Old House Door/Window Hardware ... Part 2 ...

[dharrar]

Thanks in advance for reading.

I mentioned on the plating forum that I have a ton of old door/window hardware to refinish. I have polished a fair amount of brass, but do have a couple questions since the people on this forum are far more advanced than me. What a great resource this is! Here are the questions ...

(1)
The hardware has an impressive amount of old paint on some of the parts. In the past, I have used a wire wheel to get it off but that results in orange peel that must then be removed. Other than using paint remover to strip it, is there a machine way. Suggestions?

(2)
The old double-hung windows had these mortised-in pulls ... not handles, but concave oval pulls set into the lower sash. Can't get a polishing wheel in there, as it's too small. Thoughts on how to do that?

(3)
We are not enormous fans of super-bright polished brass, but would actually like them to be antiqued just a little. How do I do that?

(4)
Once they are antiqued, do they still need to be clear-coated? Or, is the antiquing/coat adequate to keep them at the color/finish they result?

(5)
If the answer to (4) is that you must coat them, what is the best manner to do so recognizing I'm a DIY-at-home person (e.g. no industrial oven).

Thoughts?

DTH

[mpierich]

Perfect candidates for a vibratory bowl finisher. I believe Caswell sells them, or find someone who has one. Gun people sometimes have them for cleaning brass shell casings. You could probably even remove the paint that way, or put them in a steel basket and blast 'em.

There are plenty of antiquing products, look here on Caswell's and/or Google it.