golfrewind.com

Hi Folks,
I decided to get back into the game after 23 years. I found a set of clubs in a pawn shop. The owner said he knew nothing about golf. The irons looked like oxidized bronze and other than that, appeared to be in good condition. They are a set of BeCu 2-PW, Sea Island Custom Clubs by Ray Cutright. What is the best way to clean/polish the BeCu heads? By the way, I got the irons, 3 woods, and a "Hot-Z" leather and canvas bag for $35.00. The shafts and grips are in excellent to good condition.

If they are BECU, then shining them up is really no problem. I know that this
is going to sound nuts, but go to the grocery and buy the cheapest 3 liter
bottle of Cola you can find. Pour it in a bucket and let the clubs soak
overnight. The acid in the Cola will clean the tarnish and they will be "like
new". I've heard that this isn't reccomended by PING due to the fact that
the acids will eventually eat away at the chrome on the shafts, but every
once in a while can't hurt.

Have you tried Brasso? or some other copper cleaner? If they were mine, I'd bead blast all the heads at about 80 PSI. That will remove the tarnish, and leave you with a nice even dull finish. Beadblasting will not remove any metal if done right and it will in fact make the surface of the metal a little harder. BECu is some really tough metal, it can handle the beadblasting fine.

Go with the Coke - they come up beautifully!

Now if Im not mistaken, Be is Beryllium which is exceptionally toxic were you to get microparticles into your lungs. Have a read of this:

http://my.webmd.com/hw/health_guide_atoz/nord481.asp

We work with Be windows in our research, were one to smash badly, it would be a clear out the building affair. I cannot express how bad an idea it would be to put yourself at any risk of inhaling Be.... even if this bead blasting should not remove any metal, there is a finite risk which is not worth it.

Can't say about pure Beryllium, but I've worked as a machinist for years, and I've made some things from Beryllium Copper, and I've never heard of any problems with the metal. It's been used for high proformance bearing for years, and it's a really tough material, the bearings last for a real long time, and the metal holds a good amount of oil within the pores. Makes some great bushings. I'll have to check out that site you listed and see what's up. Thanks for the tip.

Hi I'm back, I just went to that site and did a search for BEcu and got a site that manufactures the metal. It's says there are no special handling requirement for it in the solid form. It's only a problem if you are exposed to the dust for lone periods of time. So playing with BeCu irons or wedges wouldn't be a problem. Nor would bead blasting the heads in a beadblasting cabinet. The dust, if any, would be filtered out.

The critical parameter is the size of the particles..... suffice that I work in a physics lab and we use beryllium windows due to their X-ray transmission..... if one happens to break, the lab will be sealed up until someone in protective gear can go in and remove the window.....

Or.... our non-magnetic tools are made from high grade BeCu..... if one breaks (which happens because they are soft), you are potentially at risk simply from the particulates released.

I dont for sure know the truth, but we will work with all kinds of risks (100's of kilovolts, massive magnetic fields etc.) and the beryllium is one of the most warned against risks..... there must be some good reason....