FAQ's

Frequently Asked Questions:

What happens if the bottle / glass breaks during the tumbling process? 

We utilize the same policy that most of the other bottle cleaning services offer.  All antique glass is tumbled at the customer's own risk.  We ask that you disclose all chips and cracks prior to mailing your item to us.  We will also closely inspect the piece when it arrives and discuss any concerns with you prior tumbling.  Bottle tumbling is relatively a safe procedure and we have tumbled many bottles.  While it is very rare, antique glass can have different characteristics such as manufacturing defects or defects acquired in the past hundred(s) of years.  Like most things in life, there is always the inherited risk of damage or total loss of the bottle.  We have not had any breakage during the tumbling process at IowaBottles.  

Can any bottle be tumbled?

Almost any antique glass item can be tumbled / restored through our various processes.  

Will tumbling take off the embossing on my bottle?

The antique bottle tumbling process does not remove your embossing.  The process safely cuts and polishes the entire bottle itself.  When done correctly by experience tumblers, we polish around the embossing using the correct process so no embossing is removed.   

Bottles with light embossing have a small inherited risk of becoming lighter.  This rare and uncommon with experienced tumblers.  Your bottles are closely monitored while in our care.  

Does tumbling hurt the value of my bottle?

No!  Tumbling is one of the ways we have been able to save bottles that were otherwise an eye sore in your collection of shiny pieces of antique glass.  As with all areas of collecting, individual collectors will have preferences on tumbled versus un-tumbled bottles.  During our 10+ years of bottle collecting, we have many more people prefer clean and displayable bottles versus sick glass bottles.  Tumbling is the most accepted form of cleaning / restoring bottles properly.

If you still have further questions, please contact Ashton @ schulzantiques@gmail.com or by call / text (563)503-9084.