How it works
Nobody fires a laser at your bronze on day one.
This is a slow, reversible, watch-it-happen process — and the parts that protect you happen before any production work starts.
Photos first
Before anyone drives anywhere, send pictures. A wide shot, a close-up of the worst area, and a note on what you know about the piece — who made it, when it was last treated, what has already been tried on it. Most jobs can be scoped and priced from that alone, and it costs you nothing.
The single most useful thing you can tell us is what has already been done to it. Prior chemical treatment or a coat of something changes the whole approach.
On-site assessment
We come look at it. What is the substrate actually made of, what is sitting on top of it, is the contamination organic or mineral, is there anything underneath that we need to not go through. This is where the honest conversation happens about what is realistic — including whether laser is the right call at all.
The test patch
Nothing production-scale happens until there is a small test area in a spot nobody looks at, cleaned at several different parameter settings. You look at it. You decide which level of clean you actually want — because 'clean' is a choice, not a fixed point, and on a 40-year-old bronze it is very possible to go too far.
This is the step that separates conservation work from industrial work, and it is not optional here.
Parameters locked
Power, pulse frequency, pulse width, scan speed and focal distance get set to the window you approved, and they get written down. Above the ablation threshold of what is coming off, below the threshold of what is staying. Same settings, whole job.
Production cleaning
Controlled area, laser safety eyewear for anyone inside it, fume extraction at the work face. Work proceeds in sections so you can see progress and stop us at any point. Nothing about this process is irreversible in a single pass — that is the entire advantage.
Walkthrough and protection
We walk it with you before packing up. On outdoor bronze, cleaning is only half the job — bare metal wants a fresh protective coating before the next monsoon, and we will tell you what it needs and when it will need it again.
Outdoor bronze in this climate wants attention on a cycle, not once. We will be straight with you about what that cycle looks like.
A note on conservation
Where we sit relative to a conservator.
We are the laser and the operator. On a significant piece — a signed bronze, a museum accession, anything with real provenance — the treatment decisions belong with a qualified conservator, and we are happy to work under one or alongside one.
Plenty of work does not need that: a gallery's outdoor inventory, a private collector's garden pieces, architectural bronze and ironwork. But if your piece warrants a conservator and does not have one, we will tell you before we touch it. That is not us being cautious — it is the difference between a restoration that adds value and one that quietly destroys it.
Send us a photo. We'll tell you straight.
Most jobs can be scoped from a few clear pictures. If laser is the wrong tool for what you have, we will say so and point you at the right one.
Free within the service area · Sedona · Verde Valley · Flagstaff