Cleaning Demjansk Armshield

[Thomas Durante]

Hi Guys, just got back from the antique store, and after looking for over a year at these stores and finding ABSOLUTELY nothing, I finally found something this morning, a Demjansk armshield! (Calvin, you'd be proud). Anyway, its stamped steel, and has a thin layer of rust over the entire thing. I tried to clean it with soapy water and a toothbrush (don't worry, its my wife's toothbrush), while it cleaned up a lot, it still has some spots were the rust is a little thicker. Looking under my loupe, it looks as if the rust is just sitting on there and might come off some more. Does anyone have any other suggestions about how to get some more of the rust off, or should I just leave it as is? I feel if I use something stronger, like a scrub sponge or something, more would come off, but I don't if this would be more trouble to the badge than is worth it.

thanks

Tom D.

p.s., I also found a silver 5 reich mark coin with Paul von Hindenburg on the front, with his birth/death year, as well as a brass badge cross with "GROSSE LINZER KARNEVALS GES 1935" going around the center, and the center has a red, white and black shield and key in it. Does anyone have info on these items? I can email a pic if anyone is interested in seeing them.

thanks
Tom D.

[ERIC S.]

Hi tdurante,
Something that has worked in the past for me on surface rust on shields - Liquid Flitz - Dab a little on with a Qtip and it desolves the rust pretty quickly. It won't ( at least it didn't on mine! ) hurt the finish whatsoever. But if it's not really detracting, leave it be - it just enhances its pedigree!
Eric

[Calvin Hall]

Avoided a rooking mistake

Nice job, Tom. Especially using the wife's toothbrush. When I first started collecting I screwed up an used my own toothbrush once. That was a hard lesson to learn.

Good find on the arm shield. Especially in that you had been looking for one.

Best,

Calvin

[don]

Hi tdurante I would leave it alone.I have been collecting for sometime,i clean nothing.I think when you play with stuff, you cut down on value.besides it looks nicer with a old look anyway.Good luck

don

[Thomas Durante]

Thanks for the replys. Don, on 1 hand I agree with you and I leave most stuff alone, but I felt like cleaning this one would reveal more than the state I found it in. It looks as though it was underground or in a real wet place for a while, as there were a few spots were the rust was thick and covered up a lot, especially the eagle's head. I cleaned it with soap and a toothbrush, real gentle and got a lot of the loose crap off, thats all I am going to do.

thanks again.

Tom

[DaveM]

Extreme Measures

Hi Tom,
I have a few black wound badges from very good to almost relic condition....one of these humble relics had no pin, was thoroughly corroded and by looking by looking at the obverse one would get the impression there were 4 grades of wound badges: gold, silver, black and rust....
I tried cleaning this rusty award with toothpaste to no avail...it was still thick with corrosion
As an experiment I covered the face of the badge with Naval Jelly for a few hours and then scrubbed with a brush
and the results were incredible. All the corrosion was removed and the detail revealed....
to further complicate this heresy, I then airbrushed a coat of semi-gloss black enamel on the bare metal.....

I wouldn't do this to any other piece....but gentle use of toothpaste and toothbrush to say a dirty zinc general assault badge or other grungy award to clean it up (exceptions of course) and bring out the detail is ok by me.....

I gave the reconditioned/destroyed (your opinion) wound badge to my son in a small shadow box with a nice silver infantry assault
badge.....he likes it

Cheers,
Dave

[Paul Massucci]

Tom,
I've tried WD-40 with good results. I spray some into the cap and then apply with a Q-tip or small brush, let it sit a while then use clean Q-tip or brush to remove what loosened up. On some items especially steel ones there usually is some pitting under the rust.

Nice find on the shield, I miss mine but some lucky member here now owns it.

[Thomas Durante]

Hi Dave and Paul,
Dave, naval jelly? Like hair removal stuff? I may try that.

Paul, I didn't have WD-40, so I tried a little Gum out, didn't really do much. I'll get some WD-40 and leave it on a while. If you still have a pic of your shield, would you mind emailing it to me at thomasm1@mindspring.com?

Thanks guys.

Tom D.