Don Dahlberg
11-16-2006, 08:39 AM
I assume you are talking about a water based clock cleaner. Some people use a water based cleaner, but they follow it with an alcohol rinse and dry in watchmaker's sawdust.
The important thing is that there is a lot of steel in a watch and it is very thing and very prone to rust. If you do not get it dry quickly after cleaning and rinse, you will get rust and you have done great harm.
If you are out of cleanier, I would just use rinse and elbow grease. The only difference between the rinse and the cleaner are some detergents to remove some of the more polar greases and materials to removed oxidized metals. You can clean with the rinse, but you may have to do some extra brush work and peg wood work.
Don
The important thing is that there is a lot of steel in a watch and it is very thing and very prone to rust. If you do not get it dry quickly after cleaning and rinse, you will get rust and you have done great harm.
If you are out of cleanier, I would just use rinse and elbow grease. The only difference between the rinse and the cleaner are some detergents to remove some of the more polar greases and materials to removed oxidized metals. You can clean with the rinse, but you may have to do some extra brush work and peg wood work.
Don