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I have a 1800's brass buckle that I want to cleanup using electrolysis and wanted to know what type of solution mix would work best. I've seen people use a combination of salt and lemon juice and just plain baking soda. Are there any others and what seems to work the best.
I used to own a Gold plating machine that had instructions for using it as a cleaning device. It had a pulsing pattern of the current that really helped. One thing the instructions mentioned was to make sure you used a stainless contact between the coin and the lead. Everything in the liquid was supposed to be stainless. I since sold the machine and made my own electrolysis cleaner. I used a chrome plated copper clip to attatche the coin and the stainless electrode. I let the clip hang in the liquid and it partially plated a buffalo nickle with copper. I would practice with something not so valuable first. Idigid
I've gotten great results using several spoons of salt in fresh water - I use a large plastic Folger's Coffee can - it's simple setup and it works great on pieces like your old Buckle.
Yea, I saw that and modeled mine after it. I only thing that I was unsure about was what type of solution works best. Thanks everyone for the suggestions.
Well, I cleaned my 1800's buckle and most of the crud came off, but it turned it black/dark brown. Not sure if I should cook it again, leave it alone, or try to clean it with some type of brass metal cleaner, or what. I cooked it twice. One time with a solution of salt and lemon juice and the 2nd time with a solution of salt and baking powder. Did I do something wrong or would you expect the results that I achieved? Believe it or not, this is the first time I tried this type of cleaning process in my 39 years of Mding.
I've used the salt and fresh water mixture on several things. Iron cleans up pretty good, and comes out very dark, but the rust is mostly removed. I finish off with a wire brush in my drill press. On aluminum tokens, it helps remove the corrosion, I use a fine brass bristle brush to finish. I cleaned a barber quarter that had a thick black coating on one side. I only had it in the solution a short time, and the coating flaked off. But anything brass, nickles, even pennies all look like they are being copper plated. Not being a chemist, I wonder if it's something about the copper that is in these particular objects.,,,,,I never use the same mixture for different types of metal being cleaned.....Bottom line for me...I'm not satisfied with my results on brass items and never do nickles. The iron results were perfect for me. I do wonder about using other solutions and what different results, if any, will they produce.
