I have a couple of small meteorites from the Campo del Cielo find, ( see pic ) and the guy that I bought them from first strips them with a "secret sauce" , then coats them with renaissance wax, I have
had them for several years now, and as far as I can tell they have not changed in appearance, so renaissance wax seems the way to go, at least regarding meteorites...
Regarding the cleaning of iron artifacts, I believe that
electrolysis is the accepted method for larger, solid pieces, and for smaller more delicate items, manual removal of loose rust, then a deep drying either by immersion in some light thinners, ( acetone, alcohol, etc..... take care.. the dangers are well documented elswhere on this board! ) , or by heating... I imagine that 110c in the oven for an hour or 2 would drive out any water without damaging the artifact...
Then a
good coat of microcrystalline wax, and I have read excellent reports if you heat the item again, more gently this time, perhaps with a hairdryer, the wax melts and runs into any cracks and crevices, to effectively completely seal the item.. ( I have never tried this, but to my mind, it makes nothing but sense )
I have also heard that a
good coating of WD40 will also seal the item, and as the WD in WD40 stands for "Water Displacement", this seems logical also, but apparently this also turns the artifact much darker, probably the same effect as olive oil has on coins...
Good look, and please post photos of your
work!!
Lee.