Can any thing be done about this?

[Eric Queen]

This pewter plaque is important to me, so (if price were no object) is there any way it could be brought back to its original condition? It was infected with "zink pest". I used petrolium jelly to stop the spread but you can see the zink pest has left dark areas. The thing is though that the areas are "topical" they are resting on top of the surface of the plaque itself. Its is not corrosion that has eaten into the plaque.

If anyone has any suggestions I would greatly appreciate it.

Thank you

EQ

[walt]

Since there is no plating you could try some metal polish. It will make the plaque shiny, but zinc patinas relatively quickly. If it takes the black off, the final result will be an overall grey color when it patinas out. See if there is a spot on the back you could try it on first to see if the black comes off.

[Richard]

As far as I know, if this is actually pewter, there should be no zinc pest. Pewter is mostly tin with other metals added some as hardeners (usually copper, somtimes antimony and sometimes both) and in the past has contained lead. Here is an article that may help with some information. However if the plaque is zink, this would change things as we would be talking about much different properties.
Richard V

http://www.german-toasting-glasses.com/pewter_care.html

[Eric Queen]

Thank you, gentlemen. Much appreciated.

EQ