Bottle Cleaning Advice

[61chip]

Needing advice on how to clean a dug bottle. Went bottle digging for my first time with some friends last Sunday. Found a lot and think i dug a pretty good one. It’s full of dirt, and has a flaky, oily looking sheen on the outside ( and possibly the inside too). Quick research shows it’s a highly collectible bottle, and i dont want to scratch it up. Any advice from you seasoned diggers?

 

[LovestheShiny!]

Unless you are serious about cleaning A LOT of old bottles, I would send your bottle off to one of many guys that professionally clean valuable glass bottles. You can search the internet and get many options and reviews. The expense of buying your own tumbler, cannister, cleaning copper and cerium/zinc oxide is pretty high for just a few bottles.

 

[cellrdwellr]

Alot of guys tumble there bottles, I never have. I get them as clean as I can with soap, water, and gravel, and that's the extent of it. If your looking to sell it, I would clean lightly and let the buyer decide how to go about restoring it. Some bottle buyers don't like cleaned bottles, just like some coin collectors don't like cleaned coins. What kind of bottle is it, if you don't mind my asking?

 

[EmuDetector]

I've seen posted on here some cleaning solution beyond soap that will take that oil look off. I'm sure someone will post it.

Glasshopper1955 is always the bottle expert in the threads here

 

[FreeBirdTim]

I clean the outside of my bottles with a scrubbing sponge and Comet and never scratched any bottles with that combination. The inside of bottles I clean with aquarium stones that I buy at Walmart for a few bucks. Add a little water and a tiny amount of dish soap and shake it up. Just be careful with really old bottles. You can crack the bottom of the bottle if you're too aggresive with that method.

If the bottle has a white or oily haze inside, you're probably not going to be able to get it out with that method. Tumbling might work, but that haze is usually etched into the glass and won't come off. Good luck!

 

[61chip]

Alot of guys tumble there bottles, I never have. I get them as clean as I can with soap, water, and gravel, and that's the extent of it. If your looking to sell it, I would clean lightly and let the buyer decide how to go about restoring it. Some bottle buyers don't like cleaned bottles, just like some coin collectors don't like cleaned coins. What kind of bottle is it, if you don't mind my asking?

It’s an amber color straight sided Coke. Has Coca-Cola in script circled with an arrow. Marked Jackson, Tn. We found 3 of them, and one with same markings that was clear or light aqua color

 

[GLASSHOPPER1955]

I usually start by immersing the bottle in a detergent/water mix and scrub inside and out with a bottle brush. Rinse and let dry to see what you end up with. Any oil should be gone after that. If the bottle was buried around rusty metal, it gets harder but you can use 0000 steel wool and the mix. Glass is pretty tough and unless you are sanding or using a wire wheel you won't scratch it. I never have. Tougher cases usually require tumbling, as LovesThe Shiny said above.

 

[scoundrel]

To clean the insides of my bottles, I use about 2 teaspoons of birdshot and varying amounts of water and a shake the bottle vigorously. It works great. I’ve never chipped any glass with this method. I find all of my bottles in salt water, and they usually have algae and barnacles on the inside.

 

[Tinhorn3]

about 100 years ago a guy told me he uses "Denture Cleanser" on is bottles - I never tried but...

 

[Jose159]

about 100 years ago a guy told me he uses "Denture Cleanser" on is bottles - I never tried but...

I use the denture cleaner with a drop of dawn and like scoundrel I put birdshot from a shotgun shell in and shake the heck out it.

 

[GLASSHOPPER1955]

I should add, for anyone cleaning thinner bottles like the early druggists (i.e. Made by Whiteall-Tatum), flasks or 1800s "puffs", THOSE I would not recommend putting shot and shaking 'em, as they are very thin and you'll knock the bottoms out or crack 'em pretty quick. I just stick to soap & water and an appropriate fitting brush.

 

[jimther]

Needing advice on how to clean a dug bottle. Went bottle digging for my first time with some friends last Sunday. Found a lot and think i dug a pretty good one. It’s full of dirt, and has a flaky, oily looking sheen on the outside ( and possibly the inside too). Quick research shows it’s a highly collectible bottle, and i dont want to scratch it up. Any advice from you seasoned diggers?

If that flaky oily looking sheen is whitish an maybe a bit iridescent, it sounds like what you have is a condition call sick glass, which is from years of contact with minerals in the ground, causing a permanent etching. I’ve heard of of some unscrupulous bottle dealers masking this with a treatment with a liquid floor polish like “Future”. Not sure if they still make Future

 

[Fly]

I was reading the post here, an just thought of something that might work for the final cleaning. I use
a ultra sonic cleaner for jewelry & it works very well on other things also. They really are not that exspensive.
Just a thought I would throw out there.
Fly

 

[Ra1der5]

I don’t collect bottles, but wondering if anyone has tried a citric acid soak?

A few years ago I discovered cleaning the toilet tank using warm-hot water and citric acid. Let it sit for an hour or so, rinse, and it’s clean!

Citric acid is safe. It is used for canning foods. And do you know how they make sour candies taste so sour?

I don’t see why it wouldn’t work on bottles too.

 

[hoser]

Ok I know zip about cleaning bottles, but if it is mineral deposits, could you use something like CLR? Heck I don't know, but I would try it on a bottle worth nothing just to see.

 

[too_pointer]

I have a handful of older bottles, so watching this post, never tried to clean them up, like the " dirty " look.
too_

 

[GLASSHOPPER1955]

Seems everyone has their "go-to" cleaning process. Experimenting will determine which works best for you. I like the mix of lye/drano/water soak, then rinse and bottle brush. If stubborn stains or worse, it's "time to tumble".