TOPIC:

I know there is no correct answer, but I am still going to ask for some opinions....

Do you polish a medal?...Some say "Yes, the soldier would have kept his medals shined up for parade; that is how they should look.", other say, "Don't mess with history." And I totally get both arguments.

So I purchased a Bavarian Order of Military Merit 30-ish years ago....got it for a song, it was black as midnight, nasty .....I spent some time with q-tips, cotton swabs, and some polish I don't remember the brand.....after hours of attention, it turned out to have a gold (not gilt) center, remarkable details, and jeweler's marks from a jeweler who specialized in that particular order.....the end result was spectacular, and I don't regret removing the years of neglect.

That one is easy...

In my UK collection a have a wide spectrum of conditions...I have a Mutiny medal with Relief of Lucknow & Lucknow clasp to a soldier who died in Lucknow. The medal is gorgeous. Seldom handled. Not heliograph shiny, but quite pretty. Then I have a QSA/KSA pair and an Egypt Medal Nile Clasp with a patina that is arguably more beautiful than medals ready for parade. Then as an experiment I dipped a GVI GSM to a Malayan police man in Goddard's Silver Dip.......it is now heliograph shiny, also quite pretty.

Then there are all those pieces that are pretty much black. I have a GV Military Cross, cased, original ribbon, etc, it is black.....clipping the threads on the clasp and dipping it would make the metal pretty, but the ribbon would still look 100+ years old...but it is such a beautiful piece.
Similarly, I have a couple QSA's that are almost black. What do you do?

Thanks for your opinions.

Ok...this can be a divisive topic; In short if you ask 5 people you will generally get 7 to 10 different answers.

I don't polish or clean the medals, I accept them as they are (shiny or not). I love the patina layer on a medal and am generally a little paranoid that I will damage it; I want to ensure that the medal can be enjoyed by future generations and don't want to do anything to ruin that.

However, and this is the "but", I did acquire a family medal set that has been stored away away for over 50 years and was "dirty" as opposed to having a patina layer on it. I was worried about corrosion on the silver and cleaned them. There were 6x medals in total and dropped one during the cleaning process and put a very small ding in it....exactly the reason I try not to clean them. The cleaned medals look awesome and I know they are now better off even with a ding in it....or at least that what I keep telling myself to make myself feel better.

At the end of the day I think the answer is "it depends...." but what ever you decide to do never abrasively polish a medal......never....that I do know.

Thanks for the input. I know it is a controversial topic. All I have ever used are the non-abrasive liquids, lot's of q-tip action. I just struggle with those pieces that are in the middle of "clearly don't screw with" and "yup, it needs a serious bath".

This has been asked many times..... Here is the copy that I posted on BMF slightly amended......

Everyone

I go by the rule of thumb that a Sergeant Major would never let you or be seen himself on parade with dirty medals...... So I guess you can say I'm a cleaner.....

I use a sliver dip first and then a polish, very lightly, that uses fiberglass as an abrasive which does not damage the metal but will remove the tarnish, as does the polish which you all know uses a grit which will scratch the metal and take a thin layer off.....

I have found also that if stored properly they will last for 4 or 5 years before having to have a touched up......

Mike

P:.S. I have a different version for cleaning badges......

I agree with Sturgy, I love the varying tints of patina which aging gives to QSA/KSA and leave as is. The exceptions being that if a medal feels 'greasy' I will give it a light clean with hot water and a small amount of a neutral type soap, rinse well and leave to dry.
Also if I find verdigris, I follow the same process using a q-tip (cottonbud in the UK!) to reduce the corrosion very gently. Then, hopefully, suitable stora/display will discourage further verdigris corrosion.

On the other hand, I am perfectly happy to add medals to the collection which have been cleaned/silver dipped and are of parade standard. The important thing, to reiterate Sturgy's comments, is that as custodians of a man's medals and military history we do nothing to damage them.

I do replace original ribbons with new when they arrive in 'country house condition ' but keep the original ribbon with a reference to which medal it originated from.

Steve

Here are a couple from a group that I just purchased that I fully intend to clean as soon as I get home from my holidays here in the UK.....

Mike