Artillery Restoration

(Confederate Adjutant General button)	The Civil War Relicman, Harry Ridgeway
	Winchester, Virginia USA (changed hands 70 times in the Civil War!)
	I am a collector buying and selling authentic Civil War Relics

Artillery Restoration

Following are before and after examples of artillery restoration. Caution: Disarment of shells is very dangerous. This page does NOT provide sufficient information to inform collectors as to proper disarmament. A shell should be disarmed only by a person professionally trained in the proper technique. see below for more discussion about disarming Civil War shells and my comments on the accident involving my friend Lawrence Christopher at Dalton Ga. and recently the Sam White accident.

Accident 2/18/08, Sam White

An accident occurred while disarming a Civil War projectile, long time collector Sam White, Chesterfield Va was killed in the accident. This is a horrible tragedy, Sam White was one of the good guys in this business, and I am very much saddened by his loss. I offer my prayers and condolence.

Sam had years of experience disarming and restoring Civil War ordnance and was highly respected. I believe that he used good techniques, but obviously something failed with this accident. The complete details are not known at this point, but it appears that he must have been drilling a large shell outside his house and did not use his remote rig. The news media showed pictures of a large fragment, likely from a round ball 8 inches or larger.

Notwithstanding recent accidents, Civil War ordnance is not dangerous to handle or display and is desirable to collect. All shells in a personal collection should be disarmed to ultimately be considered safe, but mere displaying or handling Civil War ordnance is not inherently dangerous. The two events that can cause danger are extreme heat or mechanical stimulus.

The black powder used in Civil War ordnance needs heat in the region of 500 degrees F to ignite, so it takes extreme heat such as a burning building, a fire or some other extreme heat to ignite black powder.

Mechanical stimulus can be hazardous, such as attempting to smash a shell with a sledge hammer or shooting a shell with a high powered modern rifle or something of the like. Drilling a shell to remove or wet the powder is the preferred method to render a shell inert, but the drilling process can create hazard. Ironically, the safest thing to do with a Civil War shell is to simply leave it alone. However ultimately it is good practice to disarm a shell to render it inert. This is done by drilling a hole into the chamber and wetting and removing the powder inside. Once the powder inside the cavity is wet or removed, the shell is inert and represents no continuing danger.

The accident with Sam White apparently occurred while drilling, although this is not fully confirmed yet. Disarmament should only be done remotely and my readers can rest assured that any shells that I drill are done safely in a very wet environment with a remote rig. More information will be posted as it becomes available.

Disarment of shells is very dangerous and I do not recommend that you try it!!!

I have acquired a heavy duty commercial drill press capable of drilling shells remotely, which is the only safe way to do it. I will disarm "field artillery shells" (24 pounder or less for smoothbore and 20 pounder or less for rifled) for $25.00 per shell. Sorry, I have discontinued the service of cleaning shells unless it is a shell that I am buying or selling. Below is an explanation of the process. If your shell needs to be disarmed, you need to deliver it to me either in Winchester Va or arrange for me to pick it up at a show. Do not try to ship live shells through the postal service or the commercial carriers, they do not have much of a sense of humor when "explosives" are involved. And you need to include postage for the return trip, which once disarmed, shipping through the mail is no problem.

In light of a recent accident involving collector Lawrence Christopher of Dalton Georgia I will provide more details into the safety of disarmament of shells. Much has been reported in the press about the accident in Dalton, and much of the reporting is false. The Department of Defense representatives who confiscated his collection and destroyed it obviously do not know much about explosives, maybe some of theme will be inspired to learn a little bit more about it. Civil War ordnance is very interesting and desirable to collect. I do not present this dialog as a "how to" and do not recommend that amateurs try to do it. This description is provided so that collectors and "explosives experts" will know the difference between a shell that is inert versus one that is armed. In addition to the personal tragedy that befell Mr. Christopher, representatives of the Department of Defense destroyed his significant collection of artillery, theoretically to protect the public, but as will be shown there never was any threat to public safety beyond the DOD's reckless and irresponsible actions.

I have disarmed a few hundred shells. It can be done safely. The process of disarming a shell is to remove any powder from the shell. This is not "defusing a shell", meaning removing the fuse . Defusing a shell is not safe, it destroys a historic resource, and it usually is not effective. The only safe way to disarm a shell is to penetrate into the chamber of a shell and flush the old black powder out of the shell. This is done by drilling.

Ironically the safest thing to do with a shell is to do nothing to the shell. Civil War shells do not become "unstable" with time, do not blow up on their own, do not blow up by handling. Many shells have been dropped on the floor, thrown from windows, involved in automobile accidents and the like. I cannot site one single incidence of a shell detonating from simply being handled. All cases I have heard involve external stimulus and the most dangerous stimulus is the process of disarming. However shells do need to be disarmed, it flies in the face of common sense to send an active shell through the mail, for example. So we do disarm them but safety precautions need to be followed.

DO NOT ATTEMPT to drill a shell using a hand drill! I have not had full access to the details of the Dalton accident but this is most likely to be the cause of that accident. The problem with a hand drill is that the drilling process is not adequately controlled. Most shells are drilled through the cast iron casing. It is very easy for a drill bit to become overheated, or jam. If a bit jams right at the point that it enters the powder chamber, it can spark and if that happens you have a detonation. It is important that the drilling process be kept steady, the bit kept cool, and the hole kept wet, and it is too hard to achieve any of this with a hand drill, so a hand drill should never be used for this purpose.

I use a drill press and drill the shells remotely. Start with a small bit, sometimes called a "pilot". Once the shell is secured, the steady arm of the drill can be used to establish a small hole. As it is drilled, the surface area of the hole needs to be kept very wet. Only a few rotations of the drill should be engaged at a time, then back off, wet the drill bit and the hole, repeat the process until the powder cavity is penetrated. It is important that water is in the hole at all times, ie flood the actual hole. Some people have suggested that the shell be submerged. This is not effective. It is not the shell that needs to be wet, it is the drill hole itself that needs to be wet. So if you have a nice tight drill hole and do not remove the bit from the hole, then the hole will be dry and that is not what you need. The hole must be kept wet all the time, I cannot overemphasize that. So drill a couple of rotations, in the wet hole, pull it back, replenish the water in the hole, wet the bit to keep it cool, do not try to do more than just a few rotations, in any case do not let the hole dry out at all. As long as the hole is wet when you go into the cavity, there should not be any sparking. If it does spark, the remote drilling will avoid personal injury (it will not avoid a detonation but will avoid personal injury).

Once the pilot is drilled into the cavity, and more water is introduced into the cavity, the powder in the cavity is wet and temporarily inert. Now a larger bit can be used, the hole really needs to be at least 3/8 in diameter to flush out the contents. Then flush the contents with water. If black water comes out, you had a shell with volatile powder. If brown powder or white powder comes out the powder was oxidized or contaminated and was not volatile. If nothing is inside (this happens too) then you went through and exercise but you do not know how dangerous a shell was until it is drilled.

The drilling is best done remotely. By remote, the press should be at least 50 feet away, use a long lanyard to work the handle on the drill press, have control of the electricity from your remote location so you can start and stop the drilling remotely, and hide behind a barricade. Be far enough away to avoid any concussion if a shell goes off. I have constructed a small wooden bunker to set the drill and the shell in. I have not had one to detonate, the idea of the bunker is for it to absorb most of the energy of the detonation. But you need to either be far enough away that flying fragments cannot reach you or you need to be behind a secure barricade. My set up, I am behind a concrete wall 50 feet away. If one does detonate, personal injury will be avoided by using this procedure.

Black powder if even if a little bit damp is not volatile. Some people suggest that it would ignite if allowed to dry. I would say it will only ignite if dried clean, and surface characteristics as a powder maintained. It needs surface to burn, the more surface it has (granules) the more volatile it is. It is very hard to burn reconstituted black powder, I have tried several times, because it is very hard to retain the powder granules and to keep it clean. Powder, once wet, and left wet oxidizes and turns a crusty white. This white oxide is not volatile at all. Many shells have white flaky stuff around the drill hole or around the fuse if drilled through the fuse. This could be salts from electrolysis but is often oxidized powder. There is powder left inside of most shells, seems like there is no end to flushing and getting black water. However once wet, and left wet it oxidizes. So I would disagree that residual powder left in a shell is volatile.

This will undoubtedly jerk somebody's chain, but I also like to melt any sulfur out of the residual powder left in a shell. After disarming a shell and flushing the best you can, and then completing whatever electrolysis is done, I dry out the shells by cooking in an oven at 250 degrees. There are three purposes in this. One is to drive off any water left from the electrolysis (water boils at 212 deg), second is to crystallize any salts or hydroxide crystals left from the electrolysis, and the third is to burn off any sulfur left in the residual powder. Heat a shell, oh my god! As the shell heats up the sulfur starts to smoke, or melt, creating a definite and distinct rotten egg smell. It either smokes out or oozes out, in the form of a dirty yellow gunk. Once the sulfur is so removed from the powder, what do you have left? I don't know but it for sure is not volatile black powder any more. I have taken some of that stuff and tried every manner to burn it and so far I have not been able to get it to burn even with a direct blow torch. I know the idea of heating a shell seems foreign, but this is the only safe way that I have found to render a drilled and flushed shell truly inert, the melted sulfur, now removed, simply changes the mixture to a significantly less volatile mixture. One tip however, is don't even think of doing this in momma's kitchen oven! My wife wanted a new oven recently, so I took the old one outside (he he!, I am so generous). The sulfur does gas and it stinks to high heaven, so to heat a shell and melt the sulfur, this is best done outside and not in the kitchen.

One word of caution about heating a shell. It is important that the shell is vented, meaning that the drill hole is of sufficient size to allow all gases to escape and that the hole is kept open. A hole with minimum size of 3/8inch is recommended. These quarter inch holes often used are no good.

It is also important to put a drip pan below the shell so that the contents do not ooze out and drip onto the red hot heating element below. If the melted contents are allowed to drip onto the heating elements, that can cause an open flame to develop which can cause a violent burn. You do not want any open flames to develop during this process.

I might add that it is very very difficult if not impossible to actually get all of the powder out of a shell. Flush it one more time and if it has even a tint of black, then there is still more powder inside. Many Civil War shells contained case shot or balls inside. So the flushing will not even reach behind these balls. It also has a tendency to hide in any nooks or crannies such as around or behind the fuse that is left in. That is why I like to use heat (but not too much heat as you do not want to ignite the powder). By removing the sulfur you have changed the compound and the new compound is not volatile. Sometimes you can hear the case shot balls rolling around inside, when this happens you know you have truly emptied the chamber. But in any case if enough water was allowed so soak into the powder, and it was heated, anything left should not be volatile.

Some suggestions have been made that black powder gets more volatile with time. I can find no evidence of this. Black powder is unstable, which means it oxidizes easily or reacts with other chemicals easily. Any oxidation you get, any combination with anything else, and the mixture simply changes, it isn't black powder any more. Once it turns into something else, it can only get less volatile, not more volatile. It is not at all like some modern explosives or those caches of mustard gas in Europe, where any movement will set the thing off. Civil War shells have survived being thrown out of buildings, car crashes, and all kinds of other accidents. Maybe I missed it, but I have not heard of one single case of a shell simply going off without some external stimulus. Ever!! All of these accidents have occurred when they were being drilled to make them safe. That is the irony of it, leave them alone is probably the safest thing to do, disarming them is the hazard. But they do need to be disarmed, it is bad business to ship an armed shell or to have one in a burning house. Even the burning though, if you have ever watched a building burn, there are many explosions, I am not sure an exploding shell is really going to be the biggest boom in a burning house.

Click here for a more complete technical description of black powder (prepared by Dr. Michael A Rosen)

It is also bad business to drill into the fuses, although sometimes you have to. A wood time fuse is ok, for the reason that there is probably not much of the fuse left anyway , and you will lose most of it in electrolysis. A wood time fuse also has maximum exposure to water. My experience with shells with wood time fuses is that you mostly get white oxidized powder near the fuse, then brown powder (which is contaminated powder) and sometimes black powder in the bottom. You don't know what kind of powder you have so assume the worse.

For Bormann fused shells, or percussion fused shells, you don't want to be anywhere near the fuse. The only practical way to disarm them (we are not defusing, we are disarming) is to either drill through the bottom or side or both. It will flush cleaner if you make two holes, but if you only make one, make it in the bottom.

It is tempting to cover up holes, but is bad practice to do so. I have drilled many shells only to find an empty cavity because somebody either put a fuse into a shell after it was empty or plugged the hole. My policy to sell a shell, is I certify the shell inert. This means I have to see the hole and be able to probe inside to know it is inert. Somebody merely telling me it is inert is not good enough. So I have drilled many holes in otherwise pristine shells, just to be able to prove it is inert. If you can't see it then you don't know.

Any percussion fuses you don't want to mess with. There are moving parts inside of some of them, that will defeat your drilling, and will create a major hazard to the safety of the process. The idea of a percussion fuse was it would detonate by impact and deliver a spark into the chamber. So there is very serious risk of creating a spark by trying to drill through a percussion fuse. Percussion fuses are also the more interesting fuses, historically speaking, so I see no benefit whatsoever to damage a percussion fuse.

Hotchkiss shells require a special consideration. Hotchkiss is a three part shell, the nose containing the explosive charge, the base, and the lead sabot joining the two. Within the nose, there is an upper and a lower powder chamber. The two chambers are separated by a round iron disc plug. The plug has a small hole in it, theoretically the bursting charge would pass through this hole and detonate both chambers. Hotchkiss is most commonly drilled through the paper time fuse, but it takes a long drill bit to get into the lower chamber. Often I see Hotchkiss that are not drilled into the lower chamber. To test it you need a poker, (I use a coat hanger), see how far into it you can probe. The probe should go about an inch below the top part or rounded part of the nose. Poke it, mark it, then hold the poker outside the shell to see how deep you really went. The bottom of the charge will be part way into the area where the sabot lies. The rest below that is the solid cast bottom which is a couple of inches from the bottom and that part need not be worried about.

Some Hotchkiss noses have holes in the bottom. When they were cast a rod was fitted through the nose and the bottom, then once cast, the rod removed and a metal plug driven into the bottom. This was so the core would hold steady during casting. This metal plug was a point of weakness, I have seen quite a few noses where the bottom was simply blown out leaving the rest of the shell intact but empty. The bottom is often rusted over, but if you have this then the simplest way to disarm is simply to drill through the rust in the hole and then it easily flushes.

Confederate side loaders also present a special challenge. The idea of the side loaders was that it was a way for iron balls to be used inside. Federal shells usually employ lead case shot, Confederate side loaders have iron case shot inside. Once inside, you simply drill through the lead balls to get deeper into the cavity. The problem with iron balls is two fold. But for hard iron balls you can't do this. Unless you are lucky enough to hit an iron ball dead center, the bit will deviate, it will jam and it could spark. So the only solution I can see is to drill a Confederate side loader through the paper time fuse. This assures that the drilling will at least enter the chamber in the clear, so that the powder can be flushed.

Tice time fused shells present another special problem, which I won't get into here. These are rare shells, and I have only been privileged to have one and it was empty. These were multi- directional percussion fused shells, that is why they are so tricky, so if you get into one of these, definitely call an expert.

To reiterate, the above was to educate. I do not recommend that you try to do disarm a shell, take it to an expert to get it disarmed. I describe the process above so that people will know what to look for to see if a shell is disarmed or not.

It is simple to tell if a shell is disarmed or not. This is where I feel the DOD acted irresponsibly when they destroyed Lawrence Christopher's collection after his accident. First a sold shot ball or bolt is just that, a solid piece of cast iron. There never will be any danger with one of them. How do you tell? Look at it, if there is not a fuse hole then there is no chamber inside, period. Look in one of the books, no Civil War shell was ever made without a fuse hole if it had a chamber. Later ordnance got more sophisticated but not Civil War.

Second, if a fuse is missing, and the fuse hole is wide open, duh, look inside. If there is nothing there then there is nothing there.

Third, if a shell is fused, look for a hole. If you find a hole, poke a coat hanger inside. If the poker goes into the hole, it is disarmed. If you have doubts then put some water inside, even if there is powder, any water renders them inert.

Somebody please tell me why the supposed "professionals" at the DOD could not figure this out when they destroyed Lawrence Christopher's collection? They claimed "public danger". Where was the public danger on a solid cast ball? Where was the public danger on any of the shells that were empty or drilled? If they actually thought that there was public danger, then why were they so reckless as to seize the shells, transport them on public highways to detonate them. This is reckless disregard for the public safety. Or was this merely a scheme to steal the shells?

For more information, here is a link to Jack Melton's page in which he reproduced a DOD publication discussing how to safely disarm a shell. Maybe somebody from the DOD will be inspired to read it??????:
CIVIL WAR EXPLOSIVE ORDNANCE, 1861-1865, 16 June 1972, U.S. Naval School, Explosive Ordnance Disposal, U.S. Naval Ordnance Station, Indian Head, Maryland

Restoration examples, before and after:

A0291 12 pounder smoothbore, Bormann fuse

Before restoration
After Restoration

This 12 pounder Bormann ball looked to be in horrible shape. It was recovered from the Savannah River which could either have been brackish or fresh. It was fresh. I was told that the fuse had fallen out of the shell, because these shells were left outside for an extended period of time, 15 or more years. However note the major build up of scale in the fuse hole. If the fuse had deteriorated and crumbled out after recovery from the river, then you would expect to have less scale in the hole and more scale on the outer surface. This is the opposite. Upon cleaning the fuse hole was sharp, threads were fully intact. Upon cleaning I further discovered that the fuse hole is not completely round!. And there is a major mold seam around the middle and there are major air bubbles in the casting, not shown in this picture. So I conclude there never was a fuse in this shell, they couldn't screw it in because of the irregular shape of the hole! And look at the metal, this is as slick as they come. The resultant exposed mold seam and casting bubbles, (bubbles in the casting do not come from ground action) strongly indicates this is a Confederate shell. It restored very nicely and yielded a very pleasant surprise.

A0293 12 pounder smoothbore, Bormann fuse
Before restoration
After Restoration

This one came from the same Savannah River cache and was the worst of the lot. Note the dark spots on the raw shell, did turn into pit holes on restoration, but the metal was otherwise stable and once cleaned and coated they are not distracting. It is important to remove all the rust on a shell, and then paint it to prevent further oxidation. The paint merely seals it. I use clear polyurethane which works as an effective seal. This shell will rust no further.

A0290 6 pounder smoothbore, Bormann fuse
Before restoration
After Restoration

In addition to major flaking of the metal, the fuse on this six pounder looked like it was ready to crumble. All I did to the fuse was a very light brushing with a toothbrush, then painted it and the metal once the metal was cleaned. Again there are a few pit holes but they are not distracting and you can now see some of the time marks on the fuse.

A0263 Read shell - CSA 3 inch rifle
Before restoration
After Restoration
This tall read was found hanging from a gate. It was filled with concrete and had a bar stuck in it, and was "functioning" as a gate pull! Remember this was junk once. So it was in the worst condition, exposed for probably 75 years to weather. At one point it had been painted white, to match the gate no doubt. When I first recovered it I removed the rod and crud inside, and figured the copper time fuse was simply missing. Not so, restoration revealed that it was cast with a tapered smooth hole for a wooden time fuse. So not only did the metal turn out to be nearly slick, there are no missing parts.

A0322 Parrott shell 3.67 inch for 20 pounder
Before restoration
After Restoration

This 20 pounder Parrott, showed major flaking with lots of rust bubbles. It was buried in decent ground and came out in good shape. The fuse is missing, but threads sufficiently in tact, a replacement fuse could be installed.

A0342 12 pounder ball
Before restoration
After restoration

Here is a classic. I bought this shell from an experienced collector who has had at least a thousand shells pass through his hands. And I am no slouch either! Both of us thought it was a solid twelve pounder, with a rust burr. Well the rust burr turned out the be a wooden time fuse for a Confederate 12 pound polygonal cavity shell. So here was a case of significant misidentification until the shell was properly cleaned!

The process I use to restore shells is briefly described as follows:

Electrolysis via a battery charger:

You need the following equipment: A cheap battery charger but one with a amp gauge, set of battery jump cables, a rubber tub, industrial eye protection, heavy duty rubber gloves with no holes, water, caustic (sodium hydroxide) and a place outside. Caution: Your electrolysis shop must be safely away from children, pets and your neighbors. It also helps to have an understanding and tolerant spouse. Electrolysis will go much easier if you are careful to remember birthdays, wedding anniversaries etc.

Safety precaution. It is a dirty process and the chemicals you are using are extremely caustic. You need to have a hose near by fully turned on and operating any time you are near the contraption. If you get even small amounts of caustic on your skin or eyes or swallow it, it can be very deadly. If you do splatter yourself, first and very quickly you need to thoroughly rinse. Do this absolutely first and quickly. Then get immediate medical treatment.

Follow these steps:

1. Fill the tub with water.

2. Attach the jump cables to your charger. The reason you need the cables is that you will chew up cables like crazy and so you need to keep the charger as far away from the contraption as possible.

3. "Charge" the solution with caustic. Draino is a commercial product that will do the job although it will take a good bit of it. If you are running say a 5 gallon tub, (it should be a minimum of 5 gallons) it will probably take a full can to charge the solution and may take two cans.

4. Attach the negative charge to the artillery shell (or other iron relic) and attach the positive charge to a piece of junk. The piece of junk can be anything but should preferably be another piece of iron. It will very quickly be eaten up so be careful not to get this backwards and do not use a relic. The iron needs to be disposable.

5. Turn the charger on but be very careful not to run more amperage than the charger is rated for. You actually have the two ends in a water bath so electricity is passing back and forth. Do not stick your hand in the water while this is going on. If the amperage is too high, you need to either dilute the solution with more water, move the relic further away from the junk piece (this is why your container needs to be larger rather than smaller. Gases will be discharged from the solution when it is working properly and it will froth up. The gasses are hydrogen and oxygen. Water is constantly being separated into its elemental states, hence you get oxygen coming off the positive and hydrogen off the negative. The froth is the hydroxide being stirred up and it is nasty, and will coat any and everything near it with a nasty mean coating, hence this gig needs to be outside.

6. From time to time you will need to add more hydroxide (Draino) It is not technically consumed but it is discharged with the gasses in the frothing and it attaches to the relic and so it does need to be replenished. What is going on chemically is an "oxidation" process is occurring on the junk end and a "reduction" process is occurring with your relic. You need to run the process at least 24 hours, a week or two weeks is even better. It is also better to run at low amperage (say 1 or 2 versus the 8 or 10 maximum that your charger is probably rated for.

7. Once the process has run its course, the orange or red rust will now be black, gooey and ugly. Now you must move quickly. Wait a half an hour and you have waited too long. Pull the object and wire brush the iron very quickly. Most of it will come off but you do have to brush it to remove it. I find that this process has to be repeated at least two or three times to get the rust sufficiently soft to remove it. When you wire brush plan on getting extremely dirty. It is best to do this cleaning when you spouse is out with the girls and not available to supervise the process.

8. On final cleaning, thoroughly wash and hand brush the relic. You must get all, and I mean all of the caustic removed. And you must do all of this within 30 minutes of pulling it from the solution, as the black weakened oxide will very quickly turn orange again and it will do it before your very eyes.

9. After it is cleaned and carefully and thoroughly dried, you need to coat it with something. Some people use wax, tung or other oils. I prefer clear polyurethane spray paint. I apply a dozen or so light coats.

10. If you do not like the way it turned out, or if you disapprove of somebody else's restoration, the solution is very simple. If you put a painted or otherwise improperly restored shell in the solution, the paint will flake off in a very short time, (just an hour or two). Just skip the brushing step, and set the shell out. It will revert to the fully rusted state within 30 days, often shorter. Some people tell me they prefer the relic to be "original" and "rusted". Not in my collection, but if you want it that way it is much easier to "re- rust" a shell than to clean it. In fact if you put it in the electrolysis on the wrong connection, you can have it orange and ugly before the afternoon is done!

Alternative zinc and lye process

Some collectors say this is an alternative to electrolysis. My chemical engineer friends vigorously disagree, this is electrolysis done a different way. But of course diggers know more than engineers so call it what you want.

It is in fact more simple but is not any less dirty.

In a much smaller tub, actually a gallon milk container is ideal, set up a very concentrated solution consisting of the caustic (Draino) a piece of raw zinc, water, and the relic. Gases should start to flow, (hydrogen and oxygen again) . to stop it simply remove the metals, (the zinc and the relic). A good source of zinc are those jar lids that seem to be abundant in modern trash pits. Once you run out of them you need some other source of zinc, which could be challenging. Plan on buying Draino by the case as you will need a lot of it.

However, I do not recommend that you use this "zinc and lye" process on any artillery shells with lead sabots, (Hotchkiss, Britten, Dyer etc), or zinc fuses, (Parrott time fuses etc). Almost all lead contains some percentage of zinc. Zinc is the metal that is oxidized (it disappears) in this process. So while this process will reduce and remove the iron oxide, it eats up zinc and will destroy your pretty Parrott fuse or Hotchkiss lead sabot. The British shells are the worst, the Brittens and Armstrongs contain a high percentage of zinc.

Follow the same safety precaution above. Eventually your relic will turn black and the same dirty cleaning begins.

Conclusion

The cleaning can be done by amateurs provided you follow the safety warning carefully and without failure. Just mess up once and there may not be a second chance. However it is dirty beyond your wildest imagination. So if you have just a couple of relics, it ain't worth it. This is why I clean and coat most of the shells I sell for you, so you don't have to go through all this crap. However if you are as fanatic as I am, have at it. I have now restored over 400 cannon shells, and as I write this I am staring at another 75 that are stacked on the floor beside me just waiting for me to find the time to work on them.

Want more information on preservation of shells? There is a good discussion of it in the Dickey George book on Field Artillery:

BK004 Field Artillery Projectiles of the American Civil War
Revised and Supplemented 1993 Edition
by Thomas S. Dickey and Peter C. George.
This massive study encompasses all of the known field artillery shells of the American Civil War. This book is out of print and is not likely to be reprinted. The author documents many post war and reproductions as an added service to the collector. A must reference source for the artillery collector.
Hardbound, over 500 pages fully illustrated . Sorry book is not available

BK011 Guide to Civil War Artillery Projectiles
by Jack W. Melton & Lawrence E. Pawl.
This concise pictorial study belongs of the shelf of every artillery enthusiast. Hundreds of crisp photographs and a wealth of rich, well researched information.
Softbound, 96 pages fully illustrated

BK016 Artillery Fuses of the Civil War
by Charles H. Jones, photography by Mike O'Donnell
This is the first truly comprehensive book on Civil war fuses. Book contains illustrations of every Confederate and Federal fuse now known and is a labor that has taken 10+ years to put together. Whether you collect fuses or not, this book explains how artillery and fuses were combined to develop the artillery that became so deadly during the American Civil War.
Hardbound , 167 pages fully illustrated

[Additional information on black powder]

[Back to Artillery main page]

[Back to Home Page]