The Fishing Website : Discussion Forums : Cleaning Paua Shells

The Fishing Website : Discussion Forums : Cleaning Paua Shells https://www.fishing.net.nz/forum/ Tue, 09 Jun 2026 20:45:29 +0000 Wed, 18 Mar 2015 22:39:01 +0000 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Web Wiz Forums 12.01 360 https://www.fishing.net.nz/forum/RSS_post_feed.asp?TID=35091 <![CDATA[The Fishing Website : Discussion Forums]]> https://www.fishing.net.nz/forum/forum_images/web_wiz_forums.png https://www.fishing.net.nz/forum/ <![CDATA[Cleaning Paua Shells : Diver9888 wrote: ethan18724...]]> https://www.fishing.net.nz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=35091&PID=1542646&title=cleaning-paua-shells#1542646 Author: spearfisher916
Subject: 35091
Posted: 18 Mar 2015 at 10:39pm

Diver9888 wrote:

ethan18724 wrote:

Just get the shell, and put it in a ice cream container with milk, and leave it for 2 weeks. the curdling process of the milk reacts with the outer calcium which breaks it down. after the shell is taken out. just wipe the inside of it with a sponge an ajax. this worked well for me. Smile

I sure hope it works as my two weeks is also up. My shed stunk after two days (I couldn't leave it out side as my dog would drink it) and the container is full of live maggots right now. LOL

Maybe the lid could go on the container?

]]> Wed, 18 Mar 2015 22:39:01 +0000 https://www.fishing.net.nz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=35091&PID=1542646&title=cleaning-paua-shells#1542646 <![CDATA[Cleaning Paua Shells : ethan18724 wrote:Just get the...]]> https://www.fishing.net.nz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=35091&PID=1542630&title=cleaning-paua-shells#1542630 Author: Diver9888
Subject: 35091
Posted: 18 Mar 2015 at 9:47pm

I sure hope it works as my two weeks is also up. My shed stunk after two days (I couldn't leave it out side as my dog would drink it) and the container is full of live maggots right now. LOL

]]> Wed, 18 Mar 2015 21:47:50 +0000 https://www.fishing.net.nz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=35091&PID=1542630&title=cleaning-paua-shells#1542630 <![CDATA[Cleaning Paua Shells : What I've always done is...]]> https://www.fishing.net.nz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=35091&PID=1542562&title=cleaning-paua-shells#1542562 Author: McKoy
Subject: 35091
Posted: 18 Mar 2015 at 8:15pm

What I've always done is grind away the shell using a wirebrush on a grinder wheel. To make shiny ashtrays I've just used gun oil of all things.

Acids are going to eat the hell out of your calcium carbonate shell, in saying that, the best ashtrays have the deposits left intact for heat resistance.]]> Wed, 18 Mar 2015 20:15:24 +0000 https://www.fishing.net.nz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=35091&PID=1542562&title=cleaning-paua-shells#1542562 <![CDATA[Cleaning Paua Shells : Any chance of pics? ]]> https://www.fishing.net.nz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=35091&PID=1542552&title=cleaning-paua-shells#1542552 Author: long john
Subject: 35091
Posted: 18 Mar 2015 at 8:00pm

Any chance of pics?
]]> Wed, 18 Mar 2015 20:00:53 +0000 https://www.fishing.net.nz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=35091&PID=1542552&title=cleaning-paua-shells#1542552 <![CDATA[Cleaning Paua Shells : I have been playing around a bit...]]> https://www.fishing.net.nz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=35091&PID=1542550&title=cleaning-paua-shells#1542550 Author: loviz
Subject: 35091
Posted: 18 Mar 2015 at 7:59pm

I have been playing around a bit too. Seems like its a bit lucky dip as to how the shell looks under al the white calcium barnacle stuff. I had a play around with some very strong nitric acid which I had to dilute back to make it possible to even work with, the nitric ate the shell as well as the nice rainbow bit and the shell went paper thin over a couple of hours. So a strong acid is not necessarily the best, as the coating on the shells is not even its might be a case of getting the balance between eating the outside adequately and how much the inside is eaten. I also have been palying with the much more mild citric acid (same as you would get in the supermarket mixed about 1:1 water) and with some lactic acid from rotten milk. the milk is the slowest, citric works well and most of the barnacle can be scrubbed off within a few hours, a second soak seems to get the rest and you are dealing with fairly safe chemicals by comparison.

]]> Wed, 18 Mar 2015 19:59:58 +0000 https://www.fishing.net.nz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=35091&PID=1542550&title=cleaning-paua-shells#1542550 <![CDATA[Cleaning Paua Shells : Hmmm....never tried that , thread,...]]> https://www.fishing.net.nz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=35091&PID=1540406&title=cleaning-paua-shells#1540406 Author: Steps
Subject: 35091
Posted: 11 Mar 2015 at 8:57am

Hmmm....never tried that , thread, with caution, my chemistry off the of my head says that has potential to maybe get a little 'hairy'... from the reaction one could get depending on the concentrations of the chemicals...maybe the order of which u mix one into the other and gases given off....
Strongly suggest do a lot of homework before going down that route....
]]> Wed, 11 Mar 2015 08:57:43 +0000 https://www.fishing.net.nz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=35091&PID=1540406&title=cleaning-paua-shells#1540406 <![CDATA[Cleaning Paua Shells : Anyone tried caustic soda mixed...]]> https://www.fishing.net.nz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=35091&PID=1540358&title=cleaning-paua-shells#1540358 Author: Dobo
Subject: 35091
Posted: 10 Mar 2015 at 11:51pm

Anyone tried caustic soda mixed with hydrogen peroxide? Exothermic reaction seems to clean most things extremely well....]]> Tue, 10 Mar 2015 23:51:45 +0000 https://www.fishing.net.nz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=35091&PID=1540358&title=cleaning-paua-shells#1540358 <![CDATA[Cleaning Paua Shells : Paua shell is basically different...]]> https://www.fishing.net.nz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=35091&PID=1539573&title=cleaning-paua-shells#1539573 Author: Steps
Subject: 35091
Posted: 08 Mar 2015 at 9:36am

Paua shell is basically different forms of calcium and other minerals.
Calcium varies in appearance from a seashell, cement, concrete, plaster of paris, teeth, enamel toilet..garden line, wall board , the hard water line around a spa/ swimming pool. your bones.

Cacuim is eaten by acid... battery acid H2SO4, oil vitriol, sulphuric acid are all the same thing but can be at different concentrations.
The type and concentration of the acid, length of time, determines how fast the calcium is eaten into.
The white outside is a form that is eaten faster than the pretty part...
There are other acids also
mild like lactic acid.. in milk, acetic acid in vinegar, citric acid in citrus fruit and the packet in the spice cupboard, toilet bowl cleaner (hydrochloric acid)

All will do the same thing to a shell, at different concentrations, over time frames.

Once the shell is stripped of the white deposits, a buff up on a buffing pad on the bench grinder, with a fine cutting rouge.. then a fine seal coat of a clear lacquer

The bench grinder wire wheel and dust mask is by far the best to clean off, and a buff with a pad and rouge to finish... The down side to this method is the outside often has had some sort of tunnelling 'bug' going thru and to get these out the shell can get rather thin in places.
Where as the acid method cleans out these imperfections better leaving a well presented but 'contoured' outside surface.

I have a whole box of shells was experimenting with a few yrs back for lures and 'eyes' on luminescent painted stray line sinkers.
]]> Sun, 08 Mar 2015 09:36:35 +0000 https://www.fishing.net.nz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=35091&PID=1539573&title=cleaning-paua-shells#1539573 <![CDATA[Cleaning Paua Shells : So, I gave the old milky paua...]]> https://www.fishing.net.nz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=35091&PID=1539413&title=cleaning-paua-shells#1539413 Author: Troy Tempest
Subject: 35091
Posted: 07 Mar 2015 at 3:54pm

So, I gave the old milky paua trick a go and got some mixed results. Two weeks on and here is the best of them. The outsides have little change, but the inside has come up nice.

]]> Sat, 07 Mar 2015 15:54:02 +0000 https://www.fishing.net.nz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=35091&PID=1539413&title=cleaning-paua-shells#1539413 <![CDATA[Cleaning Paua Shells : ethan18724 wrote:Just get the...]]> https://www.fishing.net.nz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=35091&PID=1535491&title=cleaning-paua-shells#1535491 Author: S.H.A.G
Subject: 35091
Posted: 23 Feb 2015 at 9:19am

Trying this tonight!

]]> Mon, 23 Feb 2015 09:19:12 +0000 https://www.fishing.net.nz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=35091&PID=1535491&title=cleaning-paua-shells#1535491