M42 SD Battle damaged relic from St-Vith

[WW2Hunter]

I'll keep it dry for the moment and wait a little longer for other oppinions.

[Datrus]

Bees wax is widely used for conservation, but i hope some others will join in on this thread.

A wise decision to wait a little.

[davejb]

If your at all worried leave it until you can get some rennaisance wax, but i dont understand what you mean by completely dry, are you saying it was wet all over before hand , the idea is that you dont want to seal any moisture in as the corrosion will carry on regardless, therefore it has to be completely dry before you start any process, as for solvents theres nothing more solvent or corrosive than oxalic acid and theres many restorers who use this method regularly, and produce very good results even on decals

[WW2Hunter]

The helmet was allready very damp when I got it, he was just rusting away in a barn.
After we agreed on the price, I went to get the money.
The owner wanted to be nice, "cleaned" it up for me with clear wather.
It's been drying for about 3weeks now.
So i think it is safe to assume he's dry now.

[Feuerbach]

I use linseed oil on this kind of relics. For smaller iron relics I use parafine; chuck a load of white candles in the old chippy, and fry them in the parafine untill the air bubbles stop. The lid is to big to put in a pan, but linseed will do the job just as well.

[davejb]

All i can say is that to give an instance, when we dig on the site, we are constantly digging up items that are rusted and completely dry on the outside that have been found in dry soil , when the outside crust is knocked away the underlying metal is wet and still active

[WW2Hunter]

What do you suggest than Dave?
Do I wait and let it dry a little longer before I treat him?
Can I treat the remains of the liner and leather with renaissance wax also?

[Datrus]

According to what the clever guys say, one should leave leather parts alone. Just keep it in a as dry environment as possible, blow it with a hair dryer and let it cool down to room temperature. If you apply wax while hot it, might create condensation under the wax. I know this from painting cars.

[davies435]

the only way to stop ANY metal oxidizing is to remove it from, and protect it from exposure to oxygen. With helmets you could put it in a hermetically-sealed glass case and to put in in there with a piece of dry-ice.
Once it's sealed in there the dry-ice will consume the oxygen trapped in there with the helmet...........but who the hell is going to do any of this. You never really OWN a helmet.........you look after it for a while and watch it degrade.

[davejb]

Normally i would say leave leather alone unless its essential that some form of protection needs to be administered to preserve whats left, in this case i dont know how dry the remaining liner is, however if its very dry and cracking a very light wipe over with some vaseline will do two things, it will help to semi rehydrate the surface and hopefully reduce the risk of pieces cracking off, do not use any leather cleaning products, ie neatsfoot etc, however i have used a product called Lord Shereton leather balsam which contains pure refined bees wax, this will clean, revive and protect leather goods and i use it on liners that ive owned and friends helmets, the good thing about this product is that it doesnt alter the colour, as for the helmet im afraid you need to judge for yourself as to when the metal is completely dry, ive even put one in the oven before now on a low gentle heat for 20mins which did for me but its not for everyone