# Removing wire bails....



## BarbaraInCalif (Apr 21, 2010)

Is there a good way to remove these wire bails, with the least amount of damage, in order to clean the bottles?


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## BarbaraInCalif (Apr 21, 2010)

On a side note: we have a lot of birds in our yard, from nesting owls to hummingbirds, but this one is a bit disconcerting to see....


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## cyberdigger (Apr 21, 2010)

I recommend CLR for rusty bails and turkey buzzards every time... []


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## ombudsman (Apr 21, 2010)

> ORIGINAL:  BarbaraInCalif
> 
> On a side note: we have a lot of birds in our yard, from nesting owls to hummingbirds, but this one is a bit disconcerting to see....


 
 That's one of my very favorite birds. I never tire of watching them soar. I've thought about reincarnating as one, but I'm not so sure about eating rotten meat![:'(][]


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## madman (Apr 21, 2010)

bar keepers friend and a firm tooth brush should do the trick dont take um off!


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## chosi (Apr 22, 2010)

There are usually traces of a rubber gasket.  Unless it's intact, I usually just remove all traces of it from the bottle & stopper with steel wool, although maybe barkeepers friend & toothbrush as madman suggested would work better.

 The tricky part is removing the metal wire, assuming you want to put it back on when you're done (which I usually do).  I don't have any advice to give you there.  I usually try to untwist it as little as possible to get it to slide off, but it still breaks sometimes.  I guess the metal becomes brittle over time.


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## Plumbata (Apr 23, 2010)

> ORIGINAL:  chosi
> I usually try to untwist it as little as possible to get it to slide off, but it still breaks sometimes.  I guess the metal becomes brittle over time.


 
 My thoughts exactly. I've tried putting on old lightning stoppers on bottles (found a tin of them), and even without any rust they still break very easily, and it is not because I don't know how to twist wire. With the rust I would imagine that wire is even more brittle, so there is almost no way that you would be able to take all 3 off then put all 3 back without any problems. You should just keep the stoppers on and use some chemicals if you don't mind the rust coming off the metal parts also. Using oxalic acid plus some water would probably work. It is sold cheap on eBay, just got 2 pounds for 11 shipped. I guess barkeepers friend contains the same stuff. Naval Jelly/Phosphoric acid would probably work very well also.


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## CALDIGR2 (Apr 23, 2010)

I would not touch those bails, Barbara. Maybe some Clorox Clean-Up and a toothbrush to clean around them, but nothing else. The wire and stoppers are desirable additions to the bottles.


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## CALDIGR2 (Apr 23, 2010)

> ORIGINAL:  BarbaraInCalif
> 
> On a side note: we have a lot of birds in our yard, from nesting owls to hummingbirds, but this one is a bit disconcerting to see....


 There is nothing wrong with turkey vultures. After all, they are nature's garbagemen. We had one for a pet when I was much younger. I got it out of the nest at the base of a hollow tree on our ranch. A little white fuzzball, it learned to eat only fresh meat and was quite picky and a dainty eater. As it grew, it would hop along behind the kids like a goofy looking chicken. You should have seen the looks on people's faces when they saw a buzzard riding on the car seat. We had her for two years and donated her to the science center, where she lasted for eight more.


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## Lordbud (Apr 24, 2010)

Barbara, the glass showing in your picture doesn't even look like it needs cleaning. What is this cleaning mania going on? Old bottles have often been through Hell and back, why remove their personal history?


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## BarbaraInCalif (Apr 24, 2010)

Fair question Jason....
 Being a stay at home mom with grown kids, and now having a retired husband too, I like a hobby that becomes an active part of my daily life which I can stay at home to do.  I love the bottles, but found that to be personally staisified I wanted to DO something other than just hunting down the next one to add to my collection.  I love researching, but need something  tangible too.  Bottle cleaning is perfect for me. There are many bottles with beautiful opalescence or patina that I wouldn't dream of cleaning, but to me the removal of hazy interiors, scratches, general dullness only improves a bottle when done correctly.  I consider it restoring...and the results can be astoundingly beautiful.

 Thanks for all the advice above guys.   I carefully and successfully removed the bails from some other beers that were not as tightly wound on as these. Hopefully putting them back on after everything is cleaned up will be as easy....

 Barbara


 Just edited out some typos....


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