Bone or wooden stylus
A pick softer than the thing it is cleaning. The reason a metal one is wrong is that it wins.
Precautions
- Test on an inconspicuous area first
In detail
Dried dirt, grease and old polish collect in corners, carving, threads and joints where a cloth cannot reach and a solvent will not act quickly. The conservation answer is a pick made of wood or bone: hard enough to displace the deposit, softer than the finish underneath it. The accompanying instruction is explicit and it is the general principle in miniature — do not use metal picks or tools, because they easily scratch finished wood and polished metal. A steel point applied to a lacquered or plated surface removes the surface, and the scratch is permanent while the dirt was not. Wooden toothpicks are the household form and cost nothing. Sharpened hardwood or bone styluses from conservation suppliers are the same idea with a better point.
Why
- Bone or wooden stylus is explained by Relative hardness
Sources for this page
Sources
Conserve O Gram 10/1: Caring for Historic Longarms — Storage and Handling Requirements
National Park Service, US Department of the Interior, 1999 · Government or regulator
Relied on for: That dried dirt, grease and oils are removed using wooden toothpicks or sharp wooden or bone styluses, and that metal picks and tools must not be used because they easily scratch finished wood and polished metal surfaces. (states this directly)
Verification: a person has read the passage relied on.
Read on — 'Maintaining Firearms' and 'Environmental Conditions', pages 2-3. The safe-handling, unloading and glossary sections were read and are out of scope. Supports the claim as stated. Supplies re-lubrication, a fingerprints-on-metal method, a leather-against-metal storage incompatibility, and the vacuum-through-a-screen technique for any object with small loose parts.
Last reviewed by a person on .