Should I clean my badge?

[Alexander]

I have a Wound Badge, Silver grade (Verwundetenabzeichen) by the maker Klein & Quenzer (65). It has some ingrained dirt on it, especially on the back, also distinctive streak marks on the front. Would you suggest that it be cleaned, and if so, how. Personally I like the streaking down the front as it looks like 'proper' wear, but I would like your advice, please, on whether or not badges should be cleaned or left 'as is'. Thank you.

[davejb]

Personally i would leave it as is, by any type of cleaning you will remove patina and risk removing the silver wash, i think it looks fine from the photos

[Adrian]

In this instance I would advise to leave it exactly as it is. No cleaning will remove the dark areas without removing the original finish and cleaned badges always look exactly that - cleaned badges.

[Alexander]

Thanks for the advice. I do like it as it is , wasn't sure whether the dirt might be corrosive, though.

[fabri]

In this case there are no options, your badge is in zinc, so the better thing is just to save its silver finish because it could lose the rest too..

[Glenn66]

I agree with the others, zinc badges tend to lose the silver finish over time and there is nothing you can do to restore the finish, it can't be cleaned as it isn't there anymore. Any attempt to clean it will only remove more fragile silver finish as fabri has said.

If you like your silver WB to be fresh and shiny, look to get a Tombak version as these hold their finish better.

Heres my Tombak '30' to compare...

[Wagriff]

Actually,I don't believe that the spots Are dirt. As mentioned,it's a Zinc badge with a silver wash. What you're seeing,I believe,is the zinc absorbing the silver finish. Zinc slowly does this over the years,and,unfortunately,I don't know of anyway to stop it. Regardless,it's still a nice original and very collectable badge. William