# getting hardened sea floor out of bottle



## Kazooti (Apr 10, 2011)

I have a bottle that comes out of the Virgin Islands.  It is filled to the rim with ocean floor debris that is hard as a rock.  How can I get this bottle cleaned out?

 Thanks for your help!


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## TJSJHART (Apr 10, 2011)

WELL I FIGURE IT'S CALCIUM AND MAYBE DEBRIE . SOAKING IT IN SOMETHING TO DISSOLVE THE CALCIUM AND LOOSEN UP THE DIRT.  GOOD LUCK


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## cyberdigger (Apr 10, 2011)

What type of bottle is it?


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## Kazooti (Apr 10, 2011)

The two on the left, I believe to be from turn molds.  They have no embossing.  The third is a Siegert Bitters Bottle.  The forth has side seams up to the applied lip.  They all have pontil marks.  Besides sharing how to clean them out, if you know anything about the 3 mystery bottles, I'd appreciate it. These come from a local diver here in St. Thomas.  If you know anyone in the market, it would be helpful.  He's very sick and I'm trying to help him turn his many bottles into cash to pay for medical bills.  Besides all that, I'm also very interested and hope to start diving for bottles myself. 

 Thank you!


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## Kazooti (Apr 10, 2011)

*Here's the pic of the 4 bottles*

Sorry bout that!  Here's the pic


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## Kazooti (Apr 10, 2011)

I've been soaking it in plain water and it isn't softening at all.


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## Kazooti (Apr 11, 2011)

cyberdigger, here are 4 more bottles, same problem.


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## blobbottlebob (Apr 11, 2011)

Hey Kazooti,
 I would be surprised if any of these bottles were pontilled. They all look younger than pontil age to me. A picture of the bottom could confirm that. Pontil markings will usually be fairly rough looking. I could be wrong. Unembossed bottles (without pontils) will not command alot of money from collectors. Those bottles look to me to be worth a few dollars at the most even in good condition. I hope I'm wrong.


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## Kazooti (Apr 11, 2011)

Hi Bob!  Thanks for your input.  Perhaps you can straighten me out here.  I think that the turn molded bottles would be aged between 1880 and 1900.  Since the snap case replaced the pontil around the 1860's then the turn molded bottles wouldn't have pontil marks, yes?  I'm assuming that they are from a turn mold because you can see a swirl in the necks and no seems.  The bottles with the seem mold up to but not through the lip would be dated around 1860-1880 according to Michael Polak's book, which would mean they too do not have pontils.  But they do have what appears to be a bump in the bottom.  Is that just from the mold?  Stupid question, just because they introduced the snap case, does that mean everybody updated their process?  I'll send photos of the bottoms.  I'll send to your e-mail to make it easier.   Thanks!  
 Kazooti


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## Kazooti (Apr 11, 2011)

Bottle 1


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## blobbottlebob (Apr 11, 2011)

Whoa. That last picture was huge. It looks like your bottles are kicked up on the bottom (fairly typical for some bottles esp wines). It's hard to tell if anything is pontilled. My guess is still that they are not. Some of that sediment at the bottom is hiding the evidence. It's is possible if any of your bottles are old enough - say 1850s, that they have a graphite or iron pontil scar. These display kicked up bottoms with a heavy rough area in the middle (sometimes with iron residue on the scarred portion).


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## Kazooti (Apr 11, 2011)

Bottle 2


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## Kazooti (Apr 11, 2011)

Bottle 3


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## Kazooti (Apr 11, 2011)

Bottle 4


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## Kazooti (Apr 11, 2011)

Bottle 5


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## Kazooti (Apr 11, 2011)

Bottle 6
 So is a few bucks even close to $10? Based on the previous photos, can you tell me what the bottles contained other then the bitters bottle.


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## blobbottlebob (Apr 11, 2011)

Three and four are clearly not pontilled. Two doesn't look like it either but it is a bit covered on the bottom. One just looks kicked up to me. Five is hard to tell. If it looks like three and four to you, its out. If it looks like this, it could be pontilled,


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## blobbottlebob (Apr 11, 2011)

Six is not pontilled. I'm guessing that you have various contents. Some of the green ones are mineral waters (the first picture at right), wines (the first picture second from the left) and the rest may be beers or mineral waters. I would guess ten bucks for all of them.


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## Kazooti (Apr 11, 2011)

Would that be ten bucks each or for the lot?

 Thank you so much for your expertise.  I'm going to keep looking for that really important bottle.

 Kazooti


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## Plumbata (Apr 11, 2011)

Soak them in a decently strong solution of hydrochloric (muriatic) acid. It will dissolve those carbonate deposits in 1/2 of a jiffy.


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## KBbottles (Apr 11, 2011)

Depending on where you sell them, you could probably get 10 to maybe as high as 25 for some of them.  Most serious collectors will not want them...  The siegerts are very common, but if you do a flea market or garage sale, etc... u may be able to get something.  Black glass bottles are great for decorating and they are appealing even if common so don't write them off completely.


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## rockbot (Apr 12, 2011)

The ones with barnacles on them sell good around here. Tourist love them, and not just bottle collectors.


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## imukdiver (Apr 12, 2011)

Alot of times I find that just the sand in the neck is the hardened part. Try using a phillips head screw driver an dpoke down through it. You may get lucky.


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