Cleaning a Sick Bottle

[RICKJJ59W]

Hey Sue you got any pix of your childhood []
All work and no play gave the bottle cleaner a dull finish.[]

 

[GuntherHess]

It is incorrect to tell people they can not clean their bottles without a tumbler.

That's not what I said, please dont miss quote me.
What I said is "Tumbling is the only proven safe method for polishing sick bottles"
I stand by that statement.

In your very first post on this board you stated "Learn how to clean and restore antique bottles without tumbling or acid in hours, not weeks"
Then you made a post a day ago stating " I use hydrofluoric acid to clean bottle insides..."
I'm sorry but your statements are inconsistant and I cant take your comments on bottle cleaning seriously.

 

[appliedlips]

ORIGINAL: suzanne
am not too interesting in arguing with anyone about how I do it, anymore.

Then quit doing it! The only way to remove sickness is by removing glass,period. You admit to doing it yourself with acid which is not a new idea. People used to do it alot until they realized alot of good bottles were being ruined.. Tumbling is the only proven method, as already stated. If you come up with a better way let us know..

 

[suzanne]

So then you're main point is that it is only safe to tumble bottles I guess. I can only say that I have never had
an accident. It is absolutely true that the book explains how to clean without tumbling or acid. That is why
I never included anything about hydrofluoric acid in the original book. However, if anyone wants to try it, I
explained the best way to do it on the last page of my thread, page 24 I think. As far as ruining bottles with
hydrofluoric acid goes, I've never done one yet that didn't look better afterwards, usually a lot better, even
when I just started out messing around with it.


Once again, it is completely misleading to tell people they need a big expensive motor assembly to clean
bottles or else pay someone else bucku bucks to do it for them.

 

[appliedlips]

Charlie's bottle would have tumbled up nicely and the embossing would have been fine. If cut & polished on the inside that ugly etching would have been gone.

 

[T D]

PLEASE YA'LL!!! Don't start this DOGCRAP on another thread! It is simple. We're down to apples and oranges. As far as everything I've ever seen, learned, heard, and known, what Suzanne has done has dramatically improved the appearance of bottles, and that is what many like their bottles to look like. She had taken alot of time and improved on a method to enhance bottles...THIS IS GOOD.

At the same time, TUMBLING is NOT a bad word to some collectors like myself. One of my favorite things to do after buying or digging a bottle, is CLEANING it. I've used several different methods myself, and alot of my bottles look good enough for me and my collection. THIS IS GOOD.

BUT, there are others that are truely SICK. This is where the rub is. A TRUELY SICK BOTTLE (one that has been in the ground and has been stained through whatever you want to call it, degeneration of the glass, chemical reaction, whatever)
has CHANGED. IN MY OPINION, you can clean it however you want to, but until you get down into the glass, you will not get it clean. The bottle will have that stain or sickness. To some this is fine, it is part of the history of the bottle. THIS IS GOOD.

BUT for others, a correctly, professionally cleaned (TUMBLED) bottle will remove the sickness, and most of the scratches to a point, but if you etch, burn, tumble or whatever you want to call it, TOO MUCH it will smooth out embossing...this is where a PROFESSIONAL knows when to stop and leave "well enough" alone. To me, a well tumbled bottle will still have all the embossing, minimal scratches, no staining, and will BE WHERE YOU CAN SEE THROUGH IT WITHOUT HAZINESS. To me, THIS IS GOOD.

We are down to personal preferences now, and when you are dealing with old glass, there are hundreds of different little quirks in the glass that some may or may not like. It reminds me of a couple that bought an old house in my town, and didn't like some of the glass in the window panes, because the view was distorted. ARE YOU KIDDING ME??!! That is what makes the old glass attractive to me. IT IS ALL ABOUT YOUR PREFERENCE. THIS IS GOOD!!!

This arguement was fun for a while, but I was truely happy to see the other thread slipping further down the posts. Let's agree to disagree and go on enjoying other folks bottles however they look and enjoy learning new ways of cleaning or tumbling, or whatever you do to make a bottle look better, and get past this idiocy

 

[justanolddigger]

You can't have it both ways. If you correct someone, is it just an opinion? When someone else does the same to you, you call them out for "arguing ".

ORIGINAL: suzanne

reply to guntherhess/cyberdigger

It is incorrect to tell people they can not clean their bottles without a tumbler. I do it all the time.
suzanne
am not too interesting in arguing with anyone

 

[suzanne]

I think this statement requires proof.

 

[suzanne]

People want to argue back and forth with me about how can you remove stain and not remove glass and
I am tired of it; but here goes again. A bottle appears sick. I get rid of the sickness. Sometimes there
will be glass detioriation under the sickness. I get rid of that, too. Underneath all of this is sparkly glass
that still has unique antique glass texture.

 

[cyberdigger]

If anybody wants to tumble that bottle.. be my guest..
I'm one of them who doesn't mind some sickness but I also don't have anything worth tumbling.. if i had a real valuable sick one, I would definitely have it professionally tumbled.. otherwise I enjoy just getting them looking as good as possible without spending much money on them. A very quick bath in hydroflouric acid will often clarify minor sickness without hazing up the bottle, but heavy sickness.. it's either haze or tumble or live with it.