Hi Harry!
TO> About a year ago I bought an early 50's house in Virginia. TO> Some of the doors have what appears to me to be fairly nice TO> hardware. There are also some boxes of bits and pieces in the TO> basement. TO> TO> As I go about gradually painting and fixing things up here, I TO> would kinda like to get this hardware cleaned up and working TO> properly again. For the most part, it has obviously not been TO> well cared for in the past. Much of it has been "painted" on, TO> many of the knobs are falling off, the brass (I guess it's TO> brass) is badly tarnished, etc. TO> TO> Still, it looks to me like, with a bit of patience, quite a TO> bit of it could be rescued. TO> TO> My problem is that I have *no* idea whasoever what I'm doing. TO> I don't even know how to get some of the parts off, much less TO> what to do with them if I do manage to get them removed.
Gently, clean up, and restore.
TO> TO> If anyone happens to know of a source of information about TO> this (book, website, whatever) and / or a source of parts. I'd TO> much appreciate the referral.
Hopefully we can help! I would presume the hardware is screwed on. Scrape off the layer of paint to determine if Phillips or straight- edge screw; you can sometimes "dig into" the paint to establish a hold. At this point a hand-held screwdriver would be much better than an electric- or battery-powered screwdriver (or variable speed drill): less probability of stripping the head.
Once you get the hardware off (may need to cut around the hardware to separate from the layers of paint). Have these tidbits on cleaning old brass:
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To: ALL Number: 44977 From: RAY JENKINS Refer #: Date: 03-19-03 19:30 Recvd: No Subj: Paint off brass? ? ? Conf: 303 R_Home&Gardn BBS: The Safe BBS
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I've started a very large project of removing numerous coats of paint from brass hardware.
I'm presently using regular paint remover, which works but is very slow and tedious. Is there any way to speed up the process?
Boiling the fixtures in some kind of chemical, for instance?
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To: ALL Number: 44999 From: ZEMEDELEC Refer #: Date: 03-19-03 19:31 Recvd: No Subj: Re: Paint off brass? ? ? Conf: 303 R_Home&Gardn BBS: The Safe BBS
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Boil it 10 min. in a pot of water to which you've added 1 tbs. baking soda. Be careful the water doesn't boil over--it tends to. Then drop the hardware in a pot of cold water and when it's touchable, go over it with a scrunge, a toothbrush for crevices, etc.
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To: ALL Number: 45012 From: JOE BOBST Refer #: Date: 03-19-03 19:31 Recvd: No Subj: Re: Paint off brass? ? ? Conf: 303 R_Home&Gardn BBS: The Safe BBS
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If the parts are separate, a heat gun will peel off the paint in a hurry. A variant of the heat gun techbique might be popping the parts in an oven (well ventilated) set at 375 F for a while. Be careful of highly alkaline aqueous strippers as they can leach zinc out of the brass and leave spongey copper at the surface and it will never polish out. Hope this helps.
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To: ALL Number: 45063 From: DAVEFR Refer #: Date: 03-19-03 19:31 Recvd: No Subj: Re: Paint off brass? ? ? Conf: 303 R_Home&Gardn
Continued in next message.
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