Heroic Restoration

[Spartancrest]

Just stumbled on this site  https://www.reddit.com/r/powerwashingporn/comments/o1g7fu/i_clean_antique_weapons_and_recently_finished/

And would like to complement the restoration cleaning of what most people would consider a garbage bin worthy piece. Are there any award ceremonies for heroic action in the face of overwhelming rust? 

 

[Bazza]

I'm a bit worried about him 'working on the sword' ...

 

BaZZa.

[Brian]

Agree. he did a great job, but ruins it by adding "...This tsuba was paired with a late-1300s short sword which I'm now working on..."

[Spartancrest]

I am glad I posted this on Tosogu - the sword collectors are a tough audience! 

[Sunny]

Nice work....that looked like a pain in the ass to fix.

Quite a lot of work for an average piece but none the less very nice.

Looks a little dark though and off grey.

I feel like he went over it with a dry brush of some darker grey or light acrylic charcoal and then touched up the gold.

He did a great job on the fishermans waistband though.

A very fine hand he has.

 

[Ford Hallam]

To my eyes it looks as though the rust was removed in a solution of dilute hydrochloric acid. That's apparently also the 'patina' you can see, a post acid bath dull grey. I hope it's been well and truly neutralised, which is quite difficult on fibrous wrought iron like this, or the corrosion will ramp up pretty soon on the inside and the whole thing will start to crumble in short order.

 

I see the 'restorer' claims to have picked the rust off with a scalpel...I've seen quite a few bits of ancient metalwork done professionally in the V&A and British museum done this way,  under a microscope, and the surface left is nothing like this dull grey. Sorry to be the 'bad cop' but this is acid stripping.