cleaning of damaged stripper clips (?)

[Glenn Barbaritz]

hey Guys, Glenn here. I recieved these K98 clips the other day and like so many out there, they are pretty wasted. any ideas of how they could be cleaned up in any way. SOS pads, steel wool, comet, Coke (I heard that takes off rust.) any tricks out there? I would appreciate hearing them. Glenn

[Glenn Barbaritz]

[Paul R.]

These are not as bad as I have seen in the past. Remember when you clean/scrub of any rust you are altering that item. Please take no offence here Glen. What is with people obsession on cleaning artifacts ??
You will change and possibility further damage a artifact for ever.
You wll also remove any painting or pitina. If you are set on cleaning them. I would only use a 0000 steel wool. coke, sos, can cause further damage to the metal. Work slowly. I would not attempt to remove corrorsion. It would change the artifact.
Remember they ain't making any more of this stuff. Paul

[Glenn Barbaritz]

I hear ya Paul. I just couldnt take them the way they were. I actually did a trial run with a 1000 grit sand paper and it seemed to work good. so I went for it. slowly, but surely. this is what I ended up with. Im happier with them now. I know what you mean about cleaning historical items and typically I dont touch them. but sometimes the condition the pieces are in just drives me nuts. I do hate corrosion/rust. stains/dirt even loose threading I can deal with but corrsion and rust just irks me. in this case I feel it actually helped the overall look, but that of course is just my personal opinion. Glenn

[Jens Thune]

I am sorry to say but I liked them better before the sandpaper..
But you are the one who has to be happy with them

Kind regards
Jens

[Don D.]

When I saw the title my first thought was help her to here feet, hose her off and send her on her way.

Definately wasn't expecting this.