Hello ! My name is Mike, i live in Edmonds WA.

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Hi everybody I'm new here , thanks for accepting me in to your group. I've never collected old bottles( but just about everything else) until I found this old cooler full of bottles and jars at a yard sale in Lynnwood WA last week for $10. I figured it would be fun to go through them, clean them up and do some research and find out the history. ( and hope I find a rare one worth $1,000!) So far ive found some beautiful smaller bottles and if somebody could advise me on a place to purchase some stopper corks id be grateful. I'm also open FOR ANY OTHER ADVICE you could give me , like where to get copper bits and aluminum and a bottle tumbler, as well as how to remove the white squiggly film im finding on the insides of so.e of these bottles..thank you for the terrific site.
 

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Len

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Hi Chiefbearheart,

Welcome to the club and the wonderful world of bottles. A little hard to say you have a $1k bottle there. Looks like turn of the century-'40s. ...If you have a Harbor Freight tools store near by you can get a small tumbler for about $50. They also sell grit for about $7., and they ship. ...I've found a bottles at tag sales before but they never came in a nice cooler. You're a winner already. Good luck! :)

CT Len
PS- What tribe?
 

GRACE ABOUND

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Hi Chiefbearheart,

Welcome to the club and the wonderful world of bottles. A little hard to say you have a $1k bottle there. Looks like turn of the century-'40s. ...If you have a Harbor Freight tools store near by you can get a small tumbler for about $50. They also sell grit for about $7., and they ship. ...I've found a bottles at tag sales before but they never came in a nice cooler. You're a winner already. Good luck! :)

CT Len
PS- What tribe?
Hello Chief . You Have A Nice Looking Bottle . On My Forum . I Also Am New Here I came In Around Christmas .I Am Still Having trouble .But That's how We Learn .You Have To Get
Out Of the boat If You Want To Walk on Water . Just Kidding. You Will Always Have A Friend Here. Grace Abounds
 

willong

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Hi everybody I'm new here , thanks for accepting me in to your group. I've never collected old bottles( but just about everything else) until I found this old cooler full of bottles and jars at a yard sale in Lynnwood WA last week for $10. I figured it would be fun to go through them, clean them up and do some research and find out the history. ( and hope I find a rare one worth $1,000!) So far ive found some beautiful smaller bottles and if somebody could advise me on a place to purchase some stopper corks id be grateful. I'm also open FOR ANY OTHER ADVICE you could give me , like where to get copper bits and aluminum and a bottle tumbler, as well as how to remove the white squiggly film im finding on the insides of so.e of these bottles..thank you for the terrific site.

Hello Mike,

Welcome to the site.

Be careful about which media you use to tumble your bottles. You are on the right track when contemplating copper bits. As I recall, someone on this forum once posted instructions on how to produce your own copper tumbling media using solid-core (not stranded), copper electrical house wire. Try some searches; or, perhaps one of the long-time members here might recall the posting. As I recall, the original poster made a jig that permitted him to shear uniform segments of the copper wire core to make small cylindrical pellets. He made what I feel is a valid claim that the sharp sheared ends of the pellets cleaned bottles much more efficiently than commercially available round copper shot. Note also that, depending upon whether they are stained or actually etched, that your bottles might clean up easier with an dilute muriatic acid soak.

1619063164309.png


Check out this old thread Mike: https://www.antique-bottles.net/threads/basic-bottle-cleaning.215713/

Are you interested in digging for bottles, and/or diving for them? A couple areas nearby might hold interest for you. I remember someone once telling me that they found antique BIM (blown in mold) bottles off the Edmonds ferry dock. I used to dig primarily in Snohomish County fifty years ago; lived on Muckilteo Speedway at the time. A Japanese community once existed in one of the canyons north of Muckilteo. In the 1960's and 1970's, bottle collectors could still dig the site. I heard that the site produced many tiger whiskey stoneware jugs and small medicine vials that many people called opium bottles (they did not actually contain that commodity as I understand it). Originally owned by the Mukilteo Lumber Company, Japanese Gulch was housing for millworkers and their families, many who were Japanese. Today it is Japanese Gulch Park.

Here's a vintage view:
1619064239372.png


Enjoy the hobby.
 
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Hi Chiefbearheart,

Welcome to the club and the wonderful world of bottles. A little hard to say you have a $1k bottle there. Looks like turn of the century-'40s. ...If you have a Harbor Freight tools store near by you can get a small tumbler for about $50. They also sell grit for about $7., and they ship. ...I've found a bottles at tag sales before but they never came in a nice cooler. You're a winner already. Good luck! :)

CT Len
PS- What tribe?
Haha thanks Len! That's very helpful. So I don't need to scour construction sites for copper? Good , too much competition...i saw Harbor freight does have those, and they are more like $65 which is fine, but just wanted to see how much in extras is be getting into...and I am not actually with a tribe: this is just a username that I have used before( I can explain another time). So thank you very much for the nice welcome..
 
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Hello Mike,

Welcome to the site.

Be careful about which media you use to tumble your bottles. You are on the right track when contemplating copper bits. As I recall, someone on this forum once posted instructions on how to produce your own copper tumbling media using solid-core (not stranded), copper electrical house wire. Try some searches; or, perhaps one of the long-time members here might recall the posting. As I recall, the original poster made a jig that permitted him to shear uniform segments of the copper wire core to make small cylindrical pellets. He made what I feel is a valid claim that the sharp sheared ends of the pellets cleaned bottles much more efficiently than commercially available round copper shot. Note also that, depending upon whether they are stained or actually etched, that your bottles might clean up easier with an dilute muriatic acid soak.

View attachment 223890

Check out this old thread Mike: https://www.antique-bottles.net/threads/basic-bottle-cleaning.215713/

Are you interested in digging for bottles, and/or diving for them? A couple areas nearby might hold interest for you. I remember someone once telling me that they found antique BIM (blown in mold) bottles off the Edmonds ferry dock. I used to dig primarily in Snohomish County fifty years ago; lived on Muckilteo Speedway at the time. A Japanese community once existed in one of the canyons north of Muckilteo. In the 1960's and 1970's, bottle collectors could still dig the site. I heard that the site produced many tiger whiskey stoneware jugs and small medicine vials that many people called opium bottles (they did not actually contain that commodity as I understand it). Originally owned by the Mukilteo Lumber Company, Japanese Gulch was housing for millworkers and their families, many who were Japanese. Today it is Japanese Gulch Park.

Here's a vintage view: View attachment 223894

Enjoy the hobby.
Wow! That's awesome, thank you for all the information....and my only concern about the copper is that I heard it's at an all time high price so don't think I could afford it!.
 

willong

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Wow! That's awesome, thank you for all the information....and my only concern about the copper is that I heard it's at an all time high price so don't think I could afford it!.
I would suggest that you go to a scrap yard; buy an adequate quantity of used 12 or 10 gauge wire and make your own tumbling media. You might also check in with a couple electrical supply houses, like CED, who cater to contractors, and ask if any of their customers might be pulling a large quantity from a commercial building (where the wire is in conduit runs and easy to remove--I've removed large quantities myself in my younger years, once bought a building that had been adapted to rehabilitating sea birds soaked in oil by a spill in the Port Angeles harbor). Good luck to you.
 

Len

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Haha thanks Len! That's very helpful. So I don't need to scour construction sites for copper? Good , too much competition...i saw Harbor freight does have those, and they are more like $65 which is fine, but just wanted to see how much in extras is be getting into...and I am not actually with a tribe: this is just a username that I have used before( I can explain another time). So thank you very much for the nice welcome..

Hi Chief!

I got my HF tumbler about 3 years ago. They were cheaper in the day and I additionally used one of their 20% off coups so it didn't total too much. Plus I scored a free tarp with an additional
coup on the same purchase. (Get on the mailing list.) ...Recently, a lot of the HF incentives here have been eliminated or diminished but hopefully not in your area. In any case there zillions of ways to clean bottles. Often you will use more than one or two techniques on the same bottle. After a bit you'll get duplicates and the first time you danced with it's predecessor will come back to you.

Stay Well and good luck.
CT Len
 
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Hi Chief!

I got my HF tumbler about 3 years ago. They were cheaper in the day and I additionally used one of their 20% off coups so it didn't total too much. Plus I scored a free tarp with an additional
coup on the same purchase. (Get on the mailing list.) ...Recently, a lot of the HF incentives here have been eliminated or diminished but hopefully not in your area. In any case there zillions of ways to clean bottles. Often you will use more than one or two techniques on the same bottle. After a bit you'll get duplicates and the first time you danced with it's predecessor will come back to you.

Stay Well and good luck.
CT Len
Thank you Len. So far my weapons of choice are toothbrush, wire brush, pieces of cloth, and a special tool made from a wire coathanger; I split the wire so that one part is a poker/scratcher/scraper/cleaner and the other prong I made into a hook that acts as a poker/towel pusher in and outer/ scraper scratcher and hook pulls rag or paper towel out ..ive used baking soda, Windex , WD-40, Crystal Drano, bleach and dish soap. Also boiled a couple bottles and quickly found out why we shouldn't do that. So I'll get over to Harbour Freight and get the tumbler and I thank you again for all the great information...
 
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Len

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Hey Chiefbearheart!

Mike You're doing great! ... I love the home improvised tools. One of my first was a tine off an old wood rake. Cheap, easy to find, and not harmful to the bottle. The slightly curved tips were okay but not usable on those narrow neckers. For the smaller bottles an old dentist pic can also act as a retriever(Check HF, they may carry a cheap set.) If you don't want to use that paper towel anymore the plastic mesh from that bag of clementines/other fruit makes a decent swisher for your probe. ...Okay, I've never used Drano but being Italian-Am. I am naturally partial to vinegar. For some hazes it works great, (esp. post soaking). Others, not so much. Its cheap by the distilled gallon and is a good disinfectant. What the hay, its midnight and now I'm craving pasta and a salad.;) Mike, I can tell already you're a bottle guy. Let me tell you now, you + yours are going to enjoy a lot of great years in this superior American pastime.
--CT Len
 

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