Steel wool shows those micro scratches. I’m restoring my 100 year old mailbox tonight. Super pleased with the results. Just because something is beat up , rode hard, and put up wet doesn’t mean it can’t happen shine again. Sometimes it just needs someone to see what is under the filth and take a lil bit of time to get it back to being useful and clean again. This mailbox should last another 100 years now.
Made screwdriver mistake at first today on the mailbox but after about 20+ 🧽 scrubs with heavy duty cleaner they scratched is gone. It wasn’t a deep one just superficial surface
easy way to brass plate the door knob is to use a brass wire brush in a drill press and heat it with a blowtorch and push the knob into the wheel it will rub the brass onto it giving it a lovely coating
Yup I remember the old motorcycle mudguard chrome peeling off with age leaving the copper coating beneath, that was many years ago & I’m sure they found a cheaper way of doing it later without the copper underneath, nowadays it’s all Chinesium monkey metals & plastics! Damn SOBs gotta ruin everything!! Sorry for the rant 😬
Looks like the original plates were the decorative oval ones. Is that what the other doors in the house have? These are just universal plain rectangular plates. They still sell them at hardware and big box stores, and they are very thin cheap plated metal. I was fortunate to have all the original fancy plates in my house, but the copper finish is mostly gone off of them. I always save old door hardware when I find it. I do have a couple of the oval plates somewhere if you want them. There are companies who now make many of the old style decorative plates but they are expensive. The tiny screws that hold the plates to the door are prone to getting stripped out and then the plate wiggles. I fixed mine by filling the stripped out screw holes with wood filler or epoxy, letting it dry and then redrilling the holes with a tiny drill bit. For a better bond, I dab some good silicone caulk on the underside of the plate at each corner. The gives the plate a better bond to the door, pulling/pushing the door and turning the knob puts pressure on the plates and the screws get loose and fall out.
Ah yes, I love antique knobs and latches like that, such sturdy old mechanisms and so many variations! I have a couple plates of very similar design but they're a bit more beat-up and I'll have to make some forms or something to straighten/flatten them. They do often get indented where the knob goes, I've pondered putting a spacer under the plate to support that area. (I suspect doors that stick or are hard to latch lead to the plates getting beat-in there) Mine were pretty badly rusted from being improperly stored for years, so I had them blasted and plan to paint them enamel black.
I have the exact same door knobs and plates. Boiled the paint off using vinegar and will try protecting them with linseed oil. Good luck with your project!
Nice work! As a note, please don't ever put a piece of your clothing that close to spinning machinery ever again. You were a sneeze away from being injured.
I always am amused how you favor your pocket knife as a screw driver over an actual screw driver as you struggle to use it as a screw driver, at time. They probably stuffed cigarette buts in there to block the keyhole. Every house I lived in had something shoved in the keyhole to block people from peeping through.
@@RinoaL As a person who used to carry one of those around, the ability to quickly spin the driver is worth its weight in gold. Personally, I think it makes a better paint scraper. ;)
I have four doors with same hardware in my 1920s apartment and they all were painted over as well. Was that common to do back then? Even all my light switches outlets
@@stevenplount2567Probably not. Between tenets it is easiest for a landlord to just paint over everything rather than go through the effort of cleaning aging metal hardware
Nice! Thanks! I’m working on some old hardware in my 1940 home. Turns out you’ve shown that I can improve the look beyond just getting off the dumb paint from the knob and back plate. Why on earth do people paint door knobs???
I just put item like that in a solution of caustic soda, leave it for and hour and rinse in cold water. I then use 0000 steel wool and the result is great, no scratches lovely finish like it was when new. Just remember caustic soda is CAUSTIC so use rubber gloves
Do you check for lead in paint before using heat to remove or is it so infrequent that you consider the risk negligible? Not judging, just comparing to how I approach things like this.
In my house I just leave the skeleton key on the inside part of the bathroom door all the time. You really don't need the outer keyhole, unless you want to lock someone in the bathroom! Lol
I have that exact hardware all over our 1920's house and I honestly thought they were just dull brown until I took one out to fix and realized nope, they're just realllly dirty. I went through the process of cleaning one, but I don't have a wheel. Do you recommend a different method to get them to shine like that without it?
14:08 The exact moment you dropped that plate something on my PC disconnected a USB device.. *windows 10 USB disconnect sound* They look really good :) Nice job!
Would it be possible to remove just the heads on one of these kinds of old knobs, leaving the plates on the door? I want to clean some thick, latex-like paint off of mine, but I’m worried that if I take the whole knob out of the door that I won’t be able to get it back in.
Boy , it looks really good . I think it has alot of character . If only the knobs could talk . It would scream " I wanna be glass " Although I think the glass knobs were used later . Have a great day and try to stay warm .....brrr
i think it was more of a fancier thing than later. this house was built on a budget after all. but yeah i agree, the glass ones are so nice i may just need to cast my own from multi coloured glass!
You're simply great! Thank you.... I'l have about..... 15 door knobs to do. A question: Do you have to put back wax on your knobs after restauration? Thank you!!!
I believe those are brass knobs In the door plate would have been painted black from the factory I collect those kind of things have quite a few skeleton key knob and key lock set ups in my collection that I have plans on using somedayI’m surprised they changed out the round plate for the Square plate those are quite hard to come by
@@RinoaL It’s probably why they changed them out because they knew it be harder to find parts for the round ones and they probably if it’s the one that I’m thinking of accidentally broke it and it didn’t look as good broken but if they had saved the pieces they probably could’ve had it fixed back together by somebody who knew what they were doing
@@caodesignworks2407 Then leave the video playing on an old phone or tablet with ads while you watch on a better device without ads so the creator still gets the ad revenue. Best of both worlds! :)
Not all kids. Especially if your parents didn't raise you with respect. But, thank you for your comment and reply. Still doing a great job at your video. Don't take it personal.
Destroyed the finish by scraping with a screwdriver, almost hurt yourself multiple times with poor safety practices using a grinder polisher. You should delete this video so someone doesn't copy you and get injured and destroy their antique hardware.
Thought it was an interesting video, but turned it off because of the vulgar language. That type of language is not necessary in getting the message across. I'll find my information on another channel.
