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.
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.
