Museum Preservation & Care vs Modern Gun Care

[Pete123]

I noticed something striking as I have learned how to preserve and care for my Civil War firearms and equipment.  The materials and components of museum style preservation and care are completely different from how we care for modern arms with one exception - the use of penetrating oil.

With museum style care, the goal is both to protect the value of the item as well as set it up to be appreciated by others for hundreds of years to come.

It's very easy to destroy the items value with modern gun materials and procedures.  Often, the only way to determine whether an item is real or fake is by the patina, which is the one thing that can't be faked.  

I've just It's very important to me to preserve the history associated with the item.  Below are two before and after pics of a sword bayonet I've just worked on.  Notice that both the hilt (fancy word for the part you grip) and the blade look much better, but the history is still there.  I used these pics as the hilt on this sword bayonet is brass.  I could have cleaned that brass to look like the brass on a gun purchased this year.  That would completely mess it up for me as it would 'remove all the history'.  

Some of you will remember getting on me about messy with historical gun stocks.  Once that sunk in I really got it.

 

[No_0ne]

Unfortunately, museums aren't always the best source for preservation information, you can find many horror stories on the net about neglected items in museum inventories that were ruined by decades of improper storage in basements and such.  Museums, like all entities, have budget restrictions, many of the items donated to them have been ruined by lack of care and preservation throughout the years.  Longtime collectors with deep pockets often do a far better job of preservation than any museum ...

[Pete123]

What you are saying makes sense.  

I learned about this by studying writing from Dennis Duvall, who was curator of the world's largest private firearms collection.  You are correct that it is expensive.  The soap I use costs $90 for a pint.  It's concentrated, though dilution only yields a quart and a half.  

 

[peejman]

Looks like really good work to me.  It's clean and the active corrosion is removed, but not restored.

[Pete123]

Thanks Peejman.  It took a lot of work to get it in this shape.  Just as important as what you can see in the pics is what you can't see.  

Obviously, the rust and corrosion have to go.  Rust and corrosion aren't the only things to worry about.   Everything that can damage the sword, both what you can and can't see is gone and it's been sealed with a special wax.  

This sword bayonet will look like it does now for hundreds, maybe thousands of years as long whoever touches it uses gloves and the wax is re-applied once or twice a year as it eventually evaporates.