Cleaning shells with muriatic acid & comparing acid to using mineral oil. Which works is better?

welcome to another swf beach life video today we're going to be dipping some shells in acid and if that wasn't fun enough we're also going to be comparing acid dipping to using mineral oil to bring out the color on shells if you're new to my channel you might be wondering where i got all those shelves every week i visit the beach and i bring you a new video of my beach visit so i recommend you hit that subscribe button and the notification bell so you can come along with me on my future beach explorations i wanted to try an experiment comparing using mineral oil on the shelves with dipping the shells in acid i took a pair of the same type of shells and split them into two teams team oil and team acid you see that these shells are the same type size and almost the same condition i thought this was the best way to compare the results of the two techniques i'll be using and let's just get another look of the shells a little closer together so we can see their condition is very similar a few days ago i took the shelves from team oil and used the mineral oil technique this technique is really just putting a thin layer of oil on the shelves and then using an old rag or washcloth and removing all the excess oil i put a little mineral oil in a small dish and then using a paint brush i coated the shelves with a thin layer of oil and then just wiped the excess off this is not a permanent solution and over time the shells might need to be re-oiled but i still wanted to compare the initial oil results to see if this was a viable alternative for those who don't want to mess around with the acid team oil is looking pretty good they definitely look better than they did before currently team oil is in the lead but how will they stack up compared to team acid let's dip some shells and find out if this is the first time you're seeing me dip my shells in acid i recommend you watch my first acid dipping video for all the correct measurements and safety equipment needed you can click that link in the upper corner in this video we're just going to get right down to business i selected a specific bunch of shells to dip today we're going to dip team acid first so they can dry and then we can compare what they look like to team oil all right guys we're gonna start off team acid welk lightning milk he's not oops sorry he's not actually so bad ready one two three now i've also heard that you can dip them longer or maybe even shorter depending on how beat up the show let's see how that's gonna compare to team oil let's take the crown he's not terrible terrible one two three oh he's so pretty be really careful um someone had given me the tip to when you're doing this to not splash because i'm kind of flicking the water so just if you're gonna do this be really careful all right we're gonna do a banded tulip one two three oh it looks pretty i will be very interested to see how the oil stacks up to the acid i've seen the oil all right this is going to be a little tricky here's a moon snail seen the oil work we'll just see how it's going to compare one two three normally i wouldn't dip a moon snail because they already have a kind of a natural shine but these guys were already kind of calcium that's okay that i dropped them in the water already a little bit calcified so maybe i'll dip them and then put oil on them go crazy all right these scallops are usually really really fun let's take a look at him before actually let me get a better grip on him there we go that's a little better all right here we go one two three make sure we're not flicking any acid anywhere look how pretty okay so we're gonna let them dry okay what i have found to be the most fun to dip are mostly these guys or i just kind of wanted to see what would happen these angel wings they're really delicate and i'm kind of not convinced i should dip them but i'm going to go ahead and do it anyway because he's kind of got some muck i'm going to do a quick one though i'm not going to do three i'm going to kind of try two and see what happens all right here we go one two that might not have been long enough he's still got some muck on there but again i'm concerned that i'm just going to disintegrate the shell so i'm not going to try this i'm not going to try those i'm probably maybe i'll just try some bleach on those guys because i'm afraid i'll just wreck it all right okay ready this apple murex i found and i kept it specifically to dip it in acid this clearly looks like it's gonna need a lot of time but i'm gonna start i don't know let's dip it and we'll find out and then i might have to just go back and dip it again all right here we go ready he's definitely seen better days two three four okay got careful with the flicking all right let's see what we got all right cleaned up a little i wonder if i soaked him if i can get the rest of those barnacles off but what i'm gonna do i'm gonna let him sit and maybe i'll just i don't know i could dip him again now but i'm just gonna let him i'm gonna let him hang out and i'll just dip him again a little bit this this guy i was gonna dip but why this beautiful lace muric's i decided against it but why not google at it or oogle at it rather it's such a pretty one but this little guy with a bug on it this little lace let's see we're going to do a quick dip on him because he doesn't look like he needs too much careful with the flicking look how pretty all right i want to do the dipped ones over here i know that you're team acid so i'll leave those alone the murax are always really fun let's take a look at this guy before one two three careful with the flicking oh he's bubbling get him into the water oh he looks so good i'm gonna put the after over here [Music] all right let's okay so see this nutmeg he's got he's kind of got a little bit of calcification on him let's see let's see what happens when we dip him that's a big guy all right here we go one two three careful with the flicking oh it's so pretty well first of all when they're wet they're going to look more colorful anyway and then you've already removed that layer of calcification so pretty all right let's do this horse conch he's kind of got a little green he's got some stuff going on the inside alright make sure you got a good hold on him one two three oh no i don't know that i see all that much difference in this guy maybe he didn't need it that much let's find one that really does need this guy all right you can see he's a little white actually i see a whiter one not sorry we'll do him next the lightning milk always come out really good so let's do this guy one two three careful not to flick oh yeah the first time i did this i was freaking out because it was so awesome the changes that happened and now i expect it it's still quite awesome oh that's cool okay let's this guy yep all right he is definitely let's see what happens with him he's really white all right one two three oh yeah luckily i'm dropping these guys in the look at the color on them now let's do a really oh yeah remarkable awesome okay these guys are also really fun the scallops clean up great so i'm gonna get a hold of this guy see he's kind of got okay ready two three okay he's bubbling can't quite see oh so pretty he's still got a little bit of white stuff on him but that's all right make sure he doesn't get mixed up with team acid all right let's do this crown conch he's a little white one two three oh yay what do you think that's pretty cool i honestly never thought i'd be an acid dipper i really it was it just feels really dangerous but after i did it that first time yeah it's addicting it's okay absolutely addicting okay see this guy it's kind of good he's got some weight stuff make sure i get a good hold of him one two three look at them now oh so fun oh pretty oh yeah oh by the way this is the entire that's everything i'm going to dip but we aren't going to dip all those because this will probably be a two-hour video so i'm just going to kind of pick out the guys that probably will be the best let's just see what happens now this guy i honestly don't know that dipping him is going to help he looks like he might be faded in addition to having some calcification going on so i'm going to go ahead let's just see what happens get a good get a good hold of him one two three four all right i see color let's [Music] so he was pretty white anyway so he was a little bleached out he had some calcification he still looks definitely looks better but i think the best um results that you're going to find are really from the harder i'm going to say really the ones i picked out tulips not so much the moon snails it was really just an experiment the nutmegs the crown conks and the lightning welts and the scallops now florida fighting conch i already know the results aren't fabulous part of that is also because they have this naturally shiny i don't know if you can kind of say that but this guy was i already scraped a ton of barnacles off him i just really liked them because of the color and i just like i know they're everywhere but i still like these florida fighting conch so i'm going to give him a dip see if i can clean this guy up anymore and we'll do let's do three he's very foamy careful with the flicking all right he's still i'm probably still putting acid on him but there we go all right okay it definitely looks a little better i could probably spend a little more time i did get one of those dental tools just off amazon like three bucks or something and so when you soak the shells a lot of those white i don't have one because i already picked them all off but there's like white stuff that gets on the shell and that will pick off with the dental tool so i did already kind of do a little bit of cleaning here's a crown conch he's not terrible but i bet you he's going to look gorgeous okay so we're aries before make sure he got a good hold on him one two three this guy didn't look like he needed a oh oh yes oh yeah look at him oh he's pretty oh that cleaned up great that cleaned up great okay we'll leave him again over here not to mix them up with team acid let's do this guy he has a little green on him that was wondering if the acid would would clean up and he's just he's in pretty good shape but let's see what a quick dip will do and one two three i wonder if that green came i don't think it did let's see um i still think it's there a little bit it still looks better but there's still a little bit of that green so to figure out if i want to just leave it the way it is because sometimes imperfect is just perfect all right here's another crown he's not too bad but he's going to look a little bit better all right let's ready one two three i love these shells oh my gosh oh wow oh he's so pretty that one came out great looks like he had to repair himself he's got like little little lumpy things going on in his shell but oh man that was a really good one all right let's see now this guy i think we have a little bit of calcification but i also think that he might have been faded so let's find out all right make sure i got a good hold of them one two three oh my gosh wow all right he already was you can kind of see the colors he's a little faded but wow that cleaned up nice all right what else are we gonna dip let's do let's see this guy all right let's go let's just see i don't know if anything's really going to change too much and that's okay too once i get the acid out i go a little i start dipping everything that looks great oh that looks so pretty i love the sound of those guys too all right let's do check this guy out i just thought that he was such a pretty color and i bet you we're gonna make him a little bit brighter so we'll do a quick one one two let's do a quick one make sure we're not flicking look at them now now again when the shells are wet it's going to bring the color out kind of like the concept of the mineral oil so it's a little hard to tell but from first glance i mean these guys look fabulous oh really happy so let's see if i can you know go through a little quicker or let's i'm gonna try to move it along so we can see as much as we can without making it a two hour video okay that guy cleaned up nice all right let's just keep we're going to keep dipping come on buddy i'm going to start moving and trying to go a little bit quicker safety first though people this is acid after all and let's let's try this nutmeg he definitely he's got some calcification going on make sure he got a good hold of him oh he came out really good look at him oh that's these harder shells those those they work really really good and let's do this guy he's not in perfect shape but let's i bet you dipping them will make them even better let's see careful with the flicking and i'm trying to be very careful yeah that looks great it's not perfect but that's a you know what doesn't have to be yes finding the perfect shell is awesome but sometimes the imperfections can be okay too actually speaking of imperfections i know i have this guy he's only a piece and i was going to dip him in there so come on imperfect guy all right get a hold of him be very careful with the flicking oh yay look at the color on him now that looks awesome all right next up i'm going to do this other crown make sure i got a good hold of them i just don't want to drop them in the acid i don't care if i drop them in the water here's a do a quick one look at the color on them now how you like me now that's this guy it came out good all right so i'm going to quickly well i don't know how quick he can really dip things into acid i'll just try to not talk so much i don't know although that's not really going to help it move along is it now they're looking great oh it looks so good all right let's try this little mirex make sure i just try to make sure i got a good hold of him he's gonna do a quick dip he's a pretty and let's try a tulip so it's got a little you know kind of like that white layer going on white layer is gonzo oh that looks awesome look at that gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous so why don't we do another one while we're at it this this shell is a little bit more worse for wear but that's all right let's see if we can help him out with this color yep looking good buddy now this guy this is like oops i want to be really careful with him because it's like the only like really orange true tulip i have i know considering i go out there so much i don't always find everything i want so the tulips have been elusive to me also the true tulips like a nice big one i find lots of banded tulips what do you think i think he looks pretty good i'm gonna go quick on those guys and this guy i was pretty convinced he was just missing his color i don't think much is gonna happen if i dip him but let's find out okay yep don't think much is gonna too much is gonna change he's still pretty weight that's okay he's got a lovely shape we'll just let him hang out with his friends okay so let's do this guy i suspect he's gonna clean up real nice and i think he looks like he's gonna be a dark color make sure he got him he's big enough to get there we go good handle on him get him in there get him out of there his tail didn't really get dipped maybe i'll go back oh yeah guys it's like magic look at how much that guy cleaned up oh it's gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous all right what we're doing let's do this guy two three gorgeous now again i know these guys are wet so they're going to look even brighter but we'll hopefully i'll remember to come back and give you a shot of what these guys look all dry and so you can see that their color has really really this acid really helps the color come out and that's basically what it's doing it's just kind of eating away the top layer of of calcium and i guess maybe there's other muck although the acid doesn't seem to be really working on the muck per se let's do this guy can get a hold of him so he it's not terrible but i bet he could be better let's just see gorgeous so it's fun because after i had done this the first time there's shells that were i might have in the past i might have left them but i knew that i'd be able to dip them and it would bring all that color out so look at that guy oh he came out awesome all right let's do another another lightning walk sorry about that oh yeah it just works i don't know what else to say other than it just works all right this one might give me a little bit of trouble this guy's pretty big and i'm a chicken and i'm only really dealing with these these little bits of acid so i'll just kind of put the bigger end in there just kind of get them as much as i can get them safely into the water let's see how we look oh my gosh awesome sorry about the trying to be safe and shoot this at the same time ain't always easy gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous all right we'll do this guy too all right some of the white stuff i was talking about did not come off but all that calcification did so maybe i can just soak this guy maybe get those other white things off i'm still learning as i go do a crown conch because they seem to have really good results yep it's really it's just gonna get as good as it can get in my opinion i'm also gonna say i'm pretty sure team acid is gonna beat team mineral oil but not everybody has the luxury of having their own driveway i realize this that maybe you have i don't know a condo or an apartment so at least the mineral oil will give you another option it's not permanent but it gives you another way to safely he cleaned up so nice safely kind of go through this process without actually using the acid you have something to take your take that calcification off or at least real bring the color of your shells out that's basically what that as you can see is what the mineral oil does oh it's it's like magic right this guy doesn't need much so i'm just one do him quick and then i have a lot of dipping to do so i'm going to go ahead and just kind of do this behind the scenes and then we'll come back and take a look at what everything looks like and we'll also compare and we'll see who won either team oil or team acid okay i've dipped almost everything i saved i couldn't help myself because i think that that this guy's gonna come out really good so i figured i'd circle back and let's share it i'll share it with you guys this i'm not really sure i just really really really like this shell and i've never really seen anything bad happen with the acid especially on a scallop or anything that's not supposed to be shiny he's still looking pretty awesome that little white thing is still there but i kind of knew that speaking of which something i already probably know this is an albino lightning milk and there's some like stuff on him i don't think it's going to come off but i'm going to give him a quick dip and i guess confirm my hypothesis one two three yep i'm still thinking i see some of that green yep so at least in my experience so far the acid doesn't help with that green stuff maybe bleach will all right i know this guy's gonna come out good ready i knew it look at how dark isn't it awesome okay so that is the last knot of the entire uh that's the last of the stuff i intended to dip i still have that whole thing to go through so this is what everybody looks like they look all bright all that calcification is gone i did dip this one a second time and i just he's just too far gone maybe i think i'll just try him with the water and i'll go back to that dental tool and see what i can do because you know that's a pretty good sized apple mirex so i'm gonna try and then we have the welks and everything else came out really really really really good so now we're gonna go compare and see how team acid stacks up against team oil okay so here's the final results i'm kind of trying to keep them next to each other so we can really kind of see and i just might be wrong i thought team acid was going to win i don't know if you could see i feel like the tulip uh well i don't know what do you think i think they both look pretty good moon snail is probably not the best uh choice of shell because it's not quite as dramatic the changes but i don't know i think i might go with a tie on the results now of course with the oil it's not permanent the acid is a little more dangerous so i guess depending on your circumstances your comfortability dealing with caustic liquids you can just choose to do either so that's the comparison i'm gonna go with a tie i don't know if you think different by all means leave me a comment and let me know what you think thank you so very much for watching i love you guys you guys are the best if you haven't hit that subscribe button i do recommend you do it because every week i do bring you some sort of beachy goodness and i really hate for you to miss out so hit that subscribe button and i'll see you again soon

Channel: SWF Beach Life

Views: 21,879

Keywords: cleaning seashells, cleaning sea shells, cleaning shells, muriatic acid, sea shells, how to clean sea shells, seashells, sea shell cleaning, seashell cleaning, acid dip shells, cleaning shells with muriatic acid, cleaning shells with vinegar, cleaning shells with bleach, dispose of muriatic acid, how to clean seashells, how to use acid to clean seashells, dipping shells in muriatic acid, swf beach life, cleaning shells for crafts, cleaning shells with muriatic acid dilution

Id: 5LxOirero5M

Length: 31min 47sec (1907 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 07 2020