Talk:Metals

Editor's note:
Dear viewers of the 'Metals' page,
my aim is to make this page an all encompassing and authoritative quick reference for conservators, archaeologists, museum professionals, even interested hobbyists who are interested in learning more about metal cultural heritage. This will not happen overnight and I cannot do this by myself.

For the metals page, I am working within the OSG template (which I think is great, thanks LeeAnn!) to try and provide the maximum flexibility that the Wiki medium offers. I want the metals page to have room to grow, but I don't want it to be a redundant resource. We are not trying to create an academic volume on the complete subject of metals... this would be a fool's errand. What we ARE trying to do is create an accessible platform for the exchange of information geared specifically to professionals, so we can be quite specific and quite technical with that exchange. This page (and all of AIC wiki) will grow organically with the desires and dedication of our group.

What kind of information do WE, the users, want on here and what do we care about? That will ultimately dictate the content, this is something which I personally find very exciting. I am also excited about the ease of sharing pictures via Wiki and I am hoping to make this page fun to look at! I think this has great potential, especially when we think about sharing complex techniques of fabrication or repair... there is no limit but us.

If this is going to be a great resource, we will need great contributions... please volunteer to put together a page. Anything that interests you... a particular metal or a treatment (e.g. coating outdoor copper alloy sculpture, care of aluminum sculpture, mechanical repair techniques) or a particular fabrication technique (e.g. niello, bidri ware, or copper vessel raising)could become a page. If it is relevant to your conservation work, then it will probably be relevant to someone else's someday.

TO CONTRIBUTE-copy the OSG template and put together the text in a text editor or word format and send it to me along with .jpg, .tif, or .pdf's that should be included. Even if you don't want to write a page, but you have a photo or bit of information that you think should be included, please send it my way (as long as it respects copyright laws).

Thanks -User:Cwatters

I think this page is looking great and is well on the way to being a great starting point for metals conservation on the OSG wiki. Great job Chris! For those interested in getting involved with the OSG wiki in general, please visit the Contribute page to learn more about getting yourself set up to create and edit directly into the wiki. We need your help!

--LGordon 22:52, 11 March 2012 (UTC)