[meteorite-list] Cleaning a heavy iron meteorite

From: MexicoDoug <mexicodoug_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 11 Nov 2011 13:09:38 -0500 (EST)
Message-ID: <8CE6EB435C71019-9CC-17534_at_webmail-d078.sysops.aol.com>

If you really had an iron that wouldn't suffer damage to a nice aged
patina, and had undesireable gunk of any sort on it a good old
fashioned steel wire brush seems to be the standard. It's just one
meteorite and what's the rush?

I once had an iron meteorite I found that got some hardened tree sap
(at least that is what I thought it was). It was difficult to get
everything out of some of the pitting it has especially under this
crap, so I just took a vacuum cleaner with small attachments for
cleaning up dog crap and getting into crannies. I tangled up steel
wool on the little spinning nylon brush of one of them and had a good
time removing it. It worked ok but nothing to write home about and
probably the same could have been done with a hand steel bristled
brush, except in this case I was winging it because too much goey crap
was there and it just made sense. I don't ever wet a meteorite when I
clean it initially since you will almost certainly do more harm than
good because the liquid will transport contaminents into the fissured
or porous matrix where they will later be trapped to start more
corrosion processes than if you had left it be.

Just remember - once you clean it, it's too late to return it how it
was. Many collectors prefer uncleaned meteorites.

Less is better is the best guide on how much cleaning to do. Once the
fusion crust is lost there is no reason to make the metal sparkle
although someone on the street might be more attracted to shiny things,
just ask a coin collector when to clean coins and the same advice would
be given when looking at that 1793 classic - no need to make it bright
acid yellow when a classic brownish green will do. As a child I found
many coins and relics with my metal detectors and this presented a
problem since the suerfaces usually were not natural for all the
bronze/copper based objects.

Good Luck with your new rock!

Kindest wishes
Doug


-----Original Message-----
From: Guenther <abe.guenther at mnsi.net>
To: meteorite-list <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Fri, Nov 11, 2011 11:51 am
Subject: [meteorite-list] Cleaning a heavy iron meteorite


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 01:09:38 PM PST