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Warning: don't try to clean a find with a toothbrush before you know what it is
Last summer on a dig in Arizona, I found this weird lump of what I thought was just hardened mud. My buddy said to just scrub it with a wet toothbrush, but the site lead told me to soak it in distilled water for a week. The toothbrush would have turned a 1,000-year-old woven sandal fragment into mush. The slow soak revealed the whole thing perfectly. Anyone else have a close call with a cleaning method?
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adam_clark656mo ago
What about the stuff you can't even see messing things up? I've heard of people using tap water for a soak and the minerals in it leaving a crust that ruins delicate surfaces. @mark_nguyen95's spot test is smart, but you also need to think about what's in your cleaning water. For really fragile organic stuff like that sandal, even the wrong water pH can cause damage over time. It's not just the brush, it's everything that touches the find.
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mark_nguyen956mo ago
I used to think a soft brush was always safe, but I learned the hard way with a piece of pottery that had a painted design. A gentle scrub started to lift the pigment right off. Now I always do a spot test with just water on a tiny area first.
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