# THOUGHT I was cleaning these...



## Kevin S. (Jun 29, 2021)

Hi, everyone. I thought I was cleaning my bottles which I hadn't done since I found them 20 years ago or whatever. I've learned a couple things...  1. I didn't consider how ridiculously hard the water is here, and used tap water to soak and rinse them after using Mainline Cleaner to get the gunk out. 2. I need a better bottle brushes.
Which leads me to questions... 1. Can I use CLR or something to get rid of this atrocious calcium buildup I put on these? Is there a better way to get it off? I know I should get some distilled water. I just wasn't thinking. So that for sure... any other suggestions? 2. Did I ruin these?

THANK YOU FOR ANY HELP OR DIRECTION. I've already found some very useful advice I should have followed already, here.


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## ccpe (Jun 29, 2021)

Cool ID bottles.  I'm from the Boise area.  Wish I could search there sometime but I'm stuck in FL.


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## Kevin S. (Jun 29, 2021)

ccpe said:


> Cool ID bottles.  I'm from the Boise area.  Wish I could search there sometime but I'm stuck in FL.



Thank you! I need to get out and find some more around here.  I've hunted in the Boise area, but it's been 20 years. Don't know if I could find much where I used to go. I hope YOU get to get back and explore sometime. But I'm SURE you find some great stuff in Florida.


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## ccpe (Jun 29, 2021)

Kevin S. said:


> Thank you! I need to get out and find some more around here.  I've hunted in the Boise area, but it's been 20 years. Don't know if I could find much where I used to go. I hope YOU get to get back and explore sometime. But I'm SURE you find some great stuff in Florida.


Glass is about the only that survives the swamps here.  The problem is getting though the jungle to get to them.


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## hemihampton (Jun 29, 2021)

not so sure that's from Hard Water?


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## Kevin S. (Jun 29, 2021)

hemihampton said:


> not so sure that's from Hard Water?



Yeah... I let them soak in this water for a couple of days. They didn't look like this before that. The water here does that. You should see my electric kettle. I was just being dumb.


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## hemihampton (Jun 29, 2021)

what did they look like before that? nice & clean?


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## Kevin S. (Jun 29, 2021)

hemihampton said:


> what did they look like before that? nice & clean?



Haha. No. So they were dirty, and filled with dirt, cork and stuff. I used Main Line Cleaner on them, soaking them in a bucket overnight. Then I rinsed them in the tub. They weren't cloudy. There was still dirt and residue, so I filled the bucket with water and let them soak figuring that would loosen the rest of the stuff up. But I got busy, so it was for a couple of days. Then they sat dry in the bucket for a week or so, and this film developed on them. THIS is them after I used CLR. But I didn't know how that would react, so I didn't let them soak in that for long, just brushed inside and scrubbed outside with a scrubby sponge.

But no... no film or opaque quality before.


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## Kevin S. (Jun 29, 2021)

Here's one I didn't re-clean with CLR today. This is what most looked like, some worse. But not before the water soak.


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## Kevin S. (Jun 29, 2021)

Just for clarity, this is my new spray nozzle for the garden hose...

It's been in use for about 2 months. This place kills coffee makers.


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## hemihampton (Jun 29, 2021)

I dig bottles that look like that all the time, never contributed it to hard water, but maybe my water not so hard, maybe call the Culligan man for a Water Softener? Plus, Since I have a Tumbler I can clean any bottle I come across. LEON.


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## Wildcat wrangler (Jun 30, 2021)

Kevin S. said:


> Thank you! I need to get out and find some more around here.  I've hunted in the Boise area, but it's been 20 years. Don't know if I could find much where I used to go. I hope YOU get to get back and explore sometime. But I'm SURE you find some great stuff in Florida.



Those are nice. That happened to some of mine after- mainline? The sick got sicker! So now, while shopping for a good bottle tumbler, I decided to really do some of my imaginative girl stuff-I come up with some stuff that blows everyone’s mind, while they are telling me it won’t work! I’m thinking guys think with all the rigid rules and girls think outside the box? I will mess with it till- it works. So my husband has this blue cheap vibratory shaker thing to clean bullet casings, for reloading? (Harbor freight- cheap!) I got some of those resin chips that they use for taking rust off old bolts? And Ran a few sacrificial bromoselser $1 bottles that were sick as they could get. I had heard them talking about tumbling bottles for a week so that’s what I expected. I was shocked the next day when I checked on them- because they were all nicely cleaned, but not a great shine? So I mixed into the chips some of his walnut shells, and voila! Shine too. It took all the haze, and white crap off all the other bottles too. I did go to goodwill and picked up a giant plastic bowl, drilled a hole in the middle and swapped the blue bowl that belongs with that thing, for the big opened bowl…. Then I put a funnel over the big bolt in the center (if it were mine, I’d get the bolt cutters and take it down, but this worked. I cut some hose pieces and either sliced them, if they wouldn’t go over the lip- and then duct taped it in place, to protect the bottles? Or just slipped it over the lip? With excess sticking out past the lip? Like a bumper. Placed3 bottles like that, in the same direction? So there’s a rubber bumper between each? They spun in that at the perfect speed! So I crave cleaned up a ton of bottles, pretty fast, in the last couple weeks. I need to go to Home Depot and pick up a few 2’ sections of the clear tubing that they sell, in every size they have, to make a variety of “bumpers” in different sizes. I wonder what it would do if I actually used copper or the right tumbling media in it. Anyway, girl stuff but it WORKS! (And a coffee up can be a hammer! Lol). I’m still looking for a tumbler but when I find it, ($2000 is the 1 I have my eye on- could buy a lot of gorgeous bottles for 2 grand! I’m having a hard time justifying that) I hope I’m not disappointed, because that shaker thing is pretty slick.  I think those shaker things are like $35-$40?  Total hillbilly bottle cleaning but it works.


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## Kevin S. (Jun 30, 2021)

Thanks, Wildcat! I'm not sure I want to go all in for a tumbler. And I'm not really in a position to set up a dedicated station for working on these. Don't know that I'll be gathering more bottles anytime soon. I just want to get what I have cleaned. I just never did that. In the 90s, we had people buying them as soon as we said we had some... never went through the cleaning process, I guess the buyers must have. Even the ones I've had out in my house haven't been cleaned. I'm just thinking I might sell a bunch off, so I'm gonna have to get them clean.

Thank you for your girl-ways. I appreciate all ways.    I will look into shaker thing-set-up.


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## willong (Jun 30, 2021)

Kevin S. said:


> Thanks, Wildcat! I'm not sure I want to go all in for a tumbler. And I'm not really in a position to set up a dedicated station for working on these. Don't know that I'll be gathering more bottles anytime soon. I just want to get what I have cleaned. I just never did that. In the 90s, we had people buying them as soon as we said we had some... never went through the cleaning process, I guess the buyers must have. Even the ones I've had out in my house haven't been cleaned. I'm just thinking I might sell a bunch off, so I'm gonna have to get them clean.
> 
> Thank you for your girl-ways. I appreciate all ways.    I will look into shaker thing-set-up.


Soaking in a dilute solution of Hydrochloric acid (muriatic acid) should do the trick for your needs, at least for the bottles pictured, as none of them seem "sick."

You might have to experiment a bit with solution strengths and soak times. Home Depot sells a package of two gallons 14.5% solution* for pool treatment. It sells for $11.48 here in western Washington State.

Any swimming pool supply house will have muriatic acid in stock, as will masonry supply stores (it is used for removing mortar smears and efflorescence from many masonry surfaces); and those firms should have the MSDS information on hand as well. Be sure you understand safe handling and disposal procedures before proceeding.

* I don't know if that solution strength is appropriate for your needs, but I suspect it is adequate. It is a little less than half of the 31.5% "technical grade" strenght that I have on hand, a couple ounces of which does a good job of removing lime deposits from toilet bowl.

You could also try a long soaking time in distilled white vinegar first, just to see if that mild and cheap acid will work for your purposes.


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## Kevin S. (Jun 30, 2021)

willong said:


> Soaking in a dilute solution of Hydrochloric acid (muriatic acid) should do the trick for your needs, at least for the bottles pictured, as none of them seem "sick."
> ...



THANK YOU! These are fabulous ideas. I'll check into them. Thanks again.


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## willong (Jun 30, 2021)

Kevin S. said:


> THANK YOU! These are fabulous ideas. I'll check into them. Thanks again.


 Acid treatment is an old established way of removing lime deposits. I did a fair amount of it myself, removing efflorescence from brick buildings.

If bottles are "sick" from long burial in harsh mineral, acidic or alkaline conditions, acid will still remove the lime deposits, but such naturally etched glass surfaces will remain dull-appearing. Your bottles don't look to be suffering that condition though. Moreover, cleaned but etched bottles can still be tumbled to re-polish the glass. I'd start my tests with low-value bottles just to play it safe. Before everything went plastic, Hydrochloric acid was sold in glass bottles--I believe it still is in reagent strength.

Good luck with your project. I'm sure we would all be interested in seeing "after" photos of the same bottles.

If you don't mind my asking, do you dig any of the old mining camps in your part of the country? (I always wanted to go prowling around in the vicinity of Florence, Dixie and etc.)


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## Kevin S. (Jun 30, 2021)

willong said:


> Acid treatment is an old established way of removing lime deposits. I did a fair amount of it myself, removing efflorescence from brick buildings.
> 
> If bottles are "sick" from long burial in harsh mineral, acidic or alkaline conditions, acid will still remove the lime deposits, but such naturally etched glass surfaces will remain dull-appearing. Your bottles don't look to be suffering that condition though. Moreover, cleaned but etched bottles can still be tumbled to re-polish the glass. I'd start my tests with low-value bottles just to play it safe. Before everything went plastic, Hydrochloric acid was sold in glass bottles--I believe it still is in reagent strength.
> 
> ...




Really, thank you so much. I'll be checking all this out and seeing what works the best.

I have totally been in old mining camps in the area. The majority of these bottles pictured are from White Knob, which was a camp and then a town just above Mackay, Idaho. The others in the shot are from Gem, a ghost town near Wallace, where there were mining camps, multiple little towns, and even a Calvary encampment during a miner's revolt.

I'm in S. Idaho now, so areas around Idaho Falls are where I would currently prowl. And there are plenty of camps and old boomtowns in the area.

I hope you get to explore more around here, and get to where you want to get.


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## Wildcat wrangler (Jun 30, 2021)

willong said:


> Soaking in a dilute solution of Hydrochloric acid (muriatic acid) should do the trick for your needs, at least for the bottles pictured, as none of them seem "sick."
> 
> You might have to experiment a bit with solution strengths and soak times. Home Depot sells a package of two gallons 14.5% solution* for pool treatment. It sells for $11.48 here in western Washington State.
> 
> ...



Thank you…. I have tried that- and am not above trying it again. I expected magic…. It didn’t work that way, that time. Do you soak your bottles in baking soda water after rinsing them? I heard twice as long as they were in the acid…. But it’s all is my weak spot, here! I’m dealing with hlc right now…. I was soaking the 2000ish huge crystal clusters that I found last winter, in a variety of acids…. I bought 2 ph meters, and have calibrated others for years, but these won’t calibrate for me. I think I’ll go talk to the guys at the hydroponic shop and see if they can do it, maybe…. But with the big time drought and $1000 fines (50 gallons per day per person ) I just need to neutralize about 4 big tubs of various acid and put my rocks away till we get some rain. I have put about 12 lbs baking soda in this 1/2 full bucket of muradic/hlc and it just keeps boiling! I had citric acid out there and got it to stop, and flushed that. I did put some pretty crusty bottles in each of them and had the same issue I have with the crystals…. A white powder that forms, either as soon as they are out of the baking soda water, or it might take 2 weeks, but it has to be a ph thing, right? I also have oxalic and iron out that I’ve used. It’s funny the similarities when your cleaning both crystals and bottles -cans too. Btw, citric acid works really well, too…. And it removes rust? I soaked some antique railroad lanterns in that, and it took them down to the patina only…. I’m super happy with those. It did well on bottles and rocks- but there again, that creeping powder shows up, with all of that. The only thing that fixes it on those rocks, is replete soaking, following a week or so in baking soda.
I just realized we are on the same coast.  Hot nuff for ya?!!  What area in Washington?  It’s so pretty up there.  Looking at the lake, I keep thinking about packing up my 14 cats + kittens and moving- maybe Idaho or some place that’s not Cali.  Someplace my cats are legal in!  That’s a state by state thing…

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## Wildcat wrangler (Jun 30, 2021)

Kevin S. said:


> Thanks, Wildcat! I'm not sure I want to go all in for a tumbler. And I'm not really in a position to set up a dedicated station for working on these. Don't know that I'll be gathering more bottles anytime soon. I just want to get what I have cleaned. I just never did that. In the 90s, we had people buying them as soon as we said we had some... never went through the cleaning process, I guess the buyers must have. Even the ones I've had out in my house haven't been cleaned. I'm just thinking I might sell a bunch off, so I'm gonna have to get them clean.
> 
> Thank you for your girl-ways. I appreciate all ways.  I will look into shaker thing-set-up.



Me too!!! I can’t believe how expensive they are….then theres those expensive tastes that are like a strong magnet for me, every time. But seriously, on the cheap, that shaker deal works…. I was running into not wanting to designate a big space for a tumbler. I was even talking to a guy about building one, where the motor could be under the cabinet in the garage- with the roller part made to fold up, back to the wall,when not in use? So I can have my little tiny bench space that I’ve claimed, in the garage.Hmmmm….


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## Kevin S. (Jun 30, 2021)

Wildcat wrangler said:


> Me too!!! I can’t believe how expensive they are….then theres those expensive tastes that are like a strong magnet for me, every time. But seriously, on the cheap, that shaker deal works…. I was running into not wanting to designate a big space for a tumbler. I was even talking to a guy about building one, where the motor could be under the cabinet in the garage- with the roller part made to fold up, back to the wall,when not in use? So I can have my little tiny bench space that I’ve claimed, in the garage.Hmmmm….
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk



Yeah, even that sounds like a decent investment.  And yeah, I get the space issue. I have very little space.


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## margclearlake (Jul 7, 2021)

brushes are hard to find. I like to use a baby bottle brush. has two sizes on it. I too suffer from the cloudiness. when i see sparkling clean bottles i am shamed.


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## margclearlake (Jul 7, 2021)

on the other side, when purple bottles go foggy they have beautiful colors..... just saying.


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## Kevin S. (Jul 7, 2021)

margclearlake said:


> brushes are hard to find. I like to use a baby bottle brush. has two sizes on it. I too suffer from the cloudiness. when i see sparkling clean bottles i am shamed.



I actually got a set of baby bottle brushes.    Thank you! And yeah... I like those rainbow-y purple ones, too.


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## relic rescuer (Jul 7, 2021)

Kevin S. said:


> Hi, everyone. I thought I was cleaning my bottles which I hadn't done since I found them 20 years ago or whatever. I've learned a couple things...  1. I didn't consider how ridiculously hard the water is here, and used tap water to soak and rinse them after using Mainline Cleaner to get the gunk out. 2. I need a better bottle brushes.
> Which leads me to questions... 1. Can I use CLR or something to get rid of this atrocious calcium buildup I put on these? Is there a better way to get it off? I know I should get some distilled water. I just wasn't thinking. So that for sure... any other suggestions? 2. Did I ruin these?
> 
> THANK YOU FOR ANY HELP OR DIRECTION. I've already found some very useful advice I should have followed already, here.


I have one like the brown bottle, but it is clear. Do you have any idea what was in them originally?


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## Kevin S. (Jul 7, 2021)

relic rescuer said:


> I have one like the brown bottle, but it is clear. Do you have any idea what was in them originally?



You know,  I'm not sure what they were for. I've generally labeled that kind a medicine. But thinking about it, I really don't know.


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## Wildcat wrangler (Jul 7, 2021)

Kevin S. said:


> I actually got a set of baby bottle brushes.  Thank you! And yeah... I like those rainbow-y purple ones, too.



Brushes…. My problem is finding a brush that will work in those teeny tiny necks but still reach to the bottom of the tall bottle, because I guess that very tall bottles with such tiny necks were a thing then- (they didn’t have to clean them?!) then the shoulders are square so u need something that can bend as well as be strong enough to scrub with, without breaking that teeny tiny neck! Has anyone found anything like that? I am working on a design I thought up- someone should make this: a flexible (more flexible than this in the pix- and maybe have a soft silicone sleeve over the Metal part so you don’t scratch your bottle)-small, say 5-6mm max, over all- in width, yet a couple feet long) with a cylinder shaped extremely strong magnet (n52 neodymium rare earth magnet) on the end, and the magnet could be 1-2” long but no more than 5-6mm thru, as to fit thru that neck? That u could put pieces of steel wool into your dirty bottle and slide your magnet tool too into it too- steel wool will jump on it- you need enough steel wool to just blanket the magnet as to not scratch the glass- and scrub away! You might have to remove the steel wool part at a time, to fit thru the neck, but that would work…. 
If someone makes that let me know where I can buy one!
	

	
	
		
		

		
			






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## Kevin S. (Jul 7, 2021)

That would be a good idea.

So, since I have in the past brewed rootbeer and stuff, i used to have a long, flexible, bottle brush with bristles going up at least 7 inches, and a braided metal handle. One of the baby bottle ones I just got is similar to that, but super small.


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## hemihampton (Jul 7, 2021)

you can go to Harbor Freight & buy a big Box full of different size's of Bottle Brush's Cheap. LEON.


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## Kevin S. (Jul 8, 2021)

Thanks, Leon!


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## LalaGirl (Jul 9, 2021)

Kevin S. said:


> Just for clarity, this is my new spray nozzle for the garden hose...
> 
> It's been in use for about 2 months. This place kills coffee makers.


Yikes!!


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## willong (Jul 13, 2021)

Kevin S. said:


> I have totally been in old mining camps in the area. The majority of these bottles pictured are from White Knob, which was a camp and then a town just above Mackay, Idaho. The others in the shot are from Gem, a ghost town near Wallace, where there were mining camps, multiple little towns, and even a Calvary encampment during a miner's revolt.



I seem to recall reading about the cavalry encampment, but I can't recall for certain. Decades ago, I read a book about Sylvan Hart, more commonly know as Buckskin Bill, who homesteaded in the Salmon River country during the Great Depression and lived a 19th Century lifestyle there for the balance of his life, not counting time that he spent during WW2 working on the Norden bombsight.

The book was called "Last Of The Mountain Men." A significant portion of the book was Bill recounting stories of the local history. Of course, mining featured heavily in that history. Not only did Buckskin Bill relate anecdotes of the old mining camps, but he salvaged materials from them that he used in his crafts--Bill was a trained Mechanical Engineer and quite the craftsman. I always wanted to visit some of the sites mentioned in the book, Dixie being one whose name I recall. I think the miners' revolt might have been covered in that book. If not, I almost certainly read an account in one of the many ghost town guides that I devoured during the 1970's.





 *The Last Mountain Man Idaho Salmon River's Buckskin Bill*


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## UncleBruce (Jul 13, 2021)

If I were to become a mountain man then Buckskin would have to rename the book to the second to last mountain man... nah... I like living in town and the internet... Bills book is safe for now.


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## willong (Jul 14, 2021)

UncleBruce said:


> nah... I like living in town and the internet...



The book about Bill was written by a Harold Peterson, a sports writer, in the 1960's.

Satellite access now, and Amazon drone deliveries when the technology is fully matured, could satisfy just about all of my urban needs. I like the life that old Buckskin Bill had, particularly in light of the fact that when he died in 1980 it was still ten years before introduction of the World Wide Web.


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## relic rescuer (Jul 14, 2021)

Wildcat wrangler said:


> Brushes…. My problem is finding a brush that will work in those teeny tiny necks but still reach to the bottom of the tall bottle, because I guess that very tall bottles with such tiny necks were a thing then- (they didn’t have to clean them?!) then the shoulders are square so u need something that can bend as well as be strong enough to scrub with, without breaking that teeny tiny neck! Has anyone found anything like that? I am working on a design I thought up- someone should make this: a flexible (more flexible than this in the pix- and maybe have a soft silicone sleeve over the Metal part so you don’t scratch your bottle)-small, say 5-6mm max, over all- in width, yet a couple feet long) with a cylinder shaped extremely strong magnet (n52 neodymium rare earth magnet) on the end, and the magnet could be 1-2” long but no more than 5-6mm thru, as to fit thru that neck? That u could put pieces of steel wool into your dirty bottle and slide your magnet tool too into it too- steel wool will jump on it- you need enough steel wool to just blanket the magnet as to not scratch the glass- and scrub away! You might have to remove the steel wool part at a time, to fit thru the neck, but that would work….
> If someone makes that let me know where I can buy one!
> 
> 
> ...


I just use BB's  and a stack of Neodimiums with the soft part of velcro, so as to not scratch the outside. For the larger necks, I use a pouch stapled together, full of BB's made out of Scotchbrite.


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## Kevin S. (Jul 15, 2021)

willong said:


> I seem to recall reading about the cavalry encampment, but I can't recall for certain. Decades ago, I read a book about Sylvan Hart, more commonly know as Buckskin Bill, who homesteaded in the Salmon River country during the Great Depression and lived a 19th Century lifestyle there for the balance of his life, not counting time that he spent during WW2 working on the Norden bombsight...



Yes. Growing up around here, we learned about Buckskin Bill.  My dad actually had a gold claim near his old haunts.

I'm not sure about it, but I believe there are photos from the Calvary Encampment I'm talking about. I'll look around.


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## Wildcat wrangler (Jul 21, 2021)

relic rescuer said:


> I just use BB's and a stack of Neodimiums with the soft part of velcro, so as to not scratch the outside. For the larger necks, I use a pouch stapled together, full of BB's made out of Scotchbrite.



I have used and still use bb’s even thought they don’t recommend it. I really like your idea of the scotch bright pouch. Last night I was using a small chain and magnet, but thought I was never going to get it back out of that super narrow neck.


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## relic rescuer (Jul 21, 2021)

Wildcat wrangler said:


> I have used and still use bb’s even thought they don’t recommend it. I really like your idea of the scotch bright pouch. Last night I was using a small chain and magnet, but thought I was never going to get it back out of that super narrow neck.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


It works really well, and is re usable for a long time, even if the BB's get rusty.


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