Verdigris on Soviet Guard's Badge (clean or not?)

[Spoonman]

Pretty much the title. I've always had a hands-off approach considering altering/cleaning medals, but I don't want to be irresponsible and have something deteriorate on my watch. What should I do? Leave it or clean it off to keep it from spreading/damaging further?

[Marcel Banziger]

You have pics? Normally I would say hands off. Just store them properly. Guards badges have enamel and this is easy to damage when cleaning.

[Spoonman]

The front is actually fine. It's on the back within the wreath details. It scratches off with a toothpick, so I'm thinking about using about a 5% solution of lemon juice and distilled water to break it loose and get it out of the details, then dry it with a handblower (used for computer cleaning/like a glorified handdrier), and then coat it with renwax.

I'm mainly concerned about deactivating any active corrosion and then protecting it. Not really "cleaning" per se.

[Spoonman]

Thanks for the overwhelming help, fellas! I ended up using a solutions of about 5% straight, real-from-a-lemon, lemon juice and distilled water. I blotted it on the suspect places with a q-tip and waited about 10 seconds, and blotted it off with pure distilled water. Then later rinsed with distilled water and dried with the cool setting on a blow-dryer. I mechanically scraped with a wooden toothpick to speed things along while treating with lemon-water. Looks great, and not a sign of tampering.

[Marcel Banziger]

Thanks for the overwhelming help, fellas!

Perhaps if you also have shown pics you would get more responses. I asked for pics but none were shown. If there's no effort from your side than why should there be effort from the collecting community?

[Spoonman]

Perhaps if you also have shown pics you would get more responses. I asked for pics but none were shown. If there's no effort from your side than why should there be effort from the collecting community?

Sorry for being a butthole, Marcel. There's no excuse for my attitude. Thank you for all of your help in my other posts.

[ROBB]

Perhaps if you also have shown pics you would get more responses. I asked for pics but none were shown. If there's no effort from your side than why should there be effort from the collecting community?

thumbs Rob