Golden Kite

[alex82]

So again thank you for all your help! I just cleaned the medal with some soap-water and surprise the two hafts are getting brighter than the rest of the medal! They are not quiet silver but they are clearly brighter than the rest. I never cleaned any of my medals before, I always thought let them age in peace I mean this thing is about 100 years old it deserves to look aged. But I'm also happy with the result. I don't want to rub any more soap on my medal so this should be enough to let me sleep ok again. And there Is also the case of a old 6th class kite which the medal came with.

I'm still curious about regilded medals, does anyone have or have seen 7th class medals treated that way? Or does anyone have pictures of a regilded medal which originally was a 7th class? And why should someone do this?

I also googeld TARN-X and found a lot of controversial information about this product, good and very bad ones.

a l e x

[Paul L Murphy]

So again thank you for all your help! I just cleaned the medal with some soap-water and surprise the two hafts are getting brighter than the rest of the medal! They are not quiet silver but they are clearly brighter than the rest. I never cleaned any of my medals before, I always thought let them age in peace I mean this thing is about 100 years old it deserves to look aged. But I'm also happy with the result. I don't want to rub any more soap on my medal so this should be enough to let me sleep ok again. And there Is also the case of a old 6th class kite which the medal came with.

I'm still curious about regilded medals, does anyone have or have seen 7th class medals treated that way? Or does anyone have pictures of a regilded medal which originally was a 7th class? And why should someone do this?

I also googeld TARN-X and found a lot of controversial information about this product, good and very bad ones.

a l e x

I have seen regilded 7th class medals for sale in Japan (about twice from memory). They look very much like the first photo you posted in this thread, too uniform and the hilts are gilded over. The reason it is done is simple, profit. In Japan the 6th class medals sell for about 2.5 - 3 times the price of a 7th class.

[alex82]

So here is the Kite after cleaning…

The hilts are still goldish but closer to silver than the rest of the medal.

It's a shame that people simply gilde 7th class medals to make them look like 6th class! I will for sure keep that in mind when I visit Japan next year!

cheers

a l e x

[Paul L Murphy]

A lovely piece. I love a story with a happy ending :cheers:

[Tim B]

Congrats Alex!

That's more what I would expect the medal to look like; can't believe the tips toned that much, but it looks correct in the last PIC.

Happy it turned out well for you and the earlier Meiji ones are hard to find in 6th class.

Tim

[alex82]

Thank you all very much this really made my day! And this was only possible with your experience and help!

:cheers: (I even tried to send more beer but the forum gave me following message: "You have posted a message with more emoticons that this board allows.Please reduce the number of emoticons you've added to the message") :D

[Dieter3]

Uh oh, emoticon rationing!!

Lookin' good on that medal Alex!! :D