I’ve got some tags that are pretty tarnished and kind of hard to read,,, I did order some new ones, but would still like to clean these up if possible,,, any suggestions on how to clean them?
I usually clean my traps and de-rust with vinegar water50/50 … but I didn’t know how that would work on the copper tags,,,

Let them soak in ketchup for an hour and then rub them clean
But you're white vinegar should work

I just wrap them face in around the swivel and forget about them.

Vinegar will turn copper black, then green.

Aww this reminds me; I had an old Ducktales comic book. There was a section where Magica DeSpell showed you how to turn pennies into “gold”! I’m pretty sure salt was involved but i don’t remember It was with vinegar or lemon juice or both. But it shined them up so pretty



I wish I still had that old comic book, I must have been 8 or 9
Ol Nasty Magica was a meanie!

I wire and wrap around the chain, also face in. If they're stamped good they should be just fine. You don't want shiny trap tags where you have 'coon.

Exactly

Thanks gang,,, ya… I definitely don’t want them shiny… just in case there’s 2 legged critters running around as well. I just need them legible and serviceable

I never worry about tarnish dip dye or wax on tags. My information is on there. If the game warden needs to read the information he certainly can clean it off.

Don’t warden’s problem

I wrap mine around one side of a link of the chain.
One of the first things I learned as a trapper only because the traps I bought were used and I had to remove the previous owners tags, and that's how he had it done

Why clean them up?

Nowhere in WA AZ laws was i able to find that required them to be readable except for print size……

Ours doesn’t necessarily say that either,,, but I just want to avoid any arguments and a possible ticket that I would have to go to court and fight….
Just simpler to clean up the tags and avoid any possible problems.