Metal finishing Q&As since 1989

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Salvage of ancient sail pulley

2006

Hello,

Today, while scanning a beach in Santa Barbara with my metal detector, I uncovered what appears to be an ancient sail pulley. How can I remove the rust and encrusted sand and encrustations without destroying the artifact.

Thank you
Gerald Robinson

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2006

If there is any chance that it is valuable, take it to a curator. People spend their entire lives learning to be a metals conservator and there is little chance you can learn enough via an internet posting except to not destroy it in experimentation :-)

But there is a process of electrolytically reversing corrosion that I am told can sometimes not only convert the corrosion back to metal, but cause it to reform where it originally was, sort of following its built in memory of its corrosion history. Particularly if the item is non-magnetic (because it could be bronze) please don't do anything to it yourself.

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

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Try next webpage:http://nautarch.tamu.edu/class/anth605/file0.htm
Good luck and hope it helps!
Goran Budija

2006