Southwest Bottle and Jar Spa
The Southwest Bottle and Jar Spa works to restore your tired bottles and jars to like new condition. Using professional grade equipment from the Jar Doctor, items are cut and polished with oxides to remove content stain or in the case of a dug item, the deterioration of the glass caused by contact with acidic soil.
To restore the intrinsic visual appeal, items are polished through a tumbling process similar to rock polishing. This is a multi-step process first involving the use of a glass cutting agent that removes the thin surface layer of glass that has is damaged. Next, a polishing oxide such as cerium is used to restore the luster of the glass. Cerium is commonly used to polish eyeglasses and lens for viewing devices such as microscopes or telescopes. In the circumstance of moderate to heavily etched items, this process may reduce the definition of embossing on items. Additionally, over polishing may occur causing items to look too “shiny”. For these and other reasons, valuable and/or rare items should only be entrusted to experienced glass polishers.
The Spa also offers tanning services for your clear glass bottles and jars. Clear items blown between 1880 and 1915 will turn to a light pink or lavender to moderately amethyst when exposed to ultra-violet light depending on the amount of manganese in the glass. This process occurs naturally in the sun or can be accelerated through the use of ultra-violet lights or x-rays. The spa uses a 'purpling' box to turn items amethyst. This process takes two to four weeks and does not involve the extreme color changes brought on by nuking or x-raying items.
The Hutchinson soda bottles below were produced by the same glasshouse for the same customer, likely at the same time. They were dug from the same holes as well making them virtually identical with regard to the damage to the glass. The bottle at the right spent some time at the Spa recently and you can see the results. To learn how we can take years off the appearance of your bottles and jars, click on this link > Southwest Bottle and Jar Spa
