Shark Pit Bottles Tumbled, Cut & Cleaned! Have a look!

[rtde3]

I thought you guys might like to see what I've been having done with some of the bottles I've found at the Shark Pit. I have sent some of them to a guy named Rick Kern in PA. to have them tumbled,cleaned & cut if necessary. Here is his website http://www.bottletumbling.com   I just received some of them back from Rick & I think they came out pretty good! I have tried to clean some of these myself with a baby bottle cleaning brush and soaking them in vinegar. That works good for most bottles I find out in the woods with just heavy dirt on them. But not on the bottles I find in the water at The Pit. So I was looking for a better way when I came across his website & decided to give him a try. What it does for my bottles is removes the frosty haze these bottles get from rolling around on sand & shells for 75 - 100 years! It does not get all the deep chips & scratches out & if you have to cut a bottle it does take away some of the small detail. But it does give it back a nice shine that makes it look more like it did when it was new all those years ago. And it gets them clean in the hard to get to parts inside the bottle. Now I know some true bottle collector & dealers might not approve of this type of cleaning but I don't care. I will not be trying to sell these. These will just be part of a new big display I am working on for all my Shark Pit finds. I am not having all of the 117 bottles I have found at the Pit done. Just some of the better ones. I will also put some of the bottles that I don't have cleaned in the display to show how they look when I first pull them up. It is a little pricey but Rick will give you a price break if you are having more than 1 or 2 done. Here are some pics. of the bottles I have had done so far next to similar bottles that have not been done yet. Also pictured is a book by the Potomac bottle club that is an outstanding reference & price guide. It has helped me a lot because this is just for bottles from the Washington D.C & northern VA.area. Most of my bottles are from that area. I do wish it covered more of the northern areas like Balt. & Philly though.
For All your Questions about The Shark Pit Click here.
http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,42179.0.html

[DCMatt]

Wow!  Amazing results!

DCMatt

[Night Stalker]

Nice clean-up job on the bottles, they look real good!


Great Finds!

[Green1]

cool,, i see budwieser.......

[buscadero]

 RT:  Though I'm not personally involved in Bottles, What you have done & had done is both interesting & probably historically important.
        Nice going & beautiful results!  

                          HH                              Joe

[DiggingFl]

Wow he really gets great results.     Nice bottles RT.

[SHERMANVILLE ILLINOIS]

Rtde,

so you pulled 117 bottles out of the Pit,
that is outstanding.

The ones you are having cleaned look
nice.

Hope your display turns out the way
you want. 

have a good un..........

[The Gemologist]

Always nice to see something different.  Keep up the good work.

[Bobby S]

Very kool

[99Brown]

They turned out great.  I really like the old beer bottles. Especially the pabst ones you had. Thanks for sharing.

99Brown

[TreasureTales]

Great bottles.  Nice job of cleaning them.  Way to go!!

As far as cleaning them yourself, have you ever tried products like CLR (which stands for Calcium, Lime, Rust)?  I use this stuff on some of my bottles.  It often takes multiple applications, but it works pretty well for removing some of the gunk that adheres to bottles. 
Plus, you can read the posts/threads on the Bottle Forum section of TreasureNet and see other suggestions.  I only bring this up because I personally don't like to wait to see the results, I'm too impatient, so I like to clean them myself as soon as I get home. 

[civilman1]

Nice clean-up rtde3....Born in D.C. and raised in Montgomery Co. for 39 yr's.been finding some nice old bottle's myself in about 1/2 dz. dump's....Just getting into it,some are worth something to someone!!Wish I could ID them all,but what do you mean by "cut" ?....Thank's

[Postalrevnant]

That is really awesome.  Looks like a great job on cleaning them bottles up.  Great find.

How do the coins..etc...come out?  Are the coins always too tore up after electrolysis to be anything more than silver value, or do you get some that turn out to be gradeable?  Even if the grade is poor / fair.

Thanks in advance.  And Congratulations on the bottles.  That spot is book worthy in my opinion. 

Just out of curiosity how many articles have you had in magazines over the finds from that spot?

Postalrevnant

[rtde3]

Thanks everyone for all the replies!

Rtde,
so you pulled 117 bottles out of the Pit,
that is outstanding.
The ones you are having cleaned look
nice.
Hope your display turns out the way
you want. 
have a good un..........

Thanks Sherm! Yep, Over the past two years I have pulled 117 bottles out of the Pit! For anyone that would like see them all, click here http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,42179.0.html  & then click on the links to the "Best Of The Shark Pit" parts 1-4.

They turned out great.  I really like the old beer bottles. Especially the Pabst ones you had. Thanks for sharing.
99Brown

Hey Brown, I am having all the Pabst bottles done! One of the Pabst that has been done is pictured here.

Great bottles.  Nice job of cleaning them.  Way to go!!
As far as cleaning them yourself, have you ever tried products like CLR (which stands for Calcium, Lime, Rust)?  I use this stuff on some of my bottles.  It often takes multiple applications, but it works pretty well for removing some of the gunk that adheres to bottles. 
Plus, you can read the posts/threads on the Bottle Forum section of TreasureNet and see other suggestions.  I only bring this up because I personally don't like to wait to see the results, I'm too impatient, so I like to clean them myself as soon as I get home. 

Thanks, I will try that!

Nice clean-up rtde3....Born in D.C. and raised in Montgomery Co. for 39 yr's.been finding some nice old bottle's myself in about 1/2 dz. dump's....Just getting into it,some are worth something to someone!!Wish I could ID them all,but what do you mean by "cut" ?....Thank's

Hey Civilman, I think he cuts the bottles by using an aggressive bead in the tumbler to take off the top layer of glass & then comes back with a softer polishing bead to make them shine.  If you would like to get a copy of the price guide book to look up some of your bottles email  Andy Goldfrank at amg_sticky@yahoo.com. It cost $24.05 ($20 for the book + $4.05 for shipping)

That is really awesome.  Looks like a great job on cleaning them bottles up.  Great find.
How do the coins..etc...come out?  Are the coins always too tore up after electrolysis to be anything more than silver value, or do you get some that turn out to be gradeable?  Even if the grade is poor / fair.
Thanks in advance.  And Congratulations on the bottles.  That spot is book worthy in my opinion.
Just out of curiosity how many articles have you had in magazines over the finds from that spot?
Postalrevnant

Most of the time the coins just come out good enough to see what the were. Never good enough to grade.
You can see some of the electrolysis expirements that have been done on the cookie coins listed here. Just look for those links when you go to this link http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,42179.0.html
I have never been in any magazine articles about this spot.
Thanks , Rob

[Mirage]

Those are neat.  It's great also to have a book that tells about them.  Makes it all the more enjoyable.

I didn't get to do the cookie contest this year.   Been a little too busy and I would have had to put too much thought into it.  Not that it would have done me any good. 

Bob

[rtde3]

Those are neat.  It's great also to have a book that tells about them.  Makes it all the more enjoyable.
I didn't get to do the cookie contest this year.   Been a little too busy and I would have had to put too much thought into it.  Not that it would have done me any good. 
Bob

Thanks Bob! The contest still open untill Sat. if you change your mind!
http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,57145.0.html

[allen]

they look better now after the crud is off of them....

[mchamby]

Wow that does really make them shine again,
HH
Mchamby