04-08-2010, 12:41 AM
David,
I agree that we need to bring to life what the items would have possibly looked like in their day. Making something look crappy and ruddy is not accurate. However, this does not mean that you take a Gallic helmet and polish the steel to the point that it is a mirror. Polishing to the natural shine of the metal is good enough. I rarely clean my helmet other than a dusting. Once in a while if a little rust forms, I remove it and then oil the helmet but that is as far as it goes. On the other hand if a helmet was silvered, then cleaning it would make it mirror like but I do not think this is the case with pure iron. Of course I do not have a time machine to check what I said but it seems reasonable from what is know of metals when cleaned.
I agree that we need to bring to life what the items would have possibly looked like in their day. Making something look crappy and ruddy is not accurate. However, this does not mean that you take a Gallic helmet and polish the steel to the point that it is a mirror. Polishing to the natural shine of the metal is good enough. I rarely clean my helmet other than a dusting. Once in a while if a little rust forms, I remove it and then oil the helmet but that is as far as it goes. On the other hand if a helmet was silvered, then cleaning it would make it mirror like but I do not think this is the case with pure iron. Of course I do not have a time machine to check what I said but it seems reasonable from what is know of metals when cleaned.
"You have to laugh at life or else what are you going to laugh at?" (Joseph Rosen)
Paolo
Paolo
