HOW-TO Clean Collectables, Part 1: - The Right SOLVENT - By: Bill Harvey

This business of preserving and protecting collectibles often begins with cleaning them. (Actually, it really begins with recognizing valuable collectibles under layers of age and crud and THEN cleaning them so it amounts to the same thing.) Besides this, the first step to protecting some collectibles like christening gowns and what-not- from mildew and insects is to clean them. I don't know about cleaning fabric. (Well, I know how to toss them in the washing machine and fiddle with the dial till water starts squirting in. Soap is involved, but I use the stuff me' sainted Irish Mom used and ring-around-the-collar be damned.)

What I do know is how a thing or two about, however, is furniture. The best way to clean something old and cruddy and made out of wood is paint thinner and steel wool. But I am ahead of myself. What it really comes down to is some kind of solvent and some kind of abrasive. Permit me to illustrate. Soapy water as a solvent and a wash cloth as an abrasive work pretty well on people-skin. don't they? Water, however, is a bit problematic on wood. Makes the grain do funny things. You say you use water and a dishcloth on your cutting board everyday? Me too, and if you run your hand over it after it has dried, you will feel a very slight roughness. Ain't no thing on a cutting board, but try this on a nice piano. (By the way, if you were to pour a dollop of cooking oil on your wood cutting board once in a while, it will thank you. Be generous with the oil and let it soak in for an hour or two. Use paper towels wipe off the un-soaked-in oil. But do NOT oil your piano -more on this later)

To resume, the trick to cleaning collectibles is to find the right solvent and the right abrasive. If you are reading this article, I suspect it because you suspect warm water, de-odorant soap, and a wash-cloth is not going to get the job done. Either it just won't work, or it's apt to mess-up your collectible -or both. I like steel wool and paint thinner followed up with wax, but I work with wood and tend to go there by default. So here's what lets do, let's take a look at some solvents and some abrasives.

SOLVENTS -from the gentlest to the most aggressive:

If you read nothing else I write, PAY ATTENTION here. If your valuable collectable is real old and colorful and fussy, it is apt to be hand painted with milk paint, gesso, tempra, or who-knows-what old-fashioned paint. (Don't despair of old paint, some of this stuff has -and will continue to- outlast our modern polymeric wonder-finishes.) But you DON'T want to risk ruining it. I am required -by law in 17 states- to tell you to try your cleaning regime on a part of the object that doesn't show. Do this even if you are using the mildest possible solvent.

DISTILLED WATER:
I remember from some high-school class -bio or chem- that water is the "universal" solvent. Not sure what this means, but I do seem to reach for water in one form or other when I have something what wants cleaning. While I don't use distilled water to hose off the back porch, I have no doubt it would work just fine. A little expensive, but it would work well. With the exception of unfinished wood, water might be the place to begin, and if you are cleaning something sufficiently delicate and valuable, a trip to the grocery store for the distilled stuff might be worth the effort.

WARM SOAPY WATER SUDS:
Look closely at what I've written -not the water, but the SUDS. Chris, of Bearly Belivable Gifts, offers this for cleaning plush toys (Teddy Bears):

I put a squirt in the sink and then fill it up with warm water. I only use the SUDS, not the water itself, and completely rub the suds over the fur with your hands. You don't want to actually get the fur wet, just sudsy. You can test most fabrics in a small spot, but I have yet to have had a problem. When this is dry, I use a 1 to 2" paint brush to "bush" the bear's fur. Very simple, and this technique also removes most of the oil that floats through the air and attach itself to the fur.

Chris also suggests a stay in the freezer to kill the allergen dust-mites, and a bit of nylon over the end of the vacuum hose to keep buttons and eyes and such from disappearing. Finally, she counsels against keeping stuffed animals in the kitchen where they soak up cooking oil and smells. Smart lady.

WARM SOAPY WATER:
There is much to be said about soap vs. detergents. Unfortunately, I am not the person to say it. My limited understanding of the topic has to do with the beading-up, flowing-off, and rinsing-out when it has done its job. ("Surface tension" what-ever this may be, seems to figure into the all explanations I've read. Couldn't tell you why.) What I do understand, is that detergent simply rinses out better. Shampoo, fr'instance is actually detergent. So I conclude thus: Rinse carefully -very carefully, and / or use lots of cotton swabs, or litho-pads, or paper-towels or whatever to get it good and dry and it probably doesn't make much difference if you use soap or detergent.
Good News
-it's cheap, easy, and cleans about 90% of the stuff you want cleaned.
Bad News
-it's hard on wood -particularly wood with fine finishes. To dissolve the really greasy or oily stuff, you might have to soak it for a day or a week. You going to soak a nice piece of furniture in the bathtub for a week?

In the research I have done on the subject, I have come across something called "Triton 100" a pH-neutral and non-ionic(?!) detergent. You probably will have to go to an archival source to find the stuff.

PAINT THINNER:
This is my favorite. If you don't like the smell of paint thinner, use turpentine. This smells a bit like pine-cleaner. Can't say I like either smell, so I use thinner because it's cheaper. The thing about paint thinner is that it dissolves wax, oil, smoke crud, bug-doots, people grease, and most of the stuff that accumulates and that you don't want on your collectable. But paint thinner does NOT dissolve finishes -or finishes that deserve to be called 'finishes' anyway.
Good News:
-cleans about 99% of the stuff you want cleaned
-cheap -not as cheap as soap and water, but gim'me a break
-gets along with wood -even wood with fine finishes
-dissolves the effing glue they use to stick price tags on every-damn-thing you buy. The expensive stuff you buy especially to do this is little more then paint thinner with a little lemon oil mixed in.
Bad News:
-smelly
-FLAMMABLE

SHELLAC THINNER (DENATURED ALCOHOL):
Good News:
-smells nice -or nicer then thinner anyway
-evaporates quickly
-dissolves lots of bad stuff
Bad News:
-It WILL dissolve shellac finishes -and many beautiful old wood pieces are finished with shellac. For that matter, so is much of the stuff I make!

LACQUER THINNER / ACETONE / ZYLENE:
Good News:
-any of these will dissolve just about anything you might ever want dissolved. If acetone, fr'instance, don't dissolve it, trust me on this, you don't want it dissolved.
Bad News:
-they will also dissolve just about any finish on anything and lots of the 'anything's' too!

Lacquer thinner, for example, makes a respectable paint remover right out of the can. If I need to take some paint off something, I just toss in into a coffee can with a little lacquer thinner in the bottom, give it a slosh and a shake, put a cover over the can and come back in an hour or two. It the thing is too big to toss in a coffee can, I cover it with paper towels and splash thinner on the paper towels. Then I sort of squeeze them down onto what ever I'm taking the paint off of so it is wet with the thinner. Then I cover it in aluminum foil. This last step is important because the thinner does its work slowly, but evaporates quickly. Give it an hour for the thinner to soften up the toughest old paint, and most of it will come off with a putty knife.

ALCOHOL / ACETONE -50 / 50 BLEND:
This recipe is recommended by Don Williams in his excellent book SAVING STUFF -How to Care for and Preserve Your Collectables, Heirlooms, and Other Prized Possessions. From my comments above, you have to know this is pretty serious stuff. Don't use it on finished wood, finished metal, plastic, anything painted, (paint is nothing more then pigmented plastic after all), fabric, photographs or printed stuff. If fact, it might be easier to simply say where you could use it safely -uncoated metal, glazed ceramic, and maybe your finger nails. There -that wasn't so hard, was it?

What do you pull out from under the kitchen sink when the spirit moves you to finally do something about great-grandma's what'zit? Makes a big difference. One bottle will destroy the what'zit and another may waste your time, (and maybe destroy it as well!)

Bill Harvey makes drawer and display cases just for dedicated collectors. He is also the author of Collector's HOW-TO - a series of useful articles for the collector or hobbyist to protect and display valuable items. All this and more can be found at....
Home-Museum.com