Cleaning / preserving needle tins

[poodling around]

I don't collect needle tins but have acquired a few over the years which I would like to display.

How do people clean / preserve them wonder ?

I think furniture polish with wax may be a good preserver - stopping rust from developing ?

[Kent in KC]

I use a good quality car polish to clean them up.

[gramophoneshane]

Car wax is much better for paintwork than furniture polish containing wax.
Don't use a Cut and Polish, or paint restorer, but a good quality creme or paste wax like you might use to wax your car.
Leave the furniture polish for shellac etc finishes.

That said, I think the very best way to preserve needle tins is to do nothing at all.
A lot of tins we find in machines have survived in there for 50 yrs or more without much trouble. Provided they're not left in the open to gather dust, moisture and are exposed to sunlight they generally survive really well.

The tins I do like to wax mostly are those I use with open horn machines.
Because they usually don't have needle cups, I leave a tin either on the corner of the motor board, or sitting on the table in front of the machine.
In this case I think wax makes it a bit more resistant to moisture and dust damage.

[poodling around]

Thanks very much Kent in KC and gramophoneshane.

Great advice and really apprecated.