how to restore a Cannonball?????

[camilon]

Hi fellows, i was snorkeling in an isle near to Veracruz, Mexico and i found a cannonball in the sand around 50 or 60 cm, and it weights around 40kg.I assume that the cannonball has been in that place for at least 200 years. do somebody knows how to restore it Without damaging it?? i found it with a Vibra Tektor 730.

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regards

 

[vlad]

(In the meantime keep it submerged in freshwater)
Add 3 or 4 tablespoons of lye, like Red Devil Drain Cleaner and mix it in water. Add a piece of scrap metal, not touching the projectile.
Get a manual battery charger, attach the + to scrap, - to object; it might be easiest to drill it and put in a screw for good contact. It needs to cook for 3, 4 months.
The salt in the object will form crystals when it dries, and crack it to pieces-so get as much out as possible. A black sludge will form on the scrap too,
that is carbon coming out along with the salt. Rust, dirt will form on water-it gets very dirty, change to new solution. As time goes along the encrustation
& mineral will mostly fall off; you can help it along with a hammer/wood mallet. [ the more time in a slow soak electrolysis-the more chance it stabilizes.]
But go easy, it will be soft from the carbon loss. (Once it is rid of the encrustation check it for a plug/fuse-if one is present, its a shell and needs to be deactivated.
The black powder when dry will go off. If you contact Police/Fire-they will seize it!-so try Civil War Forum, or websites for help)
Once clean, soak it in fresh water to help remove the lye. If you now know it is safe [deactivated/or a bolt (solid)] dry in oven, & once cooled it must be coated
with several coats of polyurethane or tung oil-I prefer the later. (some people use wax, but it is tacky/sticky)
That's about as much as you can do-but some, still crack up into pieces.

Guy below is cleaning fragments; and he uses baking soda-you need lye for salt.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9C8fW2Mz0g

 

[camilon]

(In the meantime keep it submerged in freshwater)
Add 3 or 4 tablespoons of lye, like Red Devil Drain Cleaner and mix it in water. Add a piece of scrap metal, not touching the projectile.
Get a manual battery charger, attach the + to scrap, - to object; it might be easiest to drill it and put in a screw for good contact. It needs to cook for 3, 4 months.
The salt in the object will form crystals when it dries, and crack it to pieces-so get as much out as possible. A black sludge will form on the scrap too,
that is carbon coming out along with the salt. Rust, dirt will form on water-it gets very dirty, change to new solution. As time goes along the encrustation
& mineral will mostly fall off; you can help it along with a hammer/wood mallet. [ the more time in a slow soak electrolysis-the more chance it stabilizes.]
But go easy, it will be soft from the carbon loss. (Once it is rid of the encrustation check it for a plug/fuse-if one is present, its a shell and needs to be deactivated.
The black powder when dry will go off. If you contact Police/Fire-they will seize it!-so try Civil War Forum, or websites for help)
Once clean, soak it in fresh water to help remove the lye. If you now know it is safe [deactivated/or a bolt (solid)] dry in oven, & once cooled it must be coated
with several coats of polyurethane or tung oil-I prefer the later. (some people use wax, but it is tacky/sticky)
That's about as much as you can do-but some, still crack up into pieces.


So do you think still have black power in it????? it can explode???

 

[vlad]

First it must be a shell, which contains powder-and be exposed to 180 degrees F.
A friend years ago who is a pro, (and a person heavily involved in Civil War Objects-to this day) deactivated a 12 pounder Borman Shell-drilled it & flushed it out.
Then he left the basement-up to the kitchen, and put it in the oven to dry out. Minutes later, the whole house shook....
It turned out he did not get all the powder out, and the door was blown off, and the stove bulged out, sides and top. He had more trouble when his wife walked in.
She got a new stove, and he got banned from the kitchen.
In a word.......Yes it can, under the right circumstances, go "boom."
(email me I'll tell you his name!) :

 

[Elton]

Don't do it. Unless you know it isn't armed.

 

[camilon]

i've keeping it in a solution 80% water 20% chlorine, i talked with a fellow that works in the Veracruz City Museum and that's what he recommend just to keep it conserved until i cover it with a varnish or an appropriate way to keep it in the current conditions.

thank u all for the advices.

 

[nge]

Go on you tube and look up Aquachigger. He has several videos on preserving and cleaning cannon balls and civil war artillery shells......NGE