Help restoring/cleaning military medals

navycop · Post by **navycop** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 6:51 pm

heathicus, maybe you can order new metals for the case and build a little storage underneath (I'm sure someone can give you plans). Place the original metals in this drawer (so dad can look and maybe touch them). Then every one else can look at the new medals in the case. This way there won't be a lot of handling of the medals-unless your father wants them too.

tsaguy · Post by **tsaguy** » Sat Nov 21, 2009 8:23 am

Heathicus-

From one Marine to son of a Marine,

May I suggest:

http://www.grunt.com

website caters to all things Marine. Please don't disassemble the ribbon bar to disassemble, it will never get back together and the ribbon may fall apart. Order new if you wish, I think for presentation it may be better than to clean the older stuff.

Newer medals come anodized and clean up nicely with windex. Older medals need Brasso, and constant cleaning at that to maintain thier appearance.

If you need help ordering this or making sense of the ribbons, PM me or even contact Sgt Grit's staff at http://www.grunt.com. They are very helpful and very much 'take care of thier own'.

Regards-

Tsaguy

dlbristol · Post by **dlbristol** » Sat Nov 21, 2009 10:42 am

I have enjoyed this thread for several reasons. Mostly it is gratifying to see a son showing this respect and care for his Dad, and to know that after all these years Dad is proud to "be a Marine"! (AS HE SHOULD BE). I don't know if you know the medals or not, they are Left to right. National defense medal, Vietnam service medal and Republic of Vietnam Campaign medal. The star can mean several things, so if you want to know about that, you will need to get the DD214 or other records to know for sure. The jump wings appear to be identical to my army jump wings. I know the marines took jump training with the army guys at Ft Benning at least. There were several in my jump class. They took a fair amount of abuse from the instructors for being marines, but so did the rest of us for lots of other reasons.

roy_okc · Post by **roy_okc** » Sat Nov 21, 2009 11:56 am

I would also agree with others that you should ask your dad what his preferences are, especially for the ribbons. He may have sentimental reasons for wanting those particular ribbons or he might like a new set that may include other ribbons that he earned but you don't have (basic training, longevity, good conduct, etc.)--need to look at his DD214 discharge papers.

I've bought from the Ultrathin company, https://www.ultrathin.com/index.htm, for my personal ribbons before I retired. They also are great looking for display cases, plus they make sure they are arranged in the correct order of precedence.

I, for one, would like to see pictures of the finished case.

Roy

beeg · Post by **beeg** » Sat Nov 21, 2009 2:15 pm

How about all new medals for the display and have the old ones for if and when he wants to touch them.

navycop · Post by **navycop** » Sat Nov 21, 2009 7:07 pm

beeg wrote:How about all new medals for the display and have the old ones for if and when he wants to touch them.

That's what I said..(see post #20).

JPG · Post by **JPG** » Sat Nov 21, 2009 8:24 pm

mickyd wrote:Hey qtndas01....https://forum.shopsmith.com/viewtopic.php?t=3464

The "enforcer" strikes again!:D Hes getting more subtle and gentler with ag...time!

heathicus · Post by **heathicus** » Sat Nov 21, 2009 11:32 pm

Thanks again to everyone for all of the suggestions. They mean a lot to me. I'm going to spend the next week pondering and planning (and listening to any other suggestions) and hopefully start construction next weekend. Right now I am leaning toward a display case with storage. Present the case with the original medals displayed but give dad the option of having them replaced (and completed) with new medals and keep the originals in the storage area. But my feeling is that if it were done for him, he would really appreciate it, but he wouldn't do it on his own. I also don't want to get more complicated with the design than I can handle.

I've still got to give it a lot of thought, but I will provide updates and pictures.

horologist · Post by **horologist** » Sun Nov 22, 2009 1:50 am

Heath,

Odd coincidence. Cathy an I are framing her dad's medals as well.
For long term storage you probably need to do something about that corrosion. As others have said you should talk this over with your dad. Looking at our ribbons I'm not sure they can be disassembled without ruining them and any attempt to remove the rust with something like evapo rust may stain the fabric. For the rest, based on the green corrosion I expect the marksman medals are plated brass. It may be sufficient to remove the loose corrosion with a soft brass bristle brush and coat them with wax. The metal underneath will be discolored and polishing will likely make matters worse. I suppose you could clean, repolish, and replate them but I think the results would look too artificial.

Our frame is made from extruded aluminum, the backing is acid free foam board that will be covered with velvet.

Troy

horologist · Post by **horologist** » Sat Nov 28, 2009 4:31 pm

Heath,

Some additional points.
You want to make your frame from a wood that is not too acidic or you may have damage from long term storage. Oak would be a poor choice. I once bought a cartridge collection that had been stored in an oak cabinet, many of them had bullets that were heavily oxidized.

Also, I'm not too thrilled with brasso. It collects in nooks and crannies and forms a crusty residue that is hard to clean out and can cause heavy corrosion in these areas. I have restored numerous brass clock dials that had such damage and have had better results with simichrome.

I like your design for the frame and hope this isn't how you injured your hand.

We used extruded aluminum framing material from a local craft store ( I know, the easy way out.) and acid free foam board with black velvet for the back. Fine copper beading wire works well to tie down the items that don't have pin backs.

Troy

Our frame:
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