This. Sitting several feet away with the radium behind glass, you're down near background [1], but any contact with the dust is a risk. If you must to open the case, I would suggest doing it outside with mask, gloves, and eye pro: blow the case out with some compressed air to dispel any lose dust. Don't grind or disturb the markings otherwise. You can also replace the hands with non-luminous ones.
Also consider leaning in! Radioactive antiques and minerals is a whole fun hobby by itself; start with a cheap Geiger counter and move up to a scintillator for more fun. There are many artifacts like uranium glass, ceramic glazes, and watches to look for in antique shops.
Agree. Radium is also an issue with vintage watches. A few years ago there was a paper discussing the the dangers of radon gas emitted from vintage watch dials. The tldr is keep them in a ventilated space.
https://www.northampton.ac.uk/news/wwii-military-watches-pot...
I have a dream that all post like this start with an extensive paragraph one the most simple but fundamental question of “Why?”
I know it’s mostly for fun and to tinker around with tech and just having cracked the problem, but mostly there is more to it and for me the most interesting part of such projects.
If I had a dream, well several actually, one of them would be to expand public libraries to include small lab areas where development boards and other useful "bench" stuff were available (maybe for a fee) - a tinker library perhaps.
I could imagine communities springing up around them.
This reminds me of a blog post [1] that was recently posted to HN [2]:
> Fortunately, Helsinki has an amazing library (more like a library, hacker space, gaming cafe, and a public hangout place combined) where I could go and desolder the header for free.
https://theaviationist.com/special-reports/radioactive-mater...