It was apparent that the rehab bug had hit me when I looked at the painted and corroded door hardware and saw beauty underneath. About half of our St. Paul house looks like the doorknob at right and the painted hinge at left.
The inclination to restore old hinges never occurred to me before, so this was a new adventure. The salvage yards all proclaimed that all one had to do to remove the paint was boil the piece in an old pan. The paint and the metal expand at different rates causing the paint to separate. It sounded worth a shot to me.
Armed with an old pan, old tongs, rags, lots of paper towels to catch the lead paint for hazardous waste disposal, and brass/copper cleaner, I started the process. The boiling wasn't quite as quick as I expected. It took approximately an hour to completely clean the multiple layers of paint from the hinges. But what a reward! The old rosettes (the piece on the door handle that is next to the door) became the beautiful works of art that they are. Who knew? The first cleaned piece was incentive enough to keep going. They were beautiful
What I discovered under layers of paint were brass rosettes with
beautiful East Lake Victorian designs, thick steel hinges that
separated in the middle, copper plated hinges that work like today's
hinges, and solid brass strike plates. Why would anyone paint over
these lovely pieces? Here was my reward. The pictures will enlarge if you click on them.
One word of caution to the novice. Unless you want hands stained with
metal tarnish for a couple days, wear gloves. Otherwise, you may end
up looking like this.
ROTFL! You are so right, Bob! I had a Mary Kay party today and bought the whole hand care line because of knobs and hinges!
Posted by: Bonnie Erickson | December 01, 2007 at 09:18 PM
1. Restore Knobs
2. Restore Hinges
3. Schedule Manicure
Posted by: Bob Carney | December 01, 2007 at 07:54 AM