Cleaning ribbons

[DCLI]

Lots of words have been written about cleaning or not cleaning medas.

What about ribbons. I have some medals, where the ribbons are in very good condition, no tears or holes, but they are very dirty - can they be cleaned?

regards

Anthony

[kingsman64]

Hi Anothy

First of all I agree with Ian you 14 Star and Bar Trio on the other thread looks the biz.

Cleaning ribbons in a word no!

The dyes used in medal ribbon certainly upto the early 60's tend not to be very colour fast, even warm water can make the colours run and modern detergents are a definate no no. So that rules out our WW1 variants. I have had a little sucess in very gentle, and I mean very gentle stroking across following the weave with a clean pencil eraser.

But this will not move very stubborn marks. If the ribbon is long enough often removing it and simply folding it the other way (put the dirt inside) can make a big visual difference.

Anyway keep your eyes peeled I am expecting a quote any day for a batch of copy silk ribbon, I am not holding my breath though as for 20,000 metres I may be in for a shock.

Regards

Paul.