Had a ceramics conservator tell me I was cleaning my Roman pottery finds all wrong

They said I was using tap water which leaves mineral deposits, so now I just use distilled water and a soft brush on anything fresh out of the ground. Has anyone else messed up a sherd by using the wrong cleaning method?

2 comments

2 Comments

tessa_kim34d ago

oh wow, that's a good point actually. so what kind of damage did the tap water do exactly? like are we talking visible white crust stuff or something more subtle that messes up future testing?

baker.phoenix3d ago

Oh yeah, my tap water could probably dissolve a penny.