ABSTRACT
This chapter describes some of the challenges associated with quantifying treatment efficiency for washing methods and the impact of treatments on the corrosion rate. It reviews the chloride content of 116 archaeological iron objects from terrestrial sites and examines the relationship between the chloride content of terrestrial archaeological iron, its weight and its surface area. The chapter discusses chloride chemistry in objects and its relevance to chloride extraction and considers how measuring chloride extracted by treatment contributes to assessing treatment success. The meaning and value of chloride concentration recorded as weight of chloride in object/object weight is discussed in relation to reporting the effectiveness of washing methods designed to remove chloride from archaeological iron. Cardiff and Swansea objects had been treated individually by a range of aqueous chloride extraction methods reported elsewhere.
