Ave!
I've been using Andre's pencils for several years now and have found them to be excellent
tools for cleaning
ancient coins.
Andre has now adjusted the tips of the hardened steel wool pencils to a higher and better grade. (2nd photo)
The variety of shapes are self-explanatory, but here are a few of my observations:
1) I have found that the two steel-wool tips
work fine on either wet or dry soft dirt-covered coins, although we found that wet is better.
Like normal, we use them in tiny circular motions whenever possible. Apply a dab of your saliva to the surface to keep the dirt in suspension so you can see what is being removed. Rinse in water, spit and repeat.
Similar to diamond-dusted
dental picks, the grit takes a
bit of practice, but not much, in this case. After a few minutes with each tool, you'll figure them out. The grit is quite
fine but hard. There is no need to bare down
with these, trust me. A very light and gentle pressure is all you need.
You can use either the tips or the sides as the case dictates.
As seen in the first photo, they are fantastic on
silvered coins. The top coin in the photo, a
silvered Carinus antoninianus, took me about a half hour. Minimal to zero pressure and lots of spit as a lubricant. The lower
coin, a
silvered Constans Æ2, arrived semi-cleaned with those pesky concrete-hard, and a bitch to remove, encrustations that pretty-much covered all of the
reverse details other than the inscriptions. In this case I used
the sides of the pencils, spit and medium pressure, again in circular motions (this may not be necessary, but that's the way I
roll). After 45 minutes, with lots of rinsing and repetitions and turning to the pencil tips for
detail
work, nearly all the concretions were safely removed, with zero harm to the underlying patina/silvering. The
sharp pointed
tools work swell on coins with Desert
Patina.
One thing you will notice as you progress is that the sharp-tipped
tools will, when used judiciously, actually begin to polish the
patina once the dirt/concretions are finally removed. To refresh the fibers, simply use a dull-
bladed scalpel (blade down) and lightly scrape upwards from the base to the tip.
2) The use of brass chisel is again, self-explanatory, although I do not use it. Other
tools work better.
3) The duel ended 0.00 grit steel-wool pencil is not suggested to be used as a 'duster', but rather as a final buffer/polisher once you're happy with the final cleaning. DO NOT get the ends wet! Whoops, we found out the
hard way...they will rust! During use, the fibers tend to wear away quickly, but no problem. Just grasp the end fibers, turn to the right and pull for more. Note the open fields on the work-in-progress
sestertius.
I highly suggest this cleaning pencil set. Easy to use and master by beginners or 'old-timers', if you follow our observations as noted above, these
tools will soon become necessities in your coin-cleaning tool kit. Just my thoughts for what they're worth.