Cleaning Lava carvings

I've got a very grubby Lava ashtray (Coco Joe?) that I'd like to smarten up...

Any Do's and Dont's?

Thanks.

I would start with pressurized or canned air.
If you have a compressor or know someone who has one, it's a little nicer to the environment and less deadly than canned air.

Best
Mark

remember ,you are NOT cleaning 'lava' .you are cleaning 'resin.'

coco joes are are resin with a little lava thrown in. so be carful useing solvents .

[ Edited by: TIKI DAVID 2008-10-19 13:48 ]

I use an old toothbrush with a little beeswax paste (the sort used for leather or wood). Cleans and shines in one go!

Has anyone else scrubbed only to discover these things are white underneath?

White?
I tried and tried to scrub the black off, but I only got to a gray and white swirl with little black chunks.
But that was on a really old one, I'll try a newer one tonight.

A toothbrush and a little dish soap and very lite scrubbing. Never had a problem with nearly fifty pieces.

Dated 1980 & just below the surface. Castrol SuperClean was probably not a good idea, but it was covered with rust.

Thanks for the replies,

I had feared going near it with anything stronger than mild soap water...

I think I'll give the beesway a go.

I want to locate some beeswax paste and try that. Where do you find that, I've never see it. I have purchased lots of Coco Joes figures off of Ebay this last month, some are delightful and some were dissappointing; its difficult to tell what you are getting on Ebay, even the price has very little to do with the quality, one of my favorites was a "buy it now" for $2.99+ really cheap shipping, you never know (well, I never know anyway...) I notice that they usually show up dusty, one seller even mentioned "storage dust" as a condition issue. The black figures usually show dust more than the brown ones, and often the coolest looking ones really retain dust due to the texture. I have washed some of them that do not have labels with dishwashing soap successfully. It seems like a soft bristle toothbrush should work, but I would be worried about scrubbing a CCJ vigorously with a hard bristle toothbrush, it might be too abrasive. It's a horrible sensation when you realize you have just destroyed the surface of a Tiki; once you do that, there's no going back! I really appreciate the notion that there are other folks out there who care about these little trinkets! OK Chuck

Hey ChuckM:
I've had success cleaning some of my pieces with this stuff:

It gets them a little too shiny for my tastes, however. I've seen it sold at antique stores and at hardware stores in the oil and finishes section. Using it with a qtip works well on the cracks and crevices.

Most of the new and good CocoJoe's info can be found on this thread:

Coco Joe's

Take care,
Buzzy

On 2009-08-27 19:51, ChuckM wrote:
I want to locate some beeswax paste and try that. Where do you find that, I've never see it.

This is the stuff I use on stone, wood and resin:
http://www.josephlyddy.com.au/jayel.htm
I'm sure there is a US equivalent, check out some saddlery stores...

Hey, thanks guys, appreciate the input! Actually, I've read dozens of posts by you two; I was surprised when I first realized that you are both an avid collector of Coco Joes and that you do all of those great Tiki carvings as well Buzzy! Working both sides of the street, eh? Thanks again for the response, I've really enjoyed reading your various posts and viewing you collections and especially the carvings, keep up the good work, Chuck