How do you clean medals (Ostmedaille)

[Anthony N]

Hope you guys can help me.
New to collecting militaria. Just bought this Ostmedaille, what you can see on the swastika is not tarnishing, i worked a little off with my finger, it's something sticky
Just wanted to know what's the best way to clean it off, don't wanna ruin a nice medal.
Thanks, Ant.

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi Ant, the best advice is of course, don't clean.

I suspect the sticky residue might be from a dealers price label? This might come off with soap and water applied carefully with a cotton wool bud just to the affected area. Make sure the medal is well dried afterwards.

Cheers, Ade.

[Adrian]

Hello Ant,
Another idea which maybe worth a try if you don't want to get your medal wet is to gently roll a small piece of Blu-tack over the sticky residue and see if that will lift it?

[Anthony N]

Thanks guys, much appreciated, it seems that Adrian's have the best advice

[militaria.no]

Hello!

I have had the same problem with sticker glue and this is how I solved it: Use a hairdryer and warm over the medal for 15-30 seconds (NB! not too close). Then take a piece of cotton and rub it carefully over the glue, that has melted and will go off easily.

Another thing you can do is to buy cotton gloves at the Pharmacy store. These are sold to people with allergy. Use the cotton gloves every time you have a new medal, and you will see that a lot of dirt and fingerprint"fat" will be removed from the medals. If you buy a medal at a show, just imagine all those interested collectors who have touched the medal before you

Good luck

Best regards
Marius

[prussian.guard]

best advice
don't clean anything full stop,this is what adds character to items if you try and clean stuff all you do is clean off the build up of patina

[Robin Lumsden]

Soap.......warm water........very soft toothbrush.......BINGO!

No gunge......and NO DAMAGE! (And the natural age patina doesn't come off either!)


But......


NEVER POLISH ZINC !!!!!

[Anthony N]

Thanks everyone
Amazing the amount of different advice there is, gonna think about this one.
I will be sure to NEVER polish Zinc!

[STEBALIN]

I use acetone to remove the labels glue, it works well and it doesn´t remove patina. The glue dissapears completely.

[clevischi]

Soap.......warm water........very soft toothbrush.......BINGO!

No gunge......and NO DAMAGE! (And the natural age patina doesn't come off either!)


But......


NEVER POLISH ZINC !!!!!

Usually i do exactly this.
I have had a problem like yours sometime ago and it worked a lot.

[Paul R.]

These methods do work in cleaning off gumed labels. HOWEVER there are alway an exception. So keep that in mind be fore you start any conservation process. If indeed you supect it is a dealer's gum label. The hair dryer on low heat is a good start. Do not over heat the medal make sure all glue is removed.
A mild soap and water can be used. Use a Q-tip. Do not submerge the medal in water. If the medal has some minor pitting(pin size) it may rust. Make sure it is all dried off. To be sure let it sit out in the open air over night. This next method I hate to mention (only for the last resort). USE EXTREME CAUTION. Is finger nail polish remover. Don't use the finger nail polish remover if it has sented fragrants(Like aloe, rose, ect). Straight actone is very harsh and can desolve the finish. Use a Q-tip with the finger nail polish remover. USE A TINY AMOUNT DON'T OVER SATURATE THE AREA(DROP SIZE). Gently rub the gummy area let the nail polish remover do the work. Next use several Q-tip of fresh water, and gently clean off any remaining gum residud or finger nail polish remover. Again let dry for overnight. Work slowly! Start in one corner first to see if anything is being renoved below. Paul

[Ammersee]

There is a product out there made to remove the glue from sticky labels. It is called "Goo Gone". It's a lot milder than acetone and works really well.
Ammersee
http://www.organize.com/googone8oz.html

[Paul R.]

You must use caution with the Goo gone product. It has a petroleum base with a light citris fragrent product. It leaves a greasy residue behind(from the petroleum). It's hard to remove that residue. It usually it has to be washed off. The water wash is what you want to avoid. If you have goo gone try it on a coin and see what happens(greasy residue). Finger nail polish remover. (not the one with 80% acetone) Use the non Acetone. It contains Ethyl Acetate, alcohol, propylene carbonate, isoproply, water. Use a dab on a Q-tip. Let the finger polish remover do the work. Paul

[Tiger 1]

Folks!

Use caution!

Always go from the least harsh to the the more harsh methods.

Before any action should be taken a determination must be made of what is actually on the medal.

If it is glue residue I would suggest trying to lift off the residue with a piece of scotch tape. The glue should stick to the sticky side of the tape. It may take several attempts always using a fresh part of the tape to lift the remaining residue.

If the tape doesn't work out well then a careful application of rubbing alcohol on a Q-tip will usually desolve it.

A word of caution about nail polish removers. They are usually nothing more than ACETONE with oils or other emaliants added to keep the skin and nails from drying out. These oils will remain behind after the acetone evaporates.

Commercial products such as Go-Gone, etc should be approached with caution as some of these may have a delayed effect on the original finish. After all chemicals can't think or decide what is good finish and what needs to be removed and will on occassion desolve things equally without differentiation. Once the damage is done there is no more original finish, restored or not.

Lastly, while I applaud the use of cotton gloves when handling valuable collectables especially by those folks with an acidic body chemistry, I'm constantly amazed at the various chemical solutions suggested for use without an end process. Some are mild and some very harsh. BUT...... very few folks mention a thorough wash to neutralised the chemicals used to clean the item as the final step. Anything used to clean a collectable should be thoroughly removed from the surface after use or it can continue to work in unexpected ways. Think things thru very carefully about what you wish to do.

Just some thoughts.


Tony

[MallardNZ]

As mentioned this is probably residue from German dealer covering swaz, sometimes magazines I purchase have price stickers that leave same residue and I remove by lifting with sticky tape. Some types of tape work better than others, might be worth a try.