Thank you for the information! Do I use them basically the same as one would with a blunted toothpick then? The same pressure and such? Thank you again!
Andre’s pencils have been one of the mainstays in my coin/relic cleaning arsenal for the last two years. When used properly, they can truly work wonders on bronze and copper - they do take a bit of practice to master, but they can be learned quickly. I highly recommend practicing on a few Wheat pennies that you don’t particularly care about to get a feel for what they can and cannot do. Yes, the overall technique is similar to using a toothpick, but the pencils are definitely more powerful. I use very small circular motions with the pencils as I clean - always resist the urge to use back and forth/“scribble” type movements which are more likely to scratch the coin surface. How much pressure to use varies depending on the situation, and can only be learned with experience (again, sacrificial Wheaties will be your best friend). Always start with light pressure, allowing the pencil to do the work through scrubbing action as opposed to brute force. You can then vary the pressure as you evaluate the results and the overall condition of the coin’s patina. I’ve been able to use surprisingly aggressive pressure at times to achieve great results with stubborn oxidation and black crust on many copper/bronze coins and relics. As a previous poster mentioned, I’ve learned not to bother using the steel wool brush tool very often - it’s too easy to burn through to shiny metal on the high spots (dates, lettering, etc) if you aren’t careful...the same reason it isn’t wise to use traditional steel wool on a coin. I personally really like the results I get using the pencils as part of the cleaning process, and I truly enjoy using them - I actually find it fun and relaxing. The pencils have definitely turned some hopeless looking coins into nice additions to my own coin book. But always remember, it is a mechanical cleaning process...the coins look great IMHO to the naked eye and under modest magnification (5x and less is all I’ve really used). But don’t expect to fool a coin expert - I’m sure they’ll know immediately that the coin has been cleaned under higher magnification. I doubt I would use the pencils on a key date copper.
All that said, I’ve had one bad experience with purchasing Andre’s pencils. I bought my original set two years ago and they finally were getting worn out (I use them
a lot ), so I purchased a replacement set from Amazon in December 2019. The picture on the seller’s page looked like my original pencils (all wood barrel with “Le Crayon a Andre” stamped directly into the wood), but the set I received were different - the pencil barrel was still wood, but it was wrapped with a cheesy camouflage patterned paper label with “Le Crayon a Andre” printed on it. Much more importantly, the hardened steel wool points looked and worked completely different - no matter what techniques I tried, they ultimately ruined the coins I tried them on. I don’t know if the manufacturer changed the composition of the pencils, I received a bad set, or maybe they were a cheap knock off imitation, but something was definitely wrong. I subsequently bought another set from a different Amazon seller, and received a new set that looked exactly like my old ones - and they performed exactly like my old ones. Moral of the story - if you receive a set wrapped in camouflage wrappers, I recommend sending them back and buy from a different source.