Rehabilitating shells

    So Gerald and I got in a nice little shore dive this morn and while no bugs came home w us I did score two nice trophies, a beautiful queen conch shell and a massive horse conch. I am cleaning them both now so I thought I'd put up a thread for others to share their tips.


    I'm sure some of you ab guys have nice tricks


    For scale, that is a four gallon bucket





    Just a drizzle of bleach and steel wool so far

    i like to spear fish

    Nice shells,you make sure there was no critters inside? I found what appeared to be a empty queen even after bleaching, only to come home one day to find the stench of rotting hermit crab.

    Hahaha yeah. I have been collecting them for a while and I have learned some stinky lessons.


    I have them both outside hidden by some bushes where the critters and dryness and heat will make sure they are ready for the inside


    I will hit them with a dremel and a copper wire brush to get the last of the plant material off the shells.

    i like to spear fish

    Quote from Dude george

    beautiful!! Never tried bleach, will try that...


    Be very very judicious with it. I litter all drizzle the bleach over the shell just to kill everything and loosen stuff up. It will pull the color out and take the top layer off the actual shell which you don't want.


    After the drizzle and then the steel wool. I will rinse it really well and then do steel wool with just water to loosen the material


    I have heard of muratic acid, vinegar, and chlorine too but never tried any

    i like to spear fish

    Quote from LunkerBuster

    Be very very judicious with it. I litter all drizzle the bleach over the shell just to kill everything and loosen stuff up. It will pull the color out and take the top layer off the actual shell which you don't want.


    After the drizzle and then the steel wool. I will rinse it really well and then do steel wool with just water to loosen the material


    I have heard of muratic acid, vinegar, and chlorine too but never tried any


    Hey Lunker,


    Bleach is Chlorine.


    Vinegar will dull the color and shine off your shells too as I learned while cleaning some abalone. Think of the vinegar and baking soda volcano experiment. Vinegar is acetic acid typically 5% off the shelf (HC2H3O2) and the shell is primarily a Calcium salt probably calcium carbonate.


    Muriatic acid is the same as Hydrochloric acid or HCl (aq) I haven't tried it but it would do the same as bleach and vinegar and decompose the Calcium carbonate (CaCO3) in the shell to another salt and carbon dioxide.


    So just use these chemicals sparingly. :)

    I used vinegar before, it works...aggressively. Use diluted and for short periods on stubborn areas, you'll see the chemical reaction as soon as you dip it in (carbon dioxide bubbles).

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