Stanage

16 hours ago, Bob Cleek said:

Murphy's Oil Soap may be good for washing hardwood floors, but it does leave a greasy residue if not rinsed off well. I'd stick with a bit of Windex window cleaning liquid in water on a cloth or Q-tip. The Windex and water solution (not more than 10 or 20 percent ratio at most) works better than spit and trying to work up enough spit to wet Q-tips gets old rather quickly unless you're chewing tobacco!

 

The finish coating on the rigging is quite likely orange (brown) shellac. It would be a certainty if the rigging is somewhat stiff. In any event, orange shellac will do the trick for you. Early coats that soak in will be flat, but when further coats are applied on top of dry coats, the finish will become glossy. There are two kinds of shellac, "whte" or "bleached," and "orange" or "natural." These terms refer to the tint, or lack thereof in the shellac. "Orange" shellac isn't exactly orange, and, as additional coats are built up, will progressively become darker and darker. It's relatively inexpensive. Buy it in the can at hardware stores. (Don't buy the rattle cans of it. Overpriced and not suitable for this application.) Shellac is thinned with and brushes are cleaned with denatured alcohol. Even if the shellac coat is completely dry, an application of alcohol will dissolve it. Shellac is also handy for all sorts of similar finishing applications. It is completely non-toxic, other than the denatured alcohol, which will make you sick if you drink it.

 

 

Thanks Bob - much appreciated.

I've got some broken bits of rigging so I'll see what happens to those if I warm them or put them in denatured alcohol (apparently the UK name is methylated spirits, or just 'meths'). Shellac shouldn't melt, but beeswax should.

The more I read and learn, I'm wondering if the original finish may have been beeswax, as the lines are very brittle and apparently beeswax can degrade lines over a long period of time. We'll see after a couple of experiments.

3 hours ago, AON said:

It may have been bees wax to get rid of the stray wild fibres.  I do not know how to tell for sure.  Possibly some others might know.

 

I take it you are attempting to clean the model.

 

I know there are people here that have done that and I suspect they do not use Murphy's Oil Soap but rather saliva on the end of a Q-tip to remove dirt and dust.  It is  long and arduous work but I am told is a better way.

 

Possibly someone more skilled can confirm.

 

Alan

Many thanks. I had successfully been using baby wipes and wished I hadn't tried Murphy's Oil Soap  

I'd be interested to see if there's a way of telling if it's beeswax. I assume that if I warm it, it will soften, so I might try that on a bit of rigging that's already broken and needs replacing.

I'm renovating a 1940s family heirloom and have some queries on the rigging material and finish (close up attached), if anyone can help, please.

The rigging appears to have some sort of finish applied. Is this normal, and any idea what it might be? It seems to make the rigging have a glistening, golden finish.

Frustratingly, I also found that it come off with Murphy's Oil Soap. I'd like to reinstate the bit that's lost its coating, and also treat replacement rigging in the same way.

Many thanks