[meteorite-list] Cleaning a heavy iron meteorite

From: Graham Ensor <graham.ensor_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 11 Nov 2011 17:42:06 +0000
Message-ID: <CAJkn+kbLZ4bXTOYt4M4DhSB-jDi06dfTrxSd28MrK4TC4E8M-g_at_mail.gmail.com>

Hi Guenther,

As you have already had a go at it with a wire brush it is difficult o
say what is best as we can't tell what it originally looked like. As
Ruben said, it looks more like a weathered stoney chondrite with just
a few flecks of metal left where it has a window cut....Unless it was
heavily covered in caliche then there would be little point cleaning
it. It would already be a natural colour and would never show it's
original fusion crust...that has gone a long while ago.

Some like to keep meteorites completely natural and would never clean
them. I have cleaned a few but only when it was obvious the caliche
was covering a well preserved surface full of features worth
revealing...eg regmaglypts, flow lines or fusion crust.....all that
comes with experience to judge if it is worth it or if it would
actually be of detriment to the piece. I have used chemicals and
mechanical methods to clean off caliche and then only on a couple of
unclassified NWA meteorites. Irons are a different matter and involve
decisions about preservation and halting severe rusting.

I am not sure there is anything you should do with your weathered
chondrite at all....you would not be improving anything.

Hope that helps.

Graham

On Fri, Nov 11, 2011 at 4:11 PM, Guenther <abe.guenther at mnsi.net> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> A year ago I found a large heavy iron meteorite. When I found it the color
> was a dark brown. In my attempt to bring out the true color, I decided to
> use a dremel tool with a fine wire brush bit to clean it. The dremel brush I
> used was extremely soft and gold in color and it turned slightly gold in
> color. So, I bought a soft stainless steel wire brush and now it turns grey
> when I brush it. What is the best way for me to clean it to get the true
> color?
>
> Here are the original images after I used the gold color brush:
>
> http://aguenthe.mnsi.net/NM1.jpg http://aguenthe.mnsi.net/NM2.jpg
> http://aguenthe.mnsi.net/NM3.jpg http://aguenthe.mnsi.net/NM4.jpg
>
> Thanks,
>
> Abe Guenther
>
>
>
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Received on Fri 11 Nov 2011 12:42:06 PM PST