Thread: Old bottles..

I picked up a few old bottles this weekend at the antique store. I have a bunch of aftershaves I keep in glass sauce bottles but I'm going to put them in these because I think it will look pretty cool. I was going to put just a tiny drop of bleach in them filled with water and leave them for a day to clean them out. I'm wondering if anyone has any do's or dont's that might be helpful.



I am especially fond of the nitric acid bottle!

You might want to clean them with alcohol as it evaporates very easily and cleanly. It will also take oil residue off.

What, you don't want nitric acid residue in your aftershave? Feel the burn! (Seriously, though, not a chemist, but I wonder if that one couldn't use a bath in some kind of base solution just in case?). Cool bottles!

You had a great find. It is difficult finding bottles today with the ground glass stoppers. Now they usually have a plastic or rubber seal.

In the world of chemicals, the "gold standard" for rinsing is called the triple rinse. You fill the container with water and dump out. Fill again and dump; then repeat the third time. With anything soluble (like nitric acid), that would reduce the concentration to the point it is no longer hazardous. However, if the container contains anything that is not water soluble, it might not remove that. Thus, if it contains an oily residue, for example, wash it first in a dish detergent like Dawn and then do the triple rinse.

There were alot more bottles but i specifically grabbed the ones with the stoppers in them. Out of 50 or so these were the only ones with stoppers.

I applied my home brewing bottle cleaning method to rinsing these out. Used some Palmolive with a bottle brush, then rinsed. Then i soaked them for about 4 hours in water with a little bleach. Then i rinsed them out with alcohol.

I should be safe!

The toughest one to clean was the little bottle which had some dried patchouli oil inside of it. A little brass brush did the trick on that one.

The nitric acid bottle was made by T.C.W. & Co. I saw a few on ebay so that means they are around. Now my plan is to try to get all my bottled aftershaves into old chemical bottles like that one.

Along with some vintage razors and brushes and strops, and maybe a barber pole, that should be a lovely display in your shave den.

Originally Posted by DZEC

Along with some vintage razors and brushes and strops, and maybe a barber pole, that should be a lovely display in your shave den.

I agree

My shave den is a tiny shaving museum. I've been adding stuff for a few years. This will replace the bottles in the top shelf.



We have 2 bathrooms so the downstairs one is all mine. I have a few other 'features'.
I actually just bought a little shadowbox to put some lookers in on the opposite wall.

I consider my love of wetshaving a healthy obsession.

Here they are on the shelf!! L to R; A.V. Musk, Skin Bracer (grandpas after shave), Pinaud for the boys and Aqua Velva.