[meteorite-list] Cleaning a 13kg "Bessey Spec"! :-)
Graham; That meteorite looks great.And i think you really did it justice by cleaning it up.Hiding all those features we meteorite lovers relish under caliche isn't asthetic at all.Great job and thanks for sharing. Best Regards;Herman Archer IMCA # 2770. ** See what's new at http://www.aol.com __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Cleaning a 13kg "Bessey Spec"
Jerry Flaherty wrote: "Thanks for the information Graham, I especially appreciated the link to the galvanic process." Beautiful! Thanks for sharing! Mission accomplished! Kudos from Germany!!! Bernd __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] Cleaning a 13kg "Bessey Spec"! :-)
Thanks for the information Graham, I especially appreciated the link to th e galvanic process. Jerry Flaherty - Original Message - From: "ensoramanda" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "dean bessey" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; ; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, October 23, 2007 7:17 PM Subject: [meteorite-list] Cleaning a 13kg "Bessey Spec"! :-) Hi Dean, all... Many thanks to all those who replied to me with tips on cleaning caliche from meteorites and to you, Dean, for my 13kg "spec" which has become the subject of several hours of careful cleaning. The monster before cleaning, below...showed great potential even though quite weatheredbut most was hidden under 2/3rds caliche. The exposed area had some fusion crust but most had been scoured away and polished by the sand and wind. Lovely thumbprints though. http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o43/LaburnumStudio/13kgNWA/DSCN0009.jpg http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o43/LaburnumStudio/13kgNWA/DSCN0008.jpg http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o43/LaburnumStudio/13kgNWA/DSCN0007.jpg http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o43/LaburnumStudio/13kgNWA/2080_1.jpg Looking closely when it arrived I could see tantalizing glimpses of what appeared to be flow lines, lips and bubbly fusion crust in some thinner areas of caliche. So I decided to brave it and set to work cleaning. Because of the delicate features I wanted to preserve I did almost no mechanical scraping or wire brushing but used brick cleaner (dilute HCl acid) and small stiff paint brushes to gradually dissolve the caliche and I was surprised how well it worked. I regularly washed the acid away with deionised water and bicarbonate of soda to try and stop too much acid penetrating too deep. After a while some of the well preserved fusion crust was revealed. Some areas almost look fresh with bubbling and very thick accumulation. Remnants of flow lines and roll over lips too I did try some rust removers on some of the rust spots toobut they seem very difficult to remove...nothing really worked ...infact I had to reuse the brick cleaner to remove residues that were left. Once I was satisfied I could reveal no more without damaging the meteorite I decided to make sure I had removed all the acid and chlorides left which might cause future problems and used the galvanic method described here... http://www.alaska.net/~meteor/Galvanic.pdf I used the less agressive washing soda method in a large bucket with plenty of perforated aluminium foil wrapped around the meteorite to allow circulation and electrolosys to work overnight. I did this twice until the bubbling reaction stopped. Finally I rinsed well again with plenty of dionised water and left the meteorite to dry thoroughly in the oven on a low heat for a couple of nights. It remains to see how stable this meteorite is over time...we will see. I know many collectors like to leave pieces as found without tampering with their looksbut in this case I felt that the exercise was worth it. There was so much hidden away under all that caliche. Take a look here and see what you think of the cleaned up result! http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o43/LaburnumStudio/13kgNWA/IMG_4198b.jpg http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o43/LaburnumStudio/13kgNWA/IMG_4170b.jpg http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o43/LaburnumStudio/13kgNWA/IMG_4177b.jpg http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o43/LaburnumStudio/13kgNWA/IMG_4189b.jpg http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o43/LaburnumStudio/13kgNWA/IMG_4195b.jpg http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o43/LaburnumStudio/13kgNWA/IMG_4194a.jpg http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o43/LaburnumStudio/13kgNWA/IMG_4199b.jpg Please be aware that these methods are probably risky and who knows what the long term effects may be...so I would advise caution to anyone trying this with acids etc.(The troilite and probably other surface minerals in the meteorite will obviously be changed to some degree, as evidenced by some sulphurous smells during cleaning) Different meteorites may react in different ways and some deposits may not dissolve away. So please don't try this on something you may regret ruining. I would not like to be held responsible for that. I was more interested in the aesthetic external qualities in this case...so was willing to take the riskalthough I may polish a window in an uncrusted area next...just out of curiosity! :-) Regards Graham Ensor. __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Cleaning a 13kg "Bessey Spec"! :-)
Hi Dean, all... Many thanks to all those who replied to me with tips on cleaning caliche from meteorites and to you, Dean, for my 13kg "spec" which has become the subject of several hours of careful cleaning. The monster before cleaning, below...showed great potential even though quite weatheredbut most was hidden under 2/3rds caliche. The exposed area had some fusion crust but most had been scoured away and polished by the sand and wind. Lovely thumbprints though. http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o43/LaburnumStudio/13kgNWA/DSCN0009.jpg http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o43/LaburnumStudio/13kgNWA/DSCN0008.jpg http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o43/LaburnumStudio/13kgNWA/DSCN0007.jpg http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o43/LaburnumStudio/13kgNWA/2080_1.jpg Looking closely when it arrived I could see tantalizing glimpses of what appeared to be flow lines, lips and bubbly fusion crust in some thinner areas of caliche. So I decided to brave it and set to work cleaning. Because of the delicate features I wanted to preserve I did almost no mechanical scraping or wire brushing but used brick cleaner (dilute HCl acid) and small stiff paint brushes to gradually dissolve the caliche and I was surprised how well it worked. I regularly washed the acid away with deionised water and bicarbonate of soda to try and stop too much acid penetrating too deep. After a while some of the well preserved fusion crust was revealed. Some areas almost look fresh with bubbling and very thick accumulation. Remnants of flow lines and roll over lips too I did try some rust removers on some of the rust spots toobut they seem very difficult to remove...nothing really worked ...infact I had to reuse the brick cleaner to remove residues that were left. Once I was satisfied I could reveal no more without damaging the meteorite I decided to make sure I had removed all the acid and chlorides left which might cause future problems and used the galvanic method described here... http://www.alaska.net/~meteor/Galvanic.pdf I used the less agressive washing soda method in a large bucket with plenty of perforated aluminium foil wrapped around the meteorite to allow circulation and electrolosys to work overnight. I did this twice until the bubbling reaction stopped. Finally I rinsed well again with plenty of dionised water and left the meteorite to dry thoroughly in the oven on a low heat for a couple of nights. It remains to see how stable this meteorite is over time...we will see. I know many collectors like to leave pieces as found without tampering with their looksbut in this case I felt that the exercise was worth it. There was so much hidden away under all that caliche. Take a look here and see what you think of the cleaned up result! http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o43/LaburnumStudio/13kgNWA/IMG_4198b.jpg http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o43/LaburnumStudio/13kgNWA/IMG_4170b.jpg http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o43/LaburnumStudio/13kgNWA/IMG_4177b.jpg http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o43/LaburnumStudio/13kgNWA/IMG_4189b.jpg http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o43/LaburnumStudio/13kgNWA/IMG_4195b.jpg http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o43/LaburnumStudio/13kgNWA/IMG_4194a.jpg http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o43/LaburnumStudio/13kgNWA/IMG_4199b.jpg Please be aware that these methods are probably risky and who knows what the long term effects may be...so I would advise caution to anyone trying this with acids etc.(The troilite and probably other surface minerals in the meteorite will obviously be changed to some degree, as evidenced by some sulphurous smells during cleaning) Different meteorites may react in different ways and some deposits may not dissolve away. So please don't try this on something you may regret ruining. I would not like to be held responsible for that. I was more interested in the aesthetic external qualities in this case...so was willing to take the riskalthough I may polish a window in an uncrusted area next...just out of curiosity! :-) Regards Graham Ensor. __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
