Fire-gilded badges

[Rich G]

While I have no immediate plans to do so, I'm wondering what is the safest way to clean a fire-gilded badge?

I know of the warm water, soap and a softbrush approach, but this would only remove surface dirt.

How can the gilding be cleaned to remove the dull brownish bits?

Rich

[Rick Research]

I wouldn't do any more scrubbing than the soap and water routine. Once firegilding is off, it's down to the base metal. Since the great thing about firegilding is the contrast between the untouched matte "frosted" parts and the polished highlights, any abrasive cleaning is simply going to make the entire thing shiny-polished looking, which is wrong looking.

I see that result of overenthusiastic cleaning with swords all the time.

There is a nasty (and I mean NASTY) chemical that will "safely" (out of doors, gloves, do not inhale!!) clean firegilding (whatever hasn't already been scrubbed away) as good as new-made. Will have to check with my sword guy for what it is.

[Rich G]

Thanks Rick! If I thought I was going to remove any of the gilding then there's no-way I would touch it.

Should I need to, at the most I'll keep to the soapy water approach.

Rich

[mmiller]

Rich,

I know that the 'purists' will abhor my response.....but to answer your question....try a soapy ammonia type cleaner and a soft toothbrush. There is no abrasive used here. The ammonia is a little more aggressive than soap. I would wet the badge first to help dilute the process. As usual with cleaning, start slowly on a small spot on the back of the badge.

If I feel compelled to clean, I try to lightly go over the badge once, then let it sit over night. If I look at it the next morning and feel the badge needs more cleaning, then I'll procede with another once over. However, if I look and it and it looks 'just right', then I'm glad I didn't clean any more the night before. As we know, this process is a one way street!

Regards,
Mark

[Rich G]

Thanks Mark, I'll keep that one in mind.

Rich

[Tim B.]

Rich,

I received a Schwerin Coastal Artillery badge in near mint condition once, but it had that brown "gunk" on the gilding here and there as well. The rest of the badge's gilding was super bright gold and it was really detracting to leave it be as is, so I hesitantly cleaned mine with a Q-tip dipped in Tarn-X (very carefully).

I normally don't like to use tarnish removers like this, as like Mark points out it's usually best to stop short before going too far and ruining an item for the sake of making it look like new. The end results turned out good for me and the badge's appearance was definitely improved, but I sweat it for a couple of days afterwards to see if the gilding would change color or raise off the badge completely. It never did, thank God!

The results were that the brown areas were diminished quite a bit, but the gilding underneath had a more dull appearance and you can still see a slight difference in the finish where the brown gunk was previously. The other areas that were clean remained the same bright gold, so that was the best part of the whole deal.

If Mark's ammonia doesn't work, you might consider something like this. The active ingredients in Tarn-X are "thiourea, sufamic, glycolic and citric acids, corrosion inhibitors and detergent".

Hope that helps, but I'll end with "if in doubt, leave it alone".
Tim