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Good Morning Everyone......

Hello from Calgary, home of the Calgary Stampede, damn hot here and lots and lots of tourists.....

But I digress....

Reading the thread about Bomb. Webster and the pictures of his naming.....

I saw a collection a short time ago of medals from all periods and the owner showed me how he photographs the naming of his medals.....

I know that this may open a can of worms but both he and I like to clean our medals, after all no Sergeant Major would allow you on parade with dirty medals....

One of the things that is done is that the edge with the naming is cleaned first and after initial cleaning he takes a small amount of black shoe polish on his finger and rubs it over the naming..... The polish gets into the naming and shows a real contrast..... He takes his photos and immediatly cleans the polish out with some solvent and a tooth brush and then he continues to clean the whole medal......

This seems to work especially well on the Indian and engraved medals which in most cases are not as deep as the impressed ones......

Ok now I will pick up cross as I am sure some of you will want to nail me to one and leave this open to your comments......

Oh yes by the way I should say that I have not done this yet to any of my medals....

Mike

Good Morning Mike,

As your post indirectly mentions one of my medals I thought I would be first to reply.
I think your friend has had a good idea about darkening the naming for photographic purposes as it will show a strong contrast.
I have in the past cleaned medals, I did this with WW1 BWM's not all but some I used a silver polish cloth.
I have not cleaned my QSA's apart from one which was varnished and looked terrible, I prefer to leave them as they are as I think this leaves "the character"
I think it is a personal thing and sometimes I think to myself they are not meant to be dirty but then if I cleaned them I would very much regret it I think.

Paul

Hi Paul.....

I use a metal polish called FLITZ..... If you use a polish like Silvo or Brasso they have a grit that can scratch the surface of the medal..... The polish Flitz uses small pieces of fiber glass which will clean off the tarnish but not damage the surface of the medal.....

Mike

Hello Mike

Not something we have in the UK I have only seen Silvo and Brasso as you mention.

Regards
Paul

Mike,

I'm a cleaner as you can see from the photos. I find a dip in Tarnax works wonders.

I know what you mean about the naming on medals to Indian and might try that in the future.

Regards
David