Topic: Polishing a scratch out of a paperweight?

[HeavyWeight]

Hi,

I know there's one line of thought that says you should never refurbish an antique, does the same apply to paperweights?

If you had a weight that was of a reasonable value and was immaculate apart from a single scratch, would you have the scratch polished out? If so would you do this yourselves or get it professionally done? Would it devalue the weight?

If going the professional route, who would you use and what's the likely cost?

Thanks.

[KevinH]

A lot of the antique weights may well have been cleaned up already. If you find one that has on or two marks on it, it is probably best to leave it as it is. But if you find one that is need of repair because the damage to the dome is severe enough to detract from the look of the weight, then grinding and polishing is not a problem. Unless, that is ... the repair would require too much glass removal thus distorting or marring in some other way the look of the weight.

Whether to repair scratches, or "dings", is really something to discuss with a professional glassworker. Sometimes what looks like minor surface damage can go deeper than expected, requiring too much glass removal to make it good.

A good repair will not normally devalue a weight in monetary terms, and may well increase it substantially. But each case will stand on its own merit.

If you use the Search facility on the Board, you can check other threads for recommendations on "repairs". But I am sure some of the regulars will be happy to add their own views and comments here.

[tropdevin]

***
Hi.  There are some 'purists' who feel a paperweight should never be 'restored', but I think that overlooks the fact that even the manufacturers occasionally had to polish out minor damage, or facet a piece to remove an air bubble or piece of cullet / pot stone they did not like.  For me it is a matter of judgement - would it improve your appreciation of the piece?

Regarding damage, Kevin is correct (in spades) about damage going deeper than it appears - a typical bruise creates damage at least as deep as the diameter, even though it may not appear so at first sight. (Part of my D Phil / post doc work involved both the practice and theory of polishing diamonds, and Hertzian cracks in diamond. If you want to go into the science of this kind of damage, and are feeling strong, Google 'Hertzian cone crack').

Kevin makes another very important point too - removing a significant amount of glass without proper understanding of the shape and the optics can lead to a distortion of the design.  You will come across quite a lot of antique pieces where the shape has been changed so that the outer canes have vanished (either in part or fully) when viewed from above.  Another fault you will come across are paperweights repolished without the requisite level of skill, using flat wheels or 'scaifes': this can result in lots of little polished flats, hard to spot in an image but easy to feel - and easy to detect when you move the paperweight around in your hand, and the design appears blurred!

Alan

[Derek]

Hi HeavyWeight

Redhouse Glass Crafts who are based at the Ruskin centre in Stoubridge
are specialists and offer an excellent service.

Just google them for contact details.

Best regards

Derek

[chriscooper]

 Redhouse and Basil Loveridge both reasonable price and good results.


http://antique-restoration.b99.co.uk/brackley/basil-loveridge-glass-restoration/
 

[SophieB]

For the Ruskin glass centre/red house glass, it is Richard Lamming you will need to speak to. He is very good indeed.

SophieB

[orangeglass]

Hi,
Richard Lamming did one of mine and I was very impressed!

His email is - (close up spaces and replace "at" with@ and "dot" with .)
redhouseglass at hotmail dot co dot uk

[malcmat]

I can recommend richard Lamming who has polished / refurbished a number of items for me.You might have to wait a number of weeks for the item dependant on how busy the workshop is.

Malcolm