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Mayadigger
11-18-2014, 08:16 PM
Ave!

As most of you know, iron artifacts show up all the time, and many of you may not be sure to how to restore and preserve them, what with all the flaky rust and all.

This is the best way, my friends, trust me. You'll need to make a small investment in a rock tumbler to fit the size of your finds, the JAX liquid and RenWax, but that is a very low price to pay for restoring your iron artifacts, trust me.
Tumble for 24 hours with steel shot andsmall ceramic balls. Remove and rinse. Dip in JAX ‘Iron, Steel, and Nickel Blackener’. This product is made for iron. After tumbling,dip them in the blue liquid and remove immediately and rinse again. Sometimesdip twice if not dark enough. It darkens the shinier metal on them fromthe tumbling and makes them a consistent color. It darkens shiny metal oniron from electrolysis too, btw. Now, put them in a pan and heat in the oven todry them completely. Try 350 for 15 minutes. Run the exhaust fan!Take them out. They’ll be hot. Let them cool until you can holdthem with plastic gloves on. Coat with Renwax while warm. Return tooven for 5 minutes to melt the wax into the crooks and crannies and let cool. Done!

Best regards,

Kevin

kpmoose
11-27-2014, 10:55 PM
Any pictures of completed iron artifacts preserved this way? Also, where do you get Jax liquid? Thanks for sharing this method. Think I'll give it a try this winter. :thumbsup02:

Restoring Your Finds
11-28-2014, 12:32 PM
Pictures would definitely help ! Interesting method.

ODA 226
12-03-2014, 09:46 AM
I just knock off most of the rust and boil the object in cooking oil. The oil seeps into all of the cracks and crevices and preserves the object from future rust!

Here's an example where I took a rusted old piece of scrap iron and turned it into a crucifix that's now hanging on my living room wall!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piC_1Hatgz4&list=UUwkV9JTm1YQvLGJoQkxAB1A