I consider myself skilled wrt most metal care/treatment/refurbishing, but this has me pondering my options.
These are 100+ year old boot/shoe making jacks. They came from a (long) defunct large sheep ranch out in eastern Washington, and were used to make and repair boots for the ranch, from pre-WWI to WWII. I got them from a member of the original ranch family a few years ago. As decorative items, they look super and such, but having them on the porch, even covered and dry, is making the old steel really rust fast. I want to make them last, but not necessarily fully “refinish” them and strip away the history.
I could sandblast them, acid etch them, and paint them so they last another 100 years easy. But then it ruins the “aged” look. On the other hand, I can’t just let them rust away. I also don’t know what they would have looked like new, like out of the Sears and Roebuck catalog in 1910 - just painted, or what?
These are 100+ year old boot/shoe making jacks. They came from a (long) defunct large sheep ranch out in eastern Washington, and were used to make and repair boots for the ranch, from pre-WWI to WWII. I got them from a member of the original ranch family a few years ago. As decorative items, they look super and such, but having them on the porch, even covered and dry, is making the old steel really rust fast. I want to make them last, but not necessarily fully “refinish” them and strip away the history.
I could sandblast them, acid etch them, and paint them so they last another 100 years easy. But then it ruins the “aged” look. On the other hand, I can’t just let them rust away. I also don’t know what they would have looked like new, like out of the Sears and Roebuck catalog in 1910 - just painted, or what?