[orionsbell]

I have a collection of cloisonne pins manufactured in 1990 that are coated with clear epoxy.

The epoxy has yellowed on most of them and I would like to try removing and then possibly replacing the epoxy.

Can anyone advise me on a relatively safe solvent I can use? That will work?

The yellowing seems to be a combo of age/exposure/and contact with other pins where the yellow tint of the metal has leached.

Took Chem and O-Chem at Berkeley, but it's been 25+ years...

Jim

[rjb]

Jim,

From what I gather, epoxy coatings tend to be a bit of a nightmare to remove. Maybe overkill, but a lot of people seem to recommend Dichloromethane (Methylene Chloride) as a suitable solvent, but it does have its risks. You could try acetone or Xylene initially, but I'm not sure that either will really do the trick. Consider also heat as a possible removal strategy... ~200C, should weaken the epoxy, possibly making removal a little easier...

The problem you might have, whatever method you use, is, from what I understand about Cloisonne pins (and I freely admit until I googled them earlier I'd never heard of them), they come in a couple types; one with the coloured material made of glass, which would obviously be unaffected by both heat or solvent and the other type with epoxy/enamel colouring which would be affected by your coating removal!

Kind Regards

R