Dear George, having read your "diatribe" (sorry for my poor English) abour borrowing fin e arts terminology and misusing it, cost and lack of talent (unless I misre ad you in which case, sorry) affecting choice of "restoration extent", and although I don't have a Master in anything (was too busy working when I was young), I would point out the following: in archeology, the first step is stabilization. This can run from isolation from oxygen by means of protecti ve coating, to chemical neutralization or destruction of corrosive or destr uctive elements of any nature. Various stages of restoration are available and used, from partial abrasion to total stripping back to bare metal. Muse um curators generally like shiney artefacts (note: "generally"). Collectors insist on patina: removing a stable green patina from a roman coin will de tract froms it's value by 90% +
In the case of the bike I saw shown, obviously any powdery surface rust wil l not be left on: the correct and well tried technique for bike stabilizati on is to rub in liberal amounts of light oil such as 3 in 1, then burnish. This will prevent any further deterioration. Further, more radical steps su ch as abrading away peeling chrome mean a lot of hard work to maintain non- corroded condition, but are used, as is partial paint restoration (eg, touc hing in the larger areas of missing paint).
Anyhow, my point is that there are three steps in bicycle "conservation": s tabilization, conservation or preservation, and finally, full restoration ( conservation and preservation being partial restorations, and restoration m eaning the removal or addition - of corrosion, chrome, paint or else.
King regards Nick March, Agen, 47000, France
Date: Thu, 17 Jul 2008 01:14:50 +0000 (GMT) From: gholl@optonline.net To: Classic Rendezvous <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org> Subject: [CR]Principles and Terminology in Vintage Steel Bike Collecting Message-ID: <e45bf7d132437.487e9d0a@optonline.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT Precedence: list Message: 4
It seems to me that out hobby is still so new that, as yet, there is little agreement on terminology or even on the principles of what constitutes a d esirable vintage bike. Some attempt to borrow (incorrectly) terminology and therefore ideas, from the fine arts and antiques fields and apply them to vintage bikes. One of these terms is "patina". Patina is a film formed on bronze or copper by treatment with acids or exposure to the elements over time. By analogy it also refers to a surface mellowing with age or use. To apply this termin ology to steel bikes' rust and corrosion is specious and incorrect. In the field of fine arts and antiques, damage, such as by mildew, parasites, "fo xing", etc., is not patina-it's simply damage. Rust is damage. In fact, if a rusted bike is left alone, the damage will progress and, eventually, whe re ferrous metals are involved, only rust will remain. Some collectors wou ld like to make vice into virtue by claiming their rusted and damaged bikes are in a more "natural" state, etc., but, in reality, and for a variety of reasons, they lack the will or means to perform the proper repairs (or ha ve others do them), and would have the world believe that their damaged bik es have "patina". In time, however, they will have nothing. In my opinion, the repair of each bike should be individualized-severe dama ge will require drastic means and slight damage only the mildest of remedie s. Naturally, the more drastic the repair, the greater the talent needed to effect it, and, in most cases, the greater the cost. Each collector must s omehow titrate the value of a damaged bike (which might be subjective in so me cases, but not all) against the extent and cost of repair. George George Hollenberg MD CT, USA
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