The Curta.org Bulletin Board

[pyaresquared]

I have several Curtas that were in a fire. Soot blackened the most exposed numbers on the dials, mainly the zeroes, nines, and ones. I've tried cleaning the number dials in an ultrasonic cleaner and in a petroleum-based solvent. Neither was entirely satisfactory.

Does anyone have experience restoring the numbers, perhaps using paint? The factory paint appears to be silver or aluminum.

[Rubberswan]

The numbers weren’t painted. What you see is the exposed aluminium that wasn’t anodised. I’d use kitchen cleaner (bleach based) with a cotton bud. Go gently, and you’ll clean the dirt off. Don’t worry about removing “paint”, because the numbers aren’t painted.
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Curta 1 - 61153
Curta 2 - 508965