Ave!
See the pix below for a Licinius issue that's been giving me fits for a week or so.
In the 1st pix, you'll see that around the legends/details there was a hard-as-nails green corrosion that failed to come loose despite DDDP's DD Dremel
tools...well, not quite so, but I was leery of cutting into the bronze of the legends and goofing up somehow.
As previously mentioned, I'm not fond of lye soaks, but in this particular case I thought that perhaps a very short lye soak might loosen up the green bits while
still keeping most of the original
patina intact.
So I went for it: 30 minutes in
Red Devil lye solution, followed by SBBB (under running water, of course) and a P-80 Dremel tool. See the 2nd pix for the results. Yikes, looks ugly, huh? Never fear.
As seen, the lye did loosen the GE's enough for the afore-mentioned
tools to do their job...while keeping about 50% of the original
patina intact.
I then used a 600 grit rubber sharp-point tool to further clean out between the legends and details...and further smooth off the rough bits, a
bit more
work with the P-80, then a quick dip with Jax Brown to pull it all together. See the last photo.
FYI - I do not consider the coin 'as done' quite yet. There are
still a
bit of GE's to remove with the P-80 and another longer bath in JAX Brown to really set the final
patina...the a quick buff and
Ren Wax to finalize the restoration.
Total cleaning time as
per writing, including the 30 minutes in lye...? Less than one hour.
Best,
Kevin
