Sources for info on old door hardware?

About a year ago I bought an early 50's house in Virginia. Some of the doors have what appears to me to be fairly nice hardware. There are also some boxes of bits and pieces in the basement.

As I go about gradually painting and fixing things up here, I would kinda like to get this hardware cleaned up and working properly again. For the most part, it has obviously not been well cared for in the past. Much of it has been "painted" on, many of the knobs are falling off, the brass (I guess it's brass) is badly tarnished, etc.

Still, it looks to me like, with a bit of patience, quite a bit of it could be rescued.

My problem is that I have *no* idea whasoever what I'm doing. I don't even know how to get some of the parts off, much less what to do with them if I do manage to get them removed.

If anyone happens to know of a source of information about this (book, website, whatever) and / or a source of parts. I'd much appreciate the referral.

Thanks!

Harry

Try this

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I have done buisness with Hippo Hardware in Portland Oregon. Very knowlegeable and if they don't have it or know about it they know who does. The link also gives other building material recyclers.

Also easy test for you on your painted fixtures. use a bit of goof off on the paint if it blisters it is latex and farly easy to remove without damage to the brass. if it doesn't it is oil and you are goping to have to find a chemical striper which does not pit the old brass. You may have to sacrafice some parts to the paint gods to find the right stripper though someone in this NG may have a super secret concoction that will work on old oil paint without damage to the brass.