02-09-2011, 05:30 AM
I used the mineral oil (too much I think), and the other day I wiped the excess off. The helmet still has a slick feel to it, probably just the right about to keep it from rusting.
Going back to olive oil, I have a sizable collection of Roman coins that I got about 2 years ago. On some of the coins that were already bad, I experimented with olive oil to clean them as some sites suggested, all the coins went from a sandy tan color, to nearly black, (I guess it is common when cleaning ancient coins with olive oil, at least the bronze ones). I drained the olive oil, and tucked the coins away where I found them yesterday. The olive oil remnant on the coins, which was never wiped off, had become green but was still slick.
I don't know what olive oil would do to steel and brass, but given a second thought about the coins, I wouldn't try. And olive oil has a distinct smell to it, that hadn't left after two years, so I'm not going to try (on the plus side it wasn't that hard to remove, and didn't go rancid)
Going back to olive oil, I have a sizable collection of Roman coins that I got about 2 years ago. On some of the coins that were already bad, I experimented with olive oil to clean them as some sites suggested, all the coins went from a sandy tan color, to nearly black, (I guess it is common when cleaning ancient coins with olive oil, at least the bronze ones). I drained the olive oil, and tucked the coins away where I found them yesterday. The olive oil remnant on the coins, which was never wiped off, had become green but was still slick.
I don't know what olive oil would do to steel and brass, but given a second thought about the coins, I wouldn't try. And olive oil has a distinct smell to it, that hadn't left after two years, so I'm not going to try (on the plus side it wasn't that hard to remove, and didn't go rancid)
Quintus Furius Collatinus
-Matt
-Matt
