Nearly cried the other day and nearly punched out a mate who claims
to be an antique dealer.
He showed me a heavy sterling (English Hallmarked) bowl with an 3D
elephant on a pedestal in the centre of the bowl. Looked beautiful
till I put my glasses on.
Pulled it out of a dumpster at a garage sale. Fair enough it was
free.
He knows I am a silversmith. The next part is not for the faint
hearted.
He told me " I cleaned it up with steel wool because it was really
tarnished. That is the right thing to do is it not?"
Wow how to wreck a late 19 th century piece of quality silver.
I could have cleaned it in 10 mins. And in half an hour polished it
up to a high shine.
Now to fix it would take about 3 hours. The only major damage was
what he had done. And cost some money.
His partner bought a silver tea set I did not want to see what
damage she had done to that.
But a quick look into the cabinet showed residue of silvo, silver
polish.
Did not even wash it before putting it up for sale. Heaven or more
likely a paramedic
will help anyone who makes tea with that.
For $50 I will restore a piece of undamaged hollow ware. And it will
the price up considerably more than $50.
False economies cost money.
Richard
Xtines Jewels