preservation advice

[pipedreamer65]

I picked up 2 complete, dug canteens that came out of Fort Fisher decades ago.  Lots of crusty, flaky rust, but pretty solid.  I have plenty of experience treating and preserving artillery projectiles, tools, etc... but no previous time spent with thin items or stuff with solder, pewter.

Anyone have solid advice on dealing with the canteens?  They seem to be somewhat stable and are in a dry environment.  Really don't want to do any damage to them of course by doing something stupid.  So, leave them be?

[CarlS]

Very nice relics.  Those are about as nice a dug canteen as you could expect to see. 

I think it is a personal choice on how you want to have them display.  If you want them with no rust you could run them in electrolysis at a very low current. That would break loose most of the rust but also take the patina off the spout unless you kept it out of the water.  An most likely it would cause some holes to show.  Personally, if they were mine, I like the relic look and would only clean them well with a soft brass bristle brush then blow off with an air compressor to remove any dust generated by the brush.  Then I'd coat it with spray polyurethane to seal out air moisture and it would darken it some and, in my opinion, look better.    Good luck with whatever path you select to follow.

[pipedreamer65]

Thanks Carl, I'm still contemplating on the two canteens.   The smoothside seems to be more stable than the bullseye which feels like it has the strength of an eggshell.  I'll probably leave the bullseye as is.

[Tex27]

Gemplers rust converter

[Wilmington Mike]

They look stable from the pics, which is amazing since FF is a high salt environment.  You could leave them as is since they don't seem to be oxidizing (bleeding), or paint them with layers of Elmer's glue/water mix.  Great artifacts!