Todd,

As a conservator with many year experience in specializing in ancient
and historic metals I don't think that a metals testing kit is the
answer.

The tests for many metals involves chemicals (sometimes acids) and
require both knowledge and proper and safe handling and disposal. We
in conservation sometimes use chemical spot test to identify materials
but only if there are still questions after exhausting all of the
simplier methods first.

It would be vastly better to set up a board with modern metal coupons
that are labelled as a reference - or if you have identified specific
objects in your collection then have a metals type collection to use
as a diadactic tool.

One of the easiest things you can do is to get a magnet - that will
take care of the ferro-magnetic metals! (iron, steel, cast iron,
stainless steel, old tinplate)

Metals are often recognized by color - so it is easy to categorize
metals as "white", "brown", "red", or "gray". This will often lead you
to a more limited number of choices for the metal involved.

Now, many times metals were painted, lacquered, or chemically
patinated to resemble other metals. In instances like that you can
look for areas of wear to see what the alloy might be. A brass will be
more yellow in color (they sometimes almost have a green cast) while a
bronze will have a richer brown-reddish color. Pot metal is usually
very white or gray but it can easily be confused with lead. To help
with coated metals get a black light wand and examine the object in a
dark room (wear the UV safety goggles). Areas of uncoated metal will
directly reflect the light - so you'll see purple. If you get back any
kind of flouresence such are pale yellow, orange, etc. then you have a
coating on the surface. In conservation we often make up black light
reference samples from known materials such as lacquers, shellacs,
glues, etc.

You can also get on google images and simply type in a metal name
"Pewter" for example, and you'll get a zillion images of that metal
that you can look at as an aid.

So, there are plenty of resources out there to use first - stay away
from testing for now.

Cheers!
Dave

David Harvey
Conservator
Los Angeles, California

On 6/28/07, Todd Bothel <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Does anyone know of a metal testing kit that can help determine what type of
> metal an object may be made of? My collections cataloging ladies don't know
> that much about the different types of metals (and I confess, I'm not that
> knowledgable either) and want to be able to put down something more
> specific than metal on the catalog sheet.
>
> Thanks.
>
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