My personal experience has been that barnacles will "pop" off with some
applied pressure by something such as a dull table knife.  No bleach or
chemicals required.

Sylvia Edwards
Huntsville

----- Original Message -----
From: "Andrew Grebneff" <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, May 12, 2004 3:20 AM
Subject: Re: Cleaning a shell


I too like to have au naturel as well as cleaned specimens.

Bleach (sodium hypochlorite solution) will remove the periostracum as
well as loosening some (not all!) species of balanomorph (acorn)
barnacles.

However it will not damage inductura (glaze) in apertures & Cypraea
dorsum, so no need to coat.

Note that glycerine will attract acids if the shell is kept in an oak
or particleboard (MDF etc) cabinet... I have gone back to using
liquid paraffin on organic parts, as I have had several specimens
coated with glycerine severely acid-damaged.
--
Andrew Grebneff
Dunedin
New Zealand
<[log in to unmask]>
Seashell, Macintosh, VW/Toyota van nut

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