece rather than a restored one, at least to my untrained eye.
cheers
Matt
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Re: Clean and restore Militaria
Yeah, after giving it some thought myself I realized that a complete restoration would be close to impossible. Atleast the swastika and the 1939 engraving is still intact so it is a bit aesthetically pleasing atleast. Thanks for taking your time to help a young fellow out, cheersmatthew4108 wrote:Your medal is made out of zinc while the second example is a tombak based specimen. Zinc by its very nature is a dull metal so any polishing it will be short lived at best. Furthermore- the cavities that are evident on your specimen are lost material and can not be brought back, at least not at the collectors, do it at home level. You can conserve it, making sure the aging process is drastically slowed down with a coat of vaseline or Renaissance Wax but complete restoration is unfortunately not possible.
BTW- the second medal pictured looks to be a good conditioned original piece rather than a restored one, at least to my untrained eye.
cheers
Matt
Nihil Impossibilis Est
Re: Clean and restore Militaria
Your's is a 2nd Class.... not 1st cl.
John G.
John G.
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Re: Clean and restore Militaria
Thanks for the clarification! My knowledge in Merit Crosses is not the best.
Nihil Impossibilis Est
Re: Clean and restore Militaria
In my opinion, you should never try to clean/restore your awards. It kind of deletes its identity
Thomas
Thomas
Greetings,
Thomas
Thomas
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Re: Clean and restore Militaria
To restore an award or not is a debated topic and I think it all just comes down to personal preference as well.
Nihil Impossibilis Est
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Re: Clean and restore Militaria
I'm willing to clean awards by removing dirt, hair, fluff etc but that's all using an air duster and a very soft, old toothbrush.
Ian
Ian