- Joined
- Oct 13, 2019
- Messages
- 89
I’m not sure the best place to post this, but I figured you all would have the best advice.
I’ll preface this by explaining that as well as being a knifemaker I am an archaeology student. At the farmer’s market where I sharpen knives, I was offered a pair of African spears to which I would donate to the archaeology lab where I sometimes work. The only information I was given about the spears was that they were from Africa and bought there in the 1970s. They are in relatively poor shape with a lot of corrosion and loose construction on one. I brought them to the lab and spent a day researching African spears to figure out what they were. I decided on Maasai Lion Spears of two kinds, as you will see. They are small at around 5 feet or less in length. I’d appreciate any other information that you all could provide about them.
So naturally being familiar with metalworking and knife making, I offered to clean and preserve the spears as well as write a small paper about the process, so that all of it would be documented when it’s placed in the university’s ethnographic collection. Most of our collections and professionals are in a different field when it comes to museum pieces, and this whole project is kind of out of left field, so I’m taking it upon myself to complete. These pieces aren’t super important because they already have no archaeological context. So there’s not really any firm action that we should take with them.
Here are all the pictures and videos I took of the condition in which the spears were received. The bottom portion of one spear has been taken off the shaft because it was already falling off.
Basically, what I’m asking is advice on the most appropriate ways to clean and preserve these spears.
The spears both appear to be left nearly entirely as-forged. Only a few spots show evidence of being filed or ground, and most still has the forge scale intact.
I get the feeling that any kind of abrasive will remove the forge scale - something which we should avoid.
The best thing I could come up with is a mild acid like in Barkeeper’s Friend. After that maybe a stiff brush (not steel wire). After removing the active corrosion I would apply a protective coating with Renaissance Wax.
If you have any other ideas, please let me know.
Of lesser importance, you will notice that one of the spears has some copper wire wrapped around the socket. It seems out of place, but I’m not sure whether this was for some kind of mounting or the wire was meant to be wrapped around the socket for some functional or aesthetic purpose. In my research, I only managed to find one example of wire wrapping, but I would not get a decent image of it.
I’ll preface this by explaining that as well as being a knifemaker I am an archaeology student. At the farmer’s market where I sharpen knives, I was offered a pair of African spears to which I would donate to the archaeology lab where I sometimes work. The only information I was given about the spears was that they were from Africa and bought there in the 1970s. They are in relatively poor shape with a lot of corrosion and loose construction on one. I brought them to the lab and spent a day researching African spears to figure out what they were. I decided on Maasai Lion Spears of two kinds, as you will see. They are small at around 5 feet or less in length. I’d appreciate any other information that you all could provide about them.
So naturally being familiar with metalworking and knife making, I offered to clean and preserve the spears as well as write a small paper about the process, so that all of it would be documented when it’s placed in the university’s ethnographic collection. Most of our collections and professionals are in a different field when it comes to museum pieces, and this whole project is kind of out of left field, so I’m taking it upon myself to complete. These pieces aren’t super important because they already have no archaeological context. So there’s not really any firm action that we should take with them.
Here are all the pictures and videos I took of the condition in which the spears were received. The bottom portion of one spear has been taken off the shaft because it was already falling off.
Basically, what I’m asking is advice on the most appropriate ways to clean and preserve these spears.
The spears both appear to be left nearly entirely as-forged. Only a few spots show evidence of being filed or ground, and most still has the forge scale intact.
I get the feeling that any kind of abrasive will remove the forge scale - something which we should avoid.
The best thing I could come up with is a mild acid like in Barkeeper’s Friend. After that maybe a stiff brush (not steel wire). After removing the active corrosion I would apply a protective coating with Renaissance Wax.
If you have any other ideas, please let me know.
Of lesser importance, you will notice that one of the spears has some copper wire wrapped around the socket. It seems out of place, but I’m not sure whether this was for some kind of mounting or the wire was meant to be wrapped around the socket for some functional or aesthetic purpose. In my research, I only managed to find one example of wire wrapping, but I would not get a decent image of it.
