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Cleaning off sellotape residue

#1

Having bought a set of George Adam fiddle pattern forks at auction, I’m having great difficulty in removing the residue left from the binding sellotape that some misguided individual had used to tie them together. Repeated cleaning (by Goddards, Silvo, dip and lighter fluid) appears only to have a temporary effect as the chemical interaction reappears much to my irritation. Any advice to solving this problem would be very welcome.

Silverside

#2

Hi Silverside - try some Acetone. Most fingernail polish remover has acetone in it or you can get straight acetone at the hardware store.

Regards,

Uncle Vic

#3

Thanks very much. Will advise result.

Silverside

#4

Tried acetone household solvent (Boots Pharmacy) but without any evident effect.

But many thanks anyway…

Silverside

#5

Sorry it didn’t work. Let’s try one more fluid - denatured alcohol.

Regards,

Uncle Vic

#6

I took my problem to a long standing dealer. The suggestion she made - having used it herself - was to try some ‘Brasso’ polish. Judicious use to remove some extra molecules from the surface appears to work. Silver thoroughly washed afterwards.

Suggest this is a last resort solution to the problem and not recommended for general practice!!

Silverside.

#7

Silverside,

I’m sorry you had trouble removing the cellophane. If you haven’t tried it, use some SmartStrip, the same lacquer remover I used on this piece: http://www.hermansilver.com/beforeandafter15.htm. Let me know if this helps if you haven’t resolved the problem.

#8

Thanks Jeff. The extreme solution of using a brass cleanser solved the problem. I’d tried various solvents without success and it became apparent that the adhesive had sunk deep int the surface of the metal. Lesson? NEVER use sticky tape to bind silver cutlery together!!

Thanks again.

Silverside