This is a small relic I picked up a while back. It was being offered for peanuts, with photographic provenance over where it came from, so I snapped it up. It’s a piece of barbed wire, in the typical German style. It was recovered from the sand close to one of the fortifications, not up in the dunes where I’ve heard digging is illegal. I gave this one some thought before buying it, not wanting to cause any disrespect or support what could be considered desecration.

Anyway, as one can see from the photographs, it’s not in the best shape. To be expected, having spent the better part of seventy years buried in the sand. It still retains some of said sand, and is quite heavily rusted. However, the seller provided a photograph on the listing of a piece he had cleaned, which had come out very well and looked almost like new. In places on the strand I’ve got, I can see the metal under the coating of rust.

I’d like to know how I should go about cleaning this, or if I should at all. I worry that if I don’t clean it, it’ll eventually disintegrate and fall to pieces. But would the same happen during the cleaning process?
I know many prefer battlefield relics to retain their ‘as-found’ appearance, but for the sake of preservation and posterity I’d quite like to save this. It’s only a little thing, battlefield detritus, but it’s still history.

Best regards, B.B.