Pardon me for being so blunt but, if you have metal artifacts with large
areas of corrosion, just why exactly are you contemplating applying large
amounts of microcrystalline wax to them? Why aren't you speaking with a
metal conservation specialist to determine the nature of the corrosion and
the appropriate steps to halt it? You can't reverse corrosion, but you are
in danger of exacerbating it.

Just why would you "wipe" wax on corrosion, anyway? Perhaps your artifacts
would be well served by an investigation into stabalizing the environment in
which they are stored in order to halt the corrosion? You might be concerned
that the corrossion might be hiding structural problems with the metal
objects themselves? Please keep in mind that corrosion is a chemical
reaction, as is rust, and to halt the reaction, one must remove one of the
agents responsible and applying a petroleum based wax might not be the
proper solution.

Microcrystalline wax is great for applying to STABLE surfaces to act as, for
example, a barrier layer between environmental pollutants and the artifact.
It won't do anything for corrosion, except perhaps make it worse.

The way I learned to apply waxes of this type involved cotton tipped swabs
and a light touch.

D. Gutenkauf
[log in to unmask]

On Tue, 24 Jul 2001 16:45:19 -0400, Rosemary Healy
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>I am researching microcrystalline waxes to help preserve metal artifacts
and
>have several questions.
>
>First, what is the most economical type of application, wax, etc.  I would
>like to avoid using spirits to apply the wax if at all possible.  Second, I
>have a large amount of seriously corroded artifacts that will not stand up
>to "wiping" the wax as a method of application.  What is the most prefered
>method of heating the wax-is the "hair dryer" approach acceptable or is it
>better to dip the artifacts into a heated vat of wax?
>
>Any help would be much appreciated, as well as anything else I may have not
>have thought of.
>
>Thanks.
>
>Stacey Maung
>
>You can reply off-line to [log in to unmask]
>

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