Reusable toothpick?

I'm sure that using toothpicks, as with any tools, carries with it a risk of damaging a coin. However, given that I do resort to toothpicks after repeated acetone baths and q-tips fail to remove dirt and other agents on the coin, are there any reusable toothpicks? I can see a lot of toothpicks getting used up, and in order to reduce waste, I'm wondering if there's something like a hardwood toothpick that can be used over and over again.

Maybe even something like a lignum vitae wood toothpick, assuming that the hardwood is softer than the metal of the coin, but harder than the crud. Maybe even stabilized woods or plastics, but I don't know about those... are they too hard for the coin, e.g. will cause scratches? Anyone have experience with this?

 

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I've seen hip-hop guys with diamond toothpicks or are you not that classy?

 

lol, the question sounds silly... but it's a serious question, no joke!

And, I wish I was that classy.

 

Pretty sure that would be harder than the surfaces of most of my coins. Then again, I have no class.

 

Yes, there are plastic reusable toothpicks. http://www.armonds.com/media/zippro-small.jpg However, I would recommend using a toothbrush with soft to medium bristles, they will do the job just fine.

 

A soft toothbrush will not scratch the coin, hairline or otherwise? And, I guess I'll have to practice with plastic picks on "regular" coins to see if they scratch coins. I haven't had any issues with wooden toothpicks, so perhaps a harder wood would do if plastics do scratch.

 

The diamond is on the end that doesn't go in your mouth, that way you look cool. I assume the actual pick part is ivory or something equally expensive and useless. I would never advocate using a diamond on a coin, the coin is too valuable.

 

I woulod not worry about "wasting" toothpicks since all you could ever use have already been made and quite frankly, if you go any harder you WILL scratch the coin. At that point, its better just to leave the crud on the coin (which can be acceptable) vs scratching the coin (which is not acceptable).

 

If you need to pry something loose, use a rose thorn..........

 

Maybe I'll just buy and start using bamboo toothpicks after the birch wood toothpicks run out. Should last through more coins and probably less hard than plastic.

 

The private contractor boys with the CIA have had great success with 'em........

 

Wouldn't be no problem to make them out of scraps of lignum vitae or rosewood. Both super hard woods I got in my dhop

 

Swiss Army knives many times will have a plastic toothpick

 

You mean the Bugs Bunny cartoon lied when it showed a sawmill using a lathe to grind down whole trees into single toothpicks?

 

There easy to make actuly take a straight grain piece of wood cut a 2" length split flat sections about 3/16 thick out of it then split again or slice into toothpicks with a sharp knife

 

Use a young rose's thorn, it will get the stuff off the surface of a coin, and will not harm the surface.

 

I bet a thornapple thorn work good in the 18th c they used to use them intead of small nails to attach moldings and trim

 

Interesting suggestions. I would think cactus needles/thorns would work, too. Perhaps porcupine needles will work, too!

Maybe even hardwood knitting needles if they're fine enough (random hardwood needles shown below). Toothpicks are just under Ø2mm (Ø1.9mm); the last knitting needle at the bottom should be Ø2.0mm (US size 0 from what I've read; but even smaller ones exist). They're the same size but should be a lot stronger so it should last quite a bit longer (years probably).

 

All of the substances mentioned above are equal or harder than coin metal if we are referring to a scratch test ( Moh's method). Silver and gold are between 2.5-3.0, and copper , brass, and bronze are 3 range. The average wood is usually listed as 3 also. You can tell by taking a coin and see if the edge will produce a scratch when moved down the wood piece and then reverse and see if the wood edge would scratch the metal coin. Don't do this if the appearance of the coin afterwards matters to you. A piece of human fingernail is about 2.5. The thorns mentioned go from 2.5-3+ depending on how old they are. Measurement of Mohs hardness is mainly for minerals, so there is little data on organic substances. Interesting is that rice hulls can measure up to 5 as they have silicates in their structure

Even microscopic scratches can affect the surface appearance as to grade luster. Also consider that the gunk accumulates in certain areas/densities and to remove any may reveal underlying changes that easily show the coin as altered surfaces.

 

My friend.
Where do I even start, you are ACTUALLY asking:
1) Are there reusable toothpicks?
2) Are there STABILIZED wood or plastic toothpicks?
3) (this one wasn't a question, more of a statement I am questioning) You are concerned with the resulting waste from your "coin cleaning toothpick use?"

You seem reasonably intelligent. Which just further confounds me to your post. I feel like if you walked into a random US high school, most of the selected students probably wouldn't be familiar with some of your vocabulary (lignum vitae) or the concept of hardness as you are applying it to coins and coin cleaning. So, don't read my post as an insult. With that said. Are you really asking this?

If my palm hit my forehead any harder after reading that it would have collapsed my skull.