Cannonball question?

[Charles (Sabre)(Tx)]

How do you clean and preserve a found cannonball? Mine is of the solid variety...12 pounder.

Charles

 

[d-2]

My wife found one, solid shot, and all I did was use a wire brush on it then the wire wheel on the grinder and it turned out fine. Some people soak 'em in red devil lye with a piece of zinc jar lid in there with the lye and cannon ball and let it set for a week or so to get the scale off of it. After I got thru with hers I set it in the sun so it would get warm and soaked it in WD40. Looks great today and she found it 10-12 years ago. Great find by the way...d2

 

[cw_relic_hunter]

Let it sit in soapy water for about 3-4 days to loosen up all the outside mud and dirt, then clean off what you can with a hard brisell brush (not metal) (just b/c it looks solid doesnt mean its not a wooden fused shell) Once you get all the loose dirt off and know 100% that it is not a fused shell, put it in an electrolysis for about 1 week, you will need some copper wire to wrap around the shell, so will have something to hook your clips to.

Cw