Best way to deal with tail rust... thoughts?

[Artemesia's Garden]

Hi there, as many people know, tail rust is called by oxidation of the metal washer inside the pony that hold the tail in place. It's just a cheap iron pressing and rusts easily. However, in my experience (1000+ restorations) the clamp itself that holds the hair may become discoloured at worst but does not corrode, so this should never be removed.  A lot of people discard tail washers but I think that unless they are very badly corroded, the washer should be treated and replaced since they are a part of the original pony and different ponies have different washers. I tend to file off the worst of the rust with sand paper and then coat the washer with Paraloid B72 before returning it to the pony. I just wanted to share this, because I was having a conversation with a friend recently about conservation methods.  Anyone any other thoughts?

[hathorcat]

I have come across rusted clamps...but you are right you dont see too many so normally I leave them in place and simply ensure everything is as dry as possible before going back into the pony.

I dont tend to keep ponies in my collection that have had to be treated in this way but the few that I do, I put plastic washers back in but keep the metal ones. If the pony is ever resold she gets her metal washer back.

[Stormness_1]

I too have seen rusted metal clamps, one actually disintegrated when I grabbed it to pull the tail out - that was some really bad rust in there!  One just today had the washer just vanish when my pliers touched it - I looked inside and there was a round washer, but by the time it got to the neck hole it was completely gone! Today I washed a lot that have obviously been used as bath toys though - twenty-odd G1's ALL with some degree of tail rust. 

I pop the head, pull the tail out, scrub around the inside with hot water and dish soap, if the rust is bad, especially down in the legs, I put some toothpaste down there to lift all of it. Then I put toothpaste on the tail and massage it through all the discolouration, until it starts to turn the toothpaste brown, then rinse with hot water and repeat until the staining is as gone as you can get it - not all ponies will come completely clean. If the washer is too bad, I remove it, otherwise I remove as much rust as I can before drying completely and returning the tail to the pony. With my own collection ponies, I remove the washer, because it's a humid climate, and I don't want the rust reappearing. For heads I just get the toothbrush in there with some hot water, making sure I get all the way into the ears and muzzle.

[Ivy]

I'm bad about discarding the washers when I pull them out. I don't bother replacing them when I put the tail in because unless you pull especially hard on the tail it's not gonna come out.

[Baby Sugarberry]

I've come across a few rusted tail clamps, but by and large the washers are indeed the culprits.  It takes some serious water exposure for the chrome-ish clamp to succumb, and it's usually from the underside.  I do pretty much what Stormness described for cleaning.  Really hot water helps soften the legs temporarily so they can be bent and more easily scrubbed with a toothbrush.  Don't ever put the metal washers back in if they show any sign of rust (why invite trouble?), and sometimes will I use zip-ties - some ponies instead of the 'T' shape with the clamp being the top of the 'T' and the tail the vertical bit have the clamp and tail oriented in the same direction, and those definitely need something to hold them properly in place.  Baby pony tails are also more prone to slippage.  Long term drying is a must, minimum a week with head and body separate is what I do.

[Artemesia's Garden]

I find this thing of rusted clamps really interesting, it would be good to know if it was only certain ponies... as I say I've seen discoloured clamps but never one that's disintegrated on me.

I've also been using a child's toothbrush, toothpaste and hot water to clean in the legs, then leaving them open for a week or so to dry completely.  It's good that we all agree that they need to be completely dry inside before reassembly.  Another member mentioned once (not sure who sorry  ) that they use a cotton bud (Q Tip) to dry inside the legs and check for moisture before reassembly.

In the past if there was any sign of rust I used to just put the tail back without a washer, like Ivy and Sugarberry, because I agree that at least then you're not inviting trouble... so I have a few ponies without washers and a bag of half rusty washers in my tool kit.  Then having some collections training in a museum I started to worry about the ethics of discarding the washers if they could be saved.  Archiving washers separately from the ponies seems like such a hassle, so I started to feel that if possible it would be good to keep the original washer with the pony.  I thought of putting them in a small plastic bag inside the body of the pony but then I heard about plastics interacting negatively so I changed my mind.  Someone mentioned they sand the rust off the washer with sandpaper and put it back (sorry again not sure who  ) so I tried sanding the worst off and then coating with clear polyeurethane varnish. I figured that kind of varnish is used a lot for customising and no-one has reported melting ponies, yet, but again it might be a problem in the long run.  But finally I found out about Paraloid B72 which is really useful stuff and museum conservators use it.  They said polyurethane varnish probably wasn't a bad choice but paraloid is probably a better for use around plastics.  Paraloid B72 should work really well to stabilise the washer so I'll no longer have the worry of discarding part of the original pony or storing it separately etc.  I'll do some checks and update in another 6 months or so 

[lovesbabysquirmy]

I am always coming across degraded washers and clamps and grossness - so I use the zipties and take all that rusty metal out of the pony.

[Starfall]

Long term drying is a must, minimum a week with head and body separate is what I do.

I stick one of those paper packs of silica gel that you get in shoeboxes and hangbags to help the drying process along.

[SkyCakes]

Even if the clamp isnt rusted I take it out. Someone else will wash the pony I traded/swapped so I just use zipties to replace that problem altogether.

[Artemesia's Garden]

Even if the clamp isnt rusted I take it out. Someone else will wash the pony I traded/swapped so I just use zipties to replace that problem altogether.

Do you find the tail slips out of shape at all? I had a re-bait situation where I saved a tail like this and it was hair raisingly tricky because the cable tie wasn't tight enough... I had to pick out hairs a few at a time and realign them all...

[Doedeardarling]

I like to keep ponies with their original clamps and washers if I can, so I only really replace them if they fall in pieces.

[Strawberry Swirl]

The clamps can be taken out?
Gee, I wish I'd known that earlier...I thought it was impossible to remove the clamps from tails. ;__; (Majesty knows that certain ponies wouldn't be tail-less if I'd know this lol. )
Anyone have a tutorial?


As for tail rust, my procedure is to remove the head + scrub the life outta the insides with toothpaste + toothbrush.
Works great for me!

[SkyCakes]

Even if the clamp isnt rusted I take it out. Someone else will wash the pony I traded/swapped so I just use zipties to replace that problem altogether.

Do you find the tail slips out of shape at all? I had a re-bait situation where I saved a tail like this and it was hair raisingly tricky because the cable tie wasn't tight enough... I had to pick out hairs a few at a time and realign them all...

I suppose it depend on how tight you want it. I try to put it as tight as I can. I do admit I lose a few hair strands when brushing but I rather rely on zip-ties. plastic + plastic = no rust.

[Baby Sugarberry]

The clamps can be taken out?

They can be removed, it takes some serious muscle power and good pliers though, two pairs.  Basically you hang onto the clamp with one set of pliers (clamping needlenose if you have them work great) and then you bend the edges of the clamp open with the other.  The clamp itself is a 'C' shape with the ends of the 'C' curled inwards.  It's best to secure the tail hair in some way first so it doesn't all go flying everywhere, temporary zip ties work well.  Don't forget proper protective gear!

[Starfall]

I use donor hair in my restos - here's my tips/method:

- spray tail with a water mist bottle so ends are damp enough to let the ends stick together
- get a flathead screwdriver and poke it vertically down the clamp.  If too tight, try and ease a corkscrew point in there and work it loose.
- hold at one end and brush out any bits of hair that were cut in half during the above/ have rotted away.  Repeat other side.
- tie 1/3 and 2/3 mark of tail with cable ties - tightly - to retail original shape (curl etc)
- wash rusty bit in the middle and rinse using preferred detergent (I like laundry soap).  Rinse well.
- Straighten middle section where clamp was using variable straightening iron while slightly damp
- Allow to dry, then secure in middle with cable tie tightly
- remove cable ties at 1/3 and 2/3 points
- condition, rinse, then curl slightly damp hair using variable curling iron


Et voila!