Cleaning, coating & colour matching

• Electric hand tools – Cleaning of these marine archaeological swords required the use of ultrasonic and air abrasive tools.
• Scalpel cleaning – This locking iron casket had a coating of rust which required cleaning by hand to protect the engravings. (Blog post)
• Bone – An Indonesian Keris dagger with a bone handle and degraded original filler required disassembly, cleaning and replacement of the filler.
• Coloured wax coating – Removal of the degraded wax coating revealed that the bronze patination was enhanced by coloured wax. Following tests, the coloured coating was replaced.
• Gap-filling and colour matching – Losses on this Roman bronze lamp were filled using Japanese tissue, glass micro balloons and Paraloid, then colour matched. (Blog post)
• Lacquer coating – The degraded wax coating on this bronze axe had caused surface corrosion issues. Following research and treatment it was coated with Paraloid B72.

Skills

• Conscious of material properties and appropriate hand skills regarding delicate cleaning.
• Use of electric and hand tools to remove a variety of elements from  light residues to heavy concretions.
• Extensive experience of practical techniques involving gap-filling, painting and coating on a wide variety of materials,
• Conservation cleaning of copper and copper alloys, corroded and stable iron, bone, gilt silver and precious metals.