Roman Dagger Restoration
 

Here is the ARTICLE LINK that allegedly shows before and after photos of a relic Roman dagger. The found relic looked like a mass of corroded and deformed iron, and the end result shows most decorations intact. This is astonishing, and took 9 months. I am curious how was it possible to remove such advanced rust without damaging the inlay?

Wow! Wouldn't have thought it was possible. :shrug:

That is almost unbelievable! I assume that for the 9 months it was soaking in some solution which dissolved the rust without affecting the original surface. Is the blade still intact? Can it be withdrawn from the sheath? Amazing.

Unbelievable indeed, the blade is intact and fully functioning... and it comes with the original belt!

An electrolysis bath can remove rust very efficiently; and when the rust has gone there is no further degradation to the iron that is revealed.

Check out the video at the bottom of this link of Vegard Vike's conservation of the Langeid Sword:

https://www.khm.uio.no/english/resea...m-langeid.html

I think this kind of work often requires mechanical cleaning like his micro chisel.

This is my understanding as well - the cleaning needs to be done with a small drill and done slowly and carefully. Here is another video of a clean up, which preserves the silver decoration under all the rust deposits:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iw02-fWTJF4

I forgot to add: that is stunningly beautiful!

I find it very difficult to believe that the 'before' and 'after' photos are of the same item & strongly suspect that there has been a mistake made in that article.

AMEN !!!

Checkout the video on the cleaning of the Langeid Sword. Underneath that lump of rust is perhaps the most beautiful surviving Viking Age hilt in near perfect condition. And Vegard is meticulous in his documentation.

It's in very similar condition to this Roman dagger.

:eek:

Yet, to my aging eyes, seems to be some slight discrepancies between the dimmensional proportions of the rusty piece and the final result. Like for example the width of the front bolster vs. the length of the hilt, or the hanging loops...

Anyhow... I am a quite skeptical about the accuracy of this article.