Cleaning

[Takamura]

Hi All
What is the basic cleaning abd maintenance process for leather and buckle?
Thanks

[FactionR]

Hi All
What is the basic cleaning abd maintenance process for leather and buckle?
Thanks

I cant speak for the belt as i am buckle guy only, but for the buckle my opinion is to not touch it at all. Maybe a soft wipe down with a wet rag just for dust/light dirt, but the story the piece has to tell can disappear with a cleaning. no worth it.

the most Ive ever done was on a DLV nickel buckle that somehow had a mark from a green sharpie marker on it. small spot, but i hit it with some rubbing alcohol and it came right off. Didn't touch the rest of the buckle.

[Ric Ferrari]

......for the buckle my opinion is to not touch it at all. Maybe a soft wipe down with a wet rag just for dust/light dirt, but the story the piece has to tell can disappear with a cleaning. no worth it…....

That's also my opinion

Ric

[Takamura]

That's also my opinion

Ric

I agree. I speak about dirt, not patina. In my opinion there is no need to keep dirt (except if it come from battlefield) , but of course patina is the reflect of age so we have to respect it.

For example I have an ss dagger with ugly fingers print on it, I took them of with glass wool and it s OK.

[klr]

It is best to leave them as they are unless your 100% sure something was done post war. I had a SS Steel JFS with a ugly green post war paint job. It came off with ease and the buckle still had 50% + of it’s original paint. This is a rare example, most of the time your better to leave them as is.


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[norman]

Question Of Cleaning

[QUOTE=Takamura;8366399]I agree. I speak about dirt, not patina. In my opinion there is no need to keep dirt (except if it come from battlefield) , but of course patina is the reflect of age so we have to respect it.

I agree with the above: the watchword here being RESPECT for patina, as it needs protecting at all costs.

Regards
Norman

[Kurt Leimbach]

Interesting to see how attitudes change over time. When I started collecting buckles in the early 1980s the consensus was that buckles should be polished, but preferably the obverse only. Personally, I have stopped polishing buckles long ago, but I would carefully remove dirt and heavy oxidation. When a newly polished buckle was shown in another forum recently, the contributor was savaged, being told he had destroyed the value of a perfectly good buckle by polishing it. To my mind, this is each to his own. I would draw the line at aggressive cleaning that removes original finish (silver or gold coating, paint) or markings, but polishing plain brass or nickle silver should be ok and not affect value. Patina will return over time. A heavily patinated brass Stahlhelm buckle I bought and polished when I started collecting gained a lovely patina within a couple of years. What I mean is collectors shouldn't be overly dogmatic on this question.

[Takamura]

Interesting to see how attitudes change over time. When I started collecting buckles in the early 1980s the consensus was that buckles should be polished, but preferably the obverse only. Personally, I have stopped polishing buckles long ago, but I would carefully remove dirt and heavy oxidation. When a newly polished buckle was shown in another forum recently, the contributor was savaged, being told he had destroyed the value of a perfectly good buckle by polishing it. To my mind, this is each to his own. I would draw the line at aggressive cleaning that removes original finish (silver or gold coating, paint) or markings, but polishing plain brass or nickle silver should be ok and not affect value. Patina will return over time. A heavily patinated brass Stahlhelm buckle I bought and polished when I started collecting gained a lovely patina within a couple of years. What I mean is collectors shouldn't be overly dogmatic on this question.

Indeed. And when checking belt buckles or daggers on well known website like Wittmann, all items are without dirt, time is there, not dirt