Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

tom hyle · 6th June 2005, 11:18 AM

I have reworked a fair number of buried blades that have been excavated with metal detectors, and I've etched a fair number with a variety of acids. That looks like a buried surface to me; looks pretty much just like one, as opposed to a bath of liquid acid. The way flakes of rust seem to have come off some areas; rust forms in flakes like that; acid doesn't attack that way; it tends more to rounded pits/craters that start from some tiny imperfection in the surface; looks like an excavated blade that has been cleaned (of its burial rust) with acid; most of the lost material would be lost to rust, not to acid.....On the other hand, I hear that in parts of Africa are patches of very acidic (?or something?) soil wherein if one buries newly made things, one digs up "antiques" in a few months or a year....probably anything can be faked.......

6th June 2005, 11:18 AM	#6
tom hyle Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Houston, TX, USA Posts: 1,254	I have reworked a fair number of buried blades that have been excavated with metal detectors, and I've etched a fair number with a variety of acids. That looks like a buried surface to me; looks pretty much just like one, as opposed to a bath of liquid acid. The way flakes of rust seem to have come off some areas; rust forms in flakes like that; acid doesn't attack that way; it tends more to rounded pits/craters that start from some tiny imperfection in the surface; looks like an excavated blade that has been cleaned (of its burial rust) with acid; most of the lost material would be lost to rust, not to acid.....On the other hand, I hear that in parts of Africa are patches of very acidic (?or something?) soil wherein if one buries newly made things, one digs up "antiques" in a few months or a year....probably anything can be faked.......