To polish or not to?

[Roglebk]

This is one of the best crosses i ever saw, manufacturing wise, but it got a pretty ugly uneven Silver patina. Core and frame was very dirty when i got it. Cleaned the dirt on enamel and frames of course but kept the Silver patina intact.

Now you guys have to decide what to do next

Remove the grey uneven patina or keep it as it is?

[Roglebk]

more pics.

[sam steele]

Trevor started a thread on cleaning EKs..........The vote there is to primarily leave them alone.

However, being an open-minded person (aka "Devil's Advocate"), in this case the Cross is not a military-issue item, and I think that Silver Dip would make this return to the state in which it was issued.

As I said, it's a "patina" to those who would not clean it, and "tarnish" to those who would.

Cheers,

Bill

[Wild Card]

in this case the Cross is not a military-issue item,

Cheers,

Bill

Really?

[kriztof]

Carl my friend, it's your cross and your responsibility. Only you know what you want to do with it so ultimately the decision is yours, no easy way out

IF you would like to donate the little beauty to me, I would clean it in a flash and wear it to the ball

Chris

[Roglebk]

Trevor started a thread on cleaning EKs..........The vote there is to primarily leave them alone.

However, being an open-minded person (aka "Devil's Advocate"), in this case the Cross is not a military-issue item, and I think that Silver Dip would make this return to the state in which it was issued.

As I said, it's a "patina" to those who would not clean it, and "tarnish" to those who would.

Cheers,

Bill

Hi Bill, in a way the 'Verdienstkreuz für Frauen Und Jungfrauen' is a Military-issue item since it was only given for merit (verdienst) during the Franco-Prussian war 1870/71. Not sure why a civil order should be cleaned and a military one should not?

[Roglebk]

Carl my friend, it's your cross and your responsibility. Only you know what you want to do with it so ultimately the decision is yours, no easy way out

IF you would like to donate the little beauty to me, I would clean it in a flash and wear it to the ball

Chris

I like easy ways out Chris The poll is just a result of what people here think. Sometimes it's easier to get "incognito" forum users to state their thoughts with an anonymous poll. Interesting to see that it's still a pretty close call.

Actually thinking of selling it so will leave it up to the new owner to make the desicion...

[Kraal]

I think you shouldn´t polish it. Some items should be left untouched as they are, this one is such a case.

Mainly because this piece has several serious damages on the frame and it would look cheap if the patina is polished away.

You should either look to upgrade this piece or just don´t buy such pieces and leave them for those who love such a patina and damage style.

Once had an EK that was with perfect dark black patina, tried to polish it away, the black turned grey and the piece lost everything of his unique appearance looking boring. This was the point in my life where I decided to leave patina as it is or just buy items without patina.

But at least it´s your decision.

[Scott C.]

Beautiful cross. IMO, leave it as-is - it has more character that way (again, only my opinion).

[Eric Gaumann]

I voted 'no'.
Interesting machining marks on the inner part of the 10 o'clock portion of the frame
and possibly the same with the inner portion of the 7 o'clock frame.
On side with the cypher, not sure of it's the obverse or reverse.

[Roglebk]

I think you shouldn´t polish it. Some items should be left untouched as they are, this one is such a case.

Mainly because this piece has several serious damages on the frame and it would look cheap if the patina is polished away.

You should either look to upgrade this piece or just don´t buy such pieces and leave them for those who love such a patina and damage style.

Once had an EK that was with perfect dark black patina, tried to polish it away, the black turned grey and the piece lost everything of his unique appearance looking boring. This was the point in my life where I decided to leave patina as it is or just buy items without patina.

But at least it´s your decision.

First of all, this is my 4th version F&J and the 2nd best of them. There is absolutely NO damage to the frame. Cross is perfect exept for the uneven patina and the small filemarks.

This is not "left untouched", it's already been cleaned from massive dirt, both frames and enamel core. There was no way of telling the uneven patina when i bought it.

Why did you clean your EKII if it had a "perfect dark black patina"?

[Roglebk]

Interesting machining marks on the inner part of the 10 o'clock portion of the frame and possibly the same with the inner portion of the 7 o'clock frame. On side with the cypher, not sure of it's the obverse or reverse.

One with cyphers is the prettiest side and the reverse, Eric. Both reverse and obverse have filemarks from the assembly. All "inner frame sides" have been filed down at an angle (call it tapered). All crosses i saw from this version/maker have the same charateristics. This is actually not seen "in real life", only on the close ups. Filemarks have patina inside the grooves, this makes them stand out a bit more as well. They would probably dissapear if polished.

[Roglebk]

Beautiful cross. IMO, leave it as-is - it has more character that way (again, only my opinion).

Thanks Scott, it's good with many opinions!

[Roglebk]

Before cleaning pics

This is the sellers pics before i cleaned the dirt. I liked the color of the frames at first but it is not silver patina, more like some sticky dust that covered the whole cross. It might have been in a place where people smoked.

[Roglebk]

Pics after the first clean

This is how it looked after cleaning it with a water soaked microfiber cloth. Dirt came off easy but the frame looked like a Spotted Hyena. Seems like the dirt actually speeded up the silver patina process in some spots. Now the lovely mirror like enamel is showing as seen in the pics at the start of thread.