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I receive a lot of emails from people asking me how to clean bottles
they have found or dug up. Cleaning bottles is an art as much as a
science. If a bottle is simply dirty or muddy from being found or dug
up, there is generally a lot you can do to improve its appearance!
Firstly, don't be scared that you are going to damage the glass. Fill a
bucket of warm water with normal kitchen detergent and get out brushes /
jex (steel wool) / whatever you can find. Thoroughly rinse the bottle
inside and out then scrub all the dirt off. If the bottle is stained
inside, I usually: 1) bend a coathanger 2) drop a bit of jex inside the
bottle 3) with a lot of patience use the coathanger to rub the jex over
the stains until it is all gone. Continually rinse the muck off then
hold the bottle up to a light, to identify the worst spots and focus on
those. With effort you can often turn a filthy bottle back into nice
shiny condition! Here are some photos from a recent project of mine in cleaning a rare Australian cordial bottle. It was found on a farm and was very dirty when I got it, but with an hour or so of cleaning, well just have a look at the finished result! Click the pictures for a larger view.
Unfortunately if a bottle is scratched, water-worn, chipped, and/or generally in poor condition (i.e. the glass is badly affected), there is no amount of normal cleaning that can really improve it... In such a case, the bottle may be professionally "polished" to restore some/most/all of the original shine. Email me if you would like me to recommend someone in Australia who can do this. Costs are generally around $50 per bottle and the process takes a couple of months to complete. |
Website last updated: 2nd April 2008
© Simon Cronk
