Chinscales - cleaning and polishing

Maple Creek

Maple Creek

Member
What's the best way to clean tarnished chinscales? I've never been sure of the best method, but I bet somebody here has figured that out. My current project is a set of silver plated chinscales. The sections where the scales meet is difficult to reach and I don't what to bend the sets too much.

Thanks!

Mark
 
Appears most of us are afraid to even think about cleaning these. The only thing I will say is polishing plated metal can remove the plating. Rather than removing the tarnish you would need something that chemically treats the oxidation. Sorry I couldn't be of more help.
 
The only way to clean them in my experience is to use a dremel tool, polishing disc and jewellers rouge. Unfortunately, this will remove the gilding. Six months ago I cleaned a neusilber pair of scales using this method. The helmet had been kept in a tobacco rich environment. Unfortunately, most of the nickel plating came off, it was pitted with tobacco juice. :( . Now if the scales were broken and needing a rebuild, you could safely use a sonic cleaner to remove oxidization without damage and then reassemble.
 
Hi Brian and aicuzv, Thanks for the tips. Sounds like there is no really good solution. If the chinscales were gilt I wouldn't try to clean them. I would guess that silver plated chinscales might stand some mild cleaning and polishing better than gilt ones although rubbing off the silver plating is a hazard. On the set I'm working with that's already happened a little bit. Other than the tarnishing the chinscale set is perfectly intact so it's definitely not coming apart. I might try the dremel tool/jeweller's rouge method on a spot that won't show and see how that works. First time I heard of this method.
-Mark D.
 
So here's what I ended up doing. I rummaged around and found an old dremel-like tool, but discovered it was broken so decided I wasn't going to go that route. I tried using a vinegar solution but the tarnish wouldn't budge. I decided to test chemical treatment with Tarn-x and that worked well so I applied that to the whole set and cleaned the scales that way. To be a little more precise, I gathered a pile of Q-tips and had a small bowl of Tarn-x, a bowl of soapy water and a bowl of clear water. I dipped Q-tips in the chemical and carefully removed the black tarnish one scale at a time. After removing the tarnish I washed the area with a soapy Q-tip and then rinsed with a wet Q-tip (small amounts of liquid at each step). The careful washing is required because otherwise the Tarn-x can cause spotting. Following this I dried the area with a soft clean dry rag. Removing the tarnish required a lot of rubbing and many Q-tips. Once the tarnish was removed I polished the scales with silver polish. Again, one scale at a time removing excess polish with a wet Q-tip and drying with a clean dry rag. The process took over two hours, but the results were satisfying.

I wouldn't try on gilt chinscales, but it might work on tombak or similar surfaces. I also wouldn't try this on a fragile pair of chinscales because a lot of manipulation is required.

In the photo "before" on the bottom, "after" on the top.

Mark D.
 

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While in the military and had to clean brass, I found out that lemon or lime juice worked pretty good to clean off tarnish and drying with a soft cloth. Process works good to remove fingerprints from brass belt buckles and insignia without leaving film that accumulates when using brass. Recently, I have used vinegar to get the same results on Sterlingsilver badges. Though, I have not tried it on fire glided wappen.
Best regards
John
 
Maybe next time use an old playing card with a square notch cut out
The idea is to slide under the scale you are working on and protect the scale underneath .
Of course you will have to make smaller notches as you work down the scales.
 
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