Cleaning glass

[RingDancer]

Any special way to clean glass or tips? Or just good old fashion soap and water,or glass cleaner.

Any suggestions?

Pat

[PAPPY]

PAT, That is the best way with just soap and water. If you have tougher stains you will probably want to soak them awhile in white vinegar and then clean them with soap and water and the softest brushes and rags you can find...PAPPY

[RingDancer]

Gotcha Pappy!, Just wondering if some of you had a few tips on how to really shine up that old glass!
Thanks!
Pat

[hoser]

I don't really know if this works or not, but I read that if you soak old glass in Lime Away, that it will remove any of the white deposits that soap and water will not remove, and it won't harm the glass. Is this right, or will it hurt the glass?

[PAPPY]

Bill, lime away is fine, just don't scrub it when it comes out of the lime away bath. Just rinse with warm water until all the lime away is removed, then dry.PAPPY

[rip]

My parents had an antique store called the bottle barn back in the 60's.We would use small metal shavings to clean the inside of the bottles we found.Just dump some in with some water and shake.This works for loose dirt on the inside.

[Mr.Silver]

I soaked my bottles in Dawn® dishing liquid and Oxyclean® for about 3 weeks( I do about 60 bottles at a time) in a fiberglass tubs( hot water about 5-7 gallons of water, 20 scoopes of oxyclean and dawn dishing liqiud for each tub. The longer you soaked these bottles the better.
Just the embossed ones. The painted ones dont soak them. Have them dry for a least month or so when you pull them from bottle dump!! and do not rub the paint off!.

Mr.Silver

[Mr.Silver]

To clean the cloudness from the bottle or outside
Take steel wool #0000 very fine(cost 6 for $1.69
more or less in some hardware stores). Rub the bottle on outside. In the inside I take a small bottle brush wrap some steel wool around it and clean it that way. Its takes time but it does the job!

Mr.Silver

P.S. I been digging bottles for over 15 years or more, I tried everything- the 2 suggestion work fine with me!

[Out4gold]

Most of the suggestions are fine. The steel shavings work well but a beaded chain is easier to come by.
Glass polish and a buffing wheel works fine for me for reclaiming some of the more difficult ones, after the steel wool idea.
I would suggest the buffing only on the ones you find that are unusual or all other options have failed.
I have had some success with crushed walnut shell in a vibratory rock polisher may be purchased at a feed store
I have been collecting bottles since the 60's nice to see people concerned enough about their finds to attempt to restore.

Out4gold

PS: We have been finding some extraoidinary bottles here in Dallas,Tx.
I will post a few when my home connection has been restored.

[swizzle]

I use CLR and sometimes BB's. I let my bottles soak in CLR for about 15 minutes and the with bottle brush I get as much of the dirt and rust off as I can. After that I inspect the bottles by holding it up to the light to see if there are any more stains. If there is I take the finest steel wool I can find and scrub the stain outside with direct pressure or inside with the help of the bottle brush. When this is done I dry the bottle and check it again. If cloudiness reappears again then the bottle has "the sickness" and the only way to get rid of that is with a bottle tumbler. I need to get one of these. They are cool. Calcium in the soil will actually etch the glass and the only way to get rid of "the sickness" is to take off a very thin layer of the glass. With a tumbler you are also running a risk of breaking a good bottle and it takes 3 or 4 weeks to do a bottle depending on how sick it is. Some places will tumble your bottle for a fee but they do not insure that your bottle will make it out in one piece. Jason