The bronze box is a witness to the life of aristocrats during the Western Han Dynasty in ancient my country. It was buried for more than a thousand years and has now been rediscovered.
The exquisite patterns on the bronze casket reflect the artistic level of the time.
From the side, it reflects the social background and economic, cultural and other aspects of development in the Western Han Dynasty, and has important historical, scientific and artistic value.
Therefore, the significance of protecting the bronze box is very important.
The bronze box is the physical material of that time, which allows us to see the social life, folk customs and many other contents of the Western Han Dynasty.
Therefore, how to protect bronze caskets and how to better inherit Chinese culture has important practical significance.
If such an important cultural relic is damaged, it is natural to find a way to repair it.
Carry out the protective restoration of bronzes based on the concepts and principles of cultural relic protection and restoration.
According to the combination of international restoration concepts and my country's traditional restoration concepts, bronzes are protected and restored.
Preservation environment control Controlled environment is also very important for bronzes.
Preservation in a dry environment is a prerequisite for the safety and stability of artifacts.
If stored in a chlorine-free environment with a relative humidity below 40%, a temperature between 18°C and 24°C, its internal structure will be relatively stable and will not develop, and its rust will not spread.
Here, it comes to rust removal again.
The patina of bronze wares requires different rust removal conditions due to different environments.
Because many bronzes have been buried underground for a long time, or placed in inappropriate storage environments after being unearthed, they are exposed to soluble salts containing chlorine and moisture, and gradually form a layer of corrosion and rust.
Therefore, what is removed at this time is harmful rust, also called powdery rust.
This kind of rust will form hydrochloric acid under certain temperature and humidity, which will continue to corrode the bronze.
And it reacts repeatedly, causing fatal damage to the utensils.
At this time, they should be retained and eliminated in a differentiated manner.
Chen Wenzhe has several valuable bronzes in his hands, and he has been exposed to various bronze rusts.
Naturally, it is clear that bronze rust can be divided into two types: harmful rust and harmless rust.
He is more aware of the impact of bronze artifacts being buried in groundwater and soil, and a series of changes will occur on the surface of the artifacts.
This creates a layer of protection so that the bronze will not continue to corrode the body, adding to the vicissitudes of the bronze and being a sign of age. This is called harmless rust.
The so-called harmful rust is also called powdery rust. This kind of rust will form hydrochloric acid under certain temperature and humidity, which will continuously corrode bronze objects and cause fatal damage to the objects. It is commonly known as bronze disease and must be completely removed.
The cleaning method Chen Wenzhe has also studied is to put the bronze in a container filled with distilled water for immersion.
This can remove soil from the surface of cultural relics and dissolve soluble inorganic salts at the same time.
Then there is the tool method, which uses various tools according to the different rust conditions of the utensils.
Commonly used tools include wool brushes, carving knives, medical scalpels and other tools, which can be cleaned directly under a magnifying glass.
Clean it gradually from soft to hard, then from light to heavy.
It is suitable for powdery rust on the surface of utensils. It is simple to operate, quick to use, convenient and flexible. Of course, it may also scratch the surface of the utensils.
Among the methods of using tools, sandblasting can naturally be added.
Sandblasting uses a sandblasting machine to use compressed air pressure to drive sandblasting sand particles to the rusted surface of cultural relics, causing the rust layer to rub and remove the rust layer.
The sandblasting machine has high working efficiency, but the surface of the cultural relics after blasting is relatively rough.
This requires strict requirements for repair personnel to have certain operating experience.
The last step is to remove rust with fruit acid, using main raw materials such as black plum, hawthorn, and red fruit, to make a paste and stick it on the rusted surface of the bronze.
After a period of time, the rust and contamination can be removed. This method has the characteristics of long time and less damage.
Before, I studied the restoration technology of the Bronze Mirror Museum, but I also designed the plastic surgery technology, which is to correct the deformed bronzes.
The technology he saw at that time was a bit one-sided. In fact, there are many plastic surgery techniques, and the corresponding methods include molding, stretching, beating, heating, etc.
The bronze ware is repaired using "heating correction", using a hot air gun and low temperature heating to clamp the bronze ware with F pliers, and gradually correct the bronze ware.
Among them, there are more serious damages, that is, there are gaps, which require replacement.
The replenishment method is a very important technology in the restoration of traditional bronze ware in my country to replenish the missing parts of the artifact.
The replenishing technology is that the restorer observes the cultural relics that need to be restored, and based on the type, missing part, and type of the bronze, they cast it or make a copper sheet to replenish it.
This is the restoration and repair of the lost parts of the artifacts.
There are many methods of this kind, which can be determined according to the situation. You can use the silicone mold turning method, or you can use the traditional plaster mold turning method, and the effect is better.
Now that we have learned the supplementary method again, we also need to learn the welding technology and bonding technology again.
It is an important link in the bronze ware restoration technology and is an ideal method to restore the shape of the ware.
There are tin soldering and cadmium zinc brazing methods, which are suitable for connection points of different sizes.
The damage of some utensils cannot be completed by welding, so the traditional Chinese medicine bletilla striata and paint chips, elm bark, epoxy resin, etc. are used for bonding to achieve the purpose of connection.
In the actual operation process, the welding method is used for utensils with better copper quality, and the bonding method is used for utensils with mineralized copper bodies and materials that are no longer suitable for welding.
Finally, the rust color and rust color distressing techniques are used as the final process for repairing the bronze.
The methods are not the same and the techniques vary widely.
For example, for lacquered leather shells, you can first soak the lacquer flakes in alcohol to make shellac. The brush dipped in shellac can be mixed with various mineral pigments, and the agate can be polished to make the surface of the utensils.
Chen Wenzhe had learned the technique of repairing bronze before, but he did not study the specific repair process of the bronze box seriously.
This time, he thought of that item because he saw a large number of damaged bronze mirrors that had been restored.
At this time, through retrospection, he really learned a top craftsmanship from the Qing Palace Building Office.
This was also the first time he took a serious look at how professionals repaired it.
Unexpectedly, people actually conducted surface observations before repairing it.
This is only right, because every piece of bronze restored is considered a national treasure.
Especially think about things like the Western Han Dynasty bronze dome. This bronze vessel has a missing lid and has twelve fragments.
This is a large area missing and the artifacts are severely deformed.
In addition, the overall mineralization of the artifacts is severe, making repairs very difficult.
In addition, there was a lot of mud inside the dome, which made it even more difficult to repair.
However, judging from the fragments unearthed at that time, this bronze vessel is still very beautiful.
This bronze vessel has three legs and an animal head. The body of the vessel has a string pattern that divides it into upper and lower parts.
Both parts have various patterns of running animals. There is a shop head on the left and right sides of the instrument, with a copper ring in its mouth. The overall pattern is exquisite.