[meteorite-list] Simplified Meteorite Rust treatment (fwd)

From: Sterling K. Webb <kelly_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:47:13 2004
Message-ID: <3BFB4CC1.958BE881_at_bhil.com>

Hi, all,

    I tried this method on a Brahin pallasite which was a gleaming translucent beauty on purchase but turned into a slab of rust a few weeks
after. Ten days of the lye and isopropyl treatment seemed to restore it and I polished its faces back to a high gloss. One week later, it was
gone to rust again.
    I repeated the treatment, with the same results.
    Next time I restore it, I'm going to try saturating it with a hydrocarbon, white olefin, or whatever was previously suggested (see
archives). This particular piece has the sickness so bad that both iron and olivine crumbs fall off with each treatment, however.
    It may just end up pickled in a jar of oil. Life (and meteorites) is a crap shoot.
    Yes, the isopropyl is 30% water, but as long as there are undissolved lye crystals, the aqueous fraction should remain a saturated solution
of sodium hydroxide.


Sterling K. Webb
------------------------------------------------
Steve Witt wrote:

> Tracy & Steve,
>
> I don't profess to be knowledgeable in the area of meteoritic iron
> preservation, but one problem immediately comes to mind.
>
> From what I've been told and have read about irons is that you do
> not expose them to water and especially not for an extended period of
> time.
>
> This process has us soaking an iron meteorite in a solution which
> contains 70% Isopropyl alcohol. Isn't the other 30% of that alcohol
> solution water? If so we are soaking an iron in a 30% water bath for
> up to three weeks. How does this not have a detrimental effect on the
> specimen?
>
> Steve Witt
>
Received on Wed 21 Nov 2001 01:42:09 AM PST