This is an interesting topic. I was told about the shaving cream angle by an actual historian and gravestone restorer. However he also mentioned just after using the shaving cream, he completely rinses the stone off of all cream to leave no residue. According to the article that may not be possible. He also used the mirror trick and it DOES really work! In absence of a mirror I have also used the reflection of the sun off of the white pages of my notebook that I bring. That works almost as good in a pinch. All of the suggestions in the preservation page were very helpful when our Boy Scout troop restored an abandoned cemetery a few years ago. Jackie Wells Lubinski jwlube@ptd.net -----Original Message----- From: Lynne [mailto:lkranieri@comcast.net] Sent: Saturday, May 28, 2005 9:43 AM To: NJHUNTER-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [NJHUNTER] Gravestone preservation Cinda wrote: > In going to old cemeteries, I have used shaving cream to cover the areas > of print, then scraped off the cream with a heavy piece of cardboard > leaving the cream in the dents made in the stones. May I suggest that before any of the readers of this list do that, they also read this opinion from the Association for Gravstone Studies: http://www.gravestonestudies.org/preservation.htm and Cinda wrote: > My chemist said that if the soap ate away stone all the men who shaved > every day would have no skin. and as you can see from the article to which I referred above, the problem is not so much erosion as it is eventual discoloration and the inevitable damage from contact. Re the humorous observation about men, I would like only to point out that most of them do not live much more than 85 years and that their skin is always growing and replacing what is lost ... something the gravestone, alas, cannot do. The only other point I would like to ask people to consider is that the gravestones belong to all of us and before making any physical contact with them, please research what you are considering doing. One descendant recently tackled several gravestones in a nearby Rev War era cemetery and angrily scrubbed them all down with a scrub brush and bleach because "no one was taking care of them." Alas, that act terribly eroded the surface of the ancient stones and has now shortened their lives so much more. The safest method of reading the stones, and one which has worked well for me and my friends, has been to use mirrors to reflect the light across the stones at an angle. Our tiny local history museum was given an 1830's stone that was found in a backyard and I was asked to find out whose it was. It was on the floor of our museum and I tried for hours to decipher it, but it was not until the sun was setting and the slanted light fell across the stone that I was able to read -- with ease -- what the inscription was. And no harm was done to the stone whatsoever. Thank you for letting me present a plea for the conservative approach! Lynn