Epic Fail
 

We bought a nice flatware set, 18/8 stainless, back about 30 years ago as a present to ourselves. Basically used it for every family meal. When we downsized to our vacation home I figured that it was time to dump the cheap set at the cabin and use our "good" set.

Thirty years takes its toll. Lots of dents from being tossed in the drawer. "I can polish these." After all, I have straightened, remove dents from, polished and fitted stainless trim on cars many times, and to a bright mirror finish.

The first fork took me over an hour. To remove the pits I had to go all the way down to 320 grit sandpaper. My selection of electric hand sanders wasn't speeding the process up by much, so I had to do it all by hand using small pieces of hard foam to backup the papers. 600/1000/1500, then to my high speed buffing wheel. I started doing a spoon and found that it was took longer than a fork.

To speed up the process I purchased a 1x30" belt sander with a nice selection of belts, grits up to 1000. Ruined my first piece by cutting deeply into the design before I removed all the pits.

:needcoffee:

Doing the math, all 60 pieces, not worth my time. Instead bought a new set from Liberty, the last surviving US manufacturer and located in Sherrill, NY. $330 to my door with a black friday discount. :seasix:

I 'may' be joining you, as received a very nice set as wedding gift, came in a nice wooden box.
Have not seen it in 33 years, damn certain it has never come out of the box, as always had very nice everyday shit, by that I mean the heavy stuff, which is how I think they set prices.

Oneday when I find the box I will report back, pretty damn certain it will look like arse.

https://www.google.com/search?q=camp...4,pvt:hg&vsr=1 :leaving:

I bought a real nice set in Italy as a collector item when I was a kid. I think it's 100+ pieces, comes in a locking case, and all pieces have gold plating (real gold) for the decorative designs. IIRC, it cost me a little over $2K in the early 90's. Will take a pic next time I dig it out of the cedar chest where I keep the set.

Why not just used gramma's silver service? Polish it for company, enjoy it as is every other day. Trace silver is a great natural antibiotic!

My grandparents or grandparents never had silver, not even plated. My neighbor Rick had several sets of Sterling passed onto him by relatives (he's the last surviving of the entire family). He offered me as much as I wanted based on the spot price of the metal. Sadly, his ex-wife stole about half, and randomly through the sets, making what he has only worth the metal that it's made from. :(

When I met a girl 30+ years ago, she had me throw out all my cheap stainless flatware and took me to thrift stores and flea markets and set me up with an excellent set ofmiss-matched silver and plated silver flatware from the 1910's through'40's. Most pieces are 80-100 years old and are still just fine. I don't even really polish them. But what the hell...my china is all Fiestaware I've had for 30+ years, some of it 85 years old. Amazing how well the old stuff holds up. I've got German Gerber flatware and knives my folks bought in Germany in 1958 that's like new but I never use it. It's mid-century modern brushed stainless stuff. Not my style.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Maybe not for what you just did, but I bought these and have used the hell out of them.

OMG, I laughed so hard at that! :rofl:

(I know, I'm goin to hell!)

Mmmm Mmm good :seasix:
Another epic fail thread.:rofl:

The only utensil you need: https://www.amazon.com/Snow-Peak-SCT...dp/B000AR2N76/

I have a set of 12 sterling T spoons from my folks house, on account of their wedding sterling was stolen in a '65? era break in.....thieves got the rest of the set......se they are used daily here.....

:dance::confused5:

Doing stupid shit like that is how we got a new kitchen. I removed some cabinet hinges to re polish them. After a couple days and only a few done, I decided to gut the kitchen and take it to the dump and a month later, completely new.

If those were silicon carbide instead of aluminum oxide they may have helped out quite a bit. :seasix:

Unless they are solid metal it's not worth refurbishing old door hardware. A friend of mine had an old farmhouse, late 1800's, and the hardware was all painted over. He spent months refurbishing but one door, one window after another. By the time he was done the old cast iron or steel? hardware looked terrific, with just a light coating of linseed oil to protect it.

When I restored my old TBird I refurbished lots of the bolts. That was an easy but sometimes tedious process. Degrease. Sandblast to remove paint. Acid dip to remove rust. The final step was to Parkerize (black phosphate), then finish by soaking in light oil (WD-40).

Great minds think alike. You are the only other guy I know that Parkerizes original fasteners. I've been doing it for years. Waaaay better than paint, powder coating, or buying new, inferior hardware.

When I was at the Adolf Pabst mansion a few years back, I was blown away by the hardware used throughout the place. Every piece was a work of art. Attachment 72782

Attachment 72783

Parkerizing is the way to go. It replaces a few molecular layers of iron and replaces them with a porous phosphate layer. Douse the part in light oil and the oil then protects the metal. Will not affect clearances- I've done old guns with this process.

Periodically hit each piece with a rag damp with WD-40 and it will never rust.

And it's an easy process after prep- I use old stainless steel cookware and heat the liquid on my gas grill. Baby Doll is mystified why I am "cooking car parts".

Here's the hood latch on my 64 TBird that I Parkerized.

Lots of gun supply stuff from Brownell's is good for car restoration! LOL

That T bird is exceptionally clean in the places nobody looks. You did a hell of a job bringing it back around.