Margaret wrote: <I have found some very old fan sticks - the leaf has fallen to pieces, so I want to clean the guards and sticks which appear to be made of ivory or bone (not wood) to use again - any ideas about how to clean them, also how to remove scraps of leaf still sticking to the sticks.>
On a recent 'Antiques Roadshow' TV progamme, one of the experts was asked about cleaning ivory, and I would presume it also applies to bone. He said that on no account should you use anything water-based to clean it, like milk or lemon juice because it absorbs water. The only thing you should use is a little spirit on a soft cloth and then just rub any grime away because it's only surface dirt. Personally, to clean oldish (but not antique) bone bobbins that had been left to get very grubby, I used a soft nail brush, dipped it in washing up liquid and then shook of the water so that the brush just wasn't wet, but not actually dry and gave them a clean with that. Stubborn smooth bits, cleaned well with a very, very light sanding with the finest emery paper I could find. Not what's recommended, but I was prepared to risk the bobbins, and it worked. I have a few sets of old ivory/bone fan sticks. I've also got some odd bits of stick that I tried cleaning scraps of leaf from first. I found this could be very tricky because some of the sticks at the part where the leaf goes are very fragile and can break into several pieces very easily. The best method I've found is to use masking tape (the cream papery stuff that doesn't mark and is easily removed) to fix each stick, one at a time, firmly and completely flat on a board with the pivot pin of the fan overhanging the edge of the board, and the whole lot supported so there's no stress anywhere in them. Then gently use my very fine emery cloth to remove the bits. Even then I've had the odd stick break. Fortunately it's only ever been one on a fan, so I could either mend it with superglue, or remove the whole stick. Provided it doesn't interfere with the pattern on the sticks below the leaf, removing one doesn't make the fan noticeably looser around the pivot - it just means that you might need to alter the pattern on the leave you make to make it match with the number of sticks in he fan, which you'd do anyway with a found set of sticks as they don't all have the same number. Jean in Poole - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
