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Techniques for CollectorsCleaning Ludlamite

26th Apr 2022 06:04 UTCPaul Stephen Cyr

I am looking to clean up a ludlamite from the recent finds along side vivianite from Cabeca do Cachorro in Amazonas, Brazil. I recently saw a thread where Alfredo P. mentioned a dip of a few minutes in Iron Out, but it sounds slightly risky to me. Examples I saw in the past in Tucson were very clean, so I assume there is a way to go about it. Ludlamite has a hardness of only 3.5 and perfect cleavage, so I’m taking a bit of caution.

26th Apr 2022 06:05 UTCPaul Stephen Cyr

The material to be removed seems to just be a bit of iron oxide in the cracks.

26th Apr 2022 09:26 UTCKeith Compton 🌟 Manager

You could dip a "toe" of the specimen in iron out.

i.e.: prop it up so that only say the couple of crystals on the far right rest in the iron out for a short while and see what happens.

Also have you tried an ultrasonic bath?

26th Apr 2022 11:55 UTCSteve Hardinger 🌟 Expert

Ludlamite is an Fe2+ mineral. Dithionite (the iron reducing ingredient in Iron OUT powder) works by reducing Fe3+ to Fe2+. So I suspect ludlamite will be safe with Iron OUT (powder). However your specimen is quite nice so I would not risk even a 'toe dip'. I would start with an ultrasonic bath, and if that fails, try Iron OUT (powder) on a lower quality ludlamite first.

Note that I have specified Iron OUT (powder), because there is an Iron OUT (liquid) product which contains oxalic acnd and no dithionite.

26th Apr 2022 12:23 UTCKevin Conroy Manager

Steve Hardinger 🌟 Expert ✉️

I would start with an ultrasonic bath

I agree. The next step would be to use a water gun to see if it's just dirt/clay that could be washed away.

If this doesn't work, your chemical cleaning options may depend on what the matrix is.

26th Apr 2022 12:46 UTCSteve Hardinger 🌟 Expert

A general cleaning philosophy (for me, at least) is start with physical methods before trying chemical methods. Try milder physical methods (ultrasonic bath) before harsher physical methods (textile gun).

Another option - if the specimen is sufficiently precious - is to send it out for professional cleaning.

26th Apr 2022 19:19 UTCPaul Stephen Cyr

Thanks for the replies!

Steve, I appreciate the emphasis on the Fe2 component.

Ultrasonic would likely get the job done… unfortunately I don’t have one on hand these days. Iron Out is tempting in this situation for sure, but caution needs to be taken.

I have one other piece that is also quite nice, but for sure in a lower tier overall. I will report back if I try the Iron Out “toe dip”, which would probably be best on the other piece as a test.

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