smoke!

[halofire.livejournal.com]

My grandmother had a black forrest cuckoo clock that my mother got when she died. It no longer works and is beyond repair and after several years as a decorative peice on our living room wall my mother wants to get a working clock of her own from Germany. She couldn't bring herself to just throw it away and was going to burn it until I threw a fit. She gave it to me on the promise of reinventing various parts of it and I have several fabulous ideas for all those little gears that are going to come out of the inside.

The problem is that my grandmother smoked like a chimney stack and the poor clock is probably coated in tar. Except for the scenic "frame" on the front, the wood doesn't matter to me and will probably be tossed, but is there a way to clean the metal bits (gears, chain, pine cone weights)?

text only! I shall dig up photos of another craft tonight to make up for it!