Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Limited presstoration

The other day I mentioned my frustration that somebody had in the past put blue paint on my newest press. So irritating! I made this discovery while cleaning the press over the weekend. I also discovered that underneath all the grease and dust, much of the original paint is also missing. So, in the end I decided to just use a solution of degreaser and water to uncover the original gold pinstriping and then clean any part of the press that I was likely to touch. Other than that, I left much of the press untouched to help protect the bare metal from corrosion.

Unfortunately, the flywheel almost looked better before I removed all the grease and dust, because now the remnants of the blue paint are more visible. I decided to leave it as is, rather than try anymore to remove the blue paint, because I was afraid of damaging the pinstriping.

Before:
flywheel before

After:
flywheel after

If you look between the spokes of the flywheel, you can see all of the pinstriping that I uncovered on the main body of the press. Gorgeous!

This press was built in 1888, and I am still so amazed that back then they took the time and pride in their machines to decorate them with such beautiful pinstriping!

Before:
press before

After:
press after

I'll be ordering new rollers for her soon, and once they arrive I'll start printing with her and hopefully get her into full operation soon. I can't wait!

2 comments:

  1. Goodness, she really did have lots of layers of grime! If grime could talk... hahaha

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  2. Not only did she have layers of grime, but layers of candle wax, too! They used to set candles under the ink plate to warm the ink on cold winter days. I started to scrape it off while cleaning her, but then thought it would be kind of cool to leave it. Gives her even more character! :)

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