Thread: Help with W&B etching preservation

Hi guys. I just got this off the bay at a really great price! It's a 7/8ths Wade and butcher with a merchant ship(open to opinions to what kind of ship this is also) etching on it. As you can see it isn't in the best of condition, there is rust on it. What would be the best plan of attack to keep the etching on there, but to clean it up as best as I can? Thank you for you time!

Great shaves!



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I am afraid you are going to lose the etching if you want to clean all the rust and pitting up. Make a start with a fine buffing compound and see what happens.

I actually went about cleaning it up earlier. And I'm pretty happy with the results of the clean up.

Surprisingly I was able to keep all the fine detail in it. Even though in the picture it looks like I've lost the details, it's just because it's so shiny in those areas that it looks washed out. There are little lines on the ship that are still visible, even after all of the clean up.




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You can get a little more aggressive on the rust with some oil and fine steel wool. Won't hurt the etching and should get most of the rust.

A 9h pencil was mentioned awhile back. The pencil is harder than rust but softer than the steel. I've had some luck with this focusing on a pit. No idea about using it around etchings though.

Originally Posted by jmercer

A 9h pencil was mentioned awhile back. The pencil is harder than rust but softer than the steel. I've had some luck with this focusing on a pit. No idea about using it around etchings though.

I actually used a pencil to get some of the rust out. It worked nicely!


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There is also some chance you can enhance what is left of the etch with bluing and high grit sandpaper on a hard backer. I can't look for it with this device but Geezer did a post some time ago that may have been called revealing etchings, and the process is in that thread. It is worth a look.

Originally Posted by RezDog

There is also some chance you can enhance what is left of the etch with bluing and high grit sandpaper on a hard backer. I can't look for it with this device but Geezer did a post some time ago that may have been called revealing etchings, and the process is in that thread. It is worth a look.

Thanks for the advice, I'll have to look up that post later tonight


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If you have some feric cloride around you can dilute some with water and use it with a cotton towel type cloth to gently rubb on the blade...

or

Just get a lemon and a cotton cloth.

Squezze some juice on the cloth and rub on the rust...and heep rubbing gently a few minutes...acid will disolve the rust slowly without messing up the etch.
It will also leave a nice patina over it that will prevent further rusting....that patina can go away with some balistol and hadr cotton rubbing.
....if you kep polishing and sanding it you will lose detail in the etch.



I would realy recomend you look into the fibrglass pencil with a little acid on the tip....it works wonders check out som videos on youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwB7gYjj61U

I use the bluing method often. Unfortunately I don't think it will be helpful with this type of etching. If it were mine I would spend some time on it with steel wool and call it good. As you have seen, polishing it will make the image harder to see. The patina that's on it will give it more depth and contrast. Steel wool will remove the rust without removing very much patina.