Posted 7 years ago
antvinfan
(3 items)
Guess these beauties originated in Boston (?), made a little journey over to San Fransisco, sent to Santa Fe, then both somehow ended up in the Deep South?! Both looked alike when discovered, but one got spiffed up a bit more than the other. The patina'd plate at bottom reading "Santa Fe" is something I have not seen on any others online, so it seems these are quite unique I'm assuming??
The first one looks terrible now, I'm afraid. The second looks great.
I like them both. The old fire extinguishers had style.
Yeah, my friend is regretting that he polished off most of the patina on the one WITH a hose, lol...all I did was wipe down w/ wet cloth to remove most of the caked on mud, but stopped when noticed green patina coming off. Thanks Spirit & Forta for the feedback! Y'all have a great day :)
It was likely nickel plated.
SpiritBear, you believe the more silver colored one I have is nickel plated? My apologies for just getting chance to reply back, but I was also thinking its nickel plated & was hoping someone would notice & mention it...thanks! His shows copper, brass & patina from just wiping it down, whereas, mine does not from also just a quick clean. So, you believe it's copper w/ a thin nickel overlay? All I've seen online are the copper/brass ones
I think they both were nickel-plated, unless they were an early chrome plate. Typically it's nickel. Now the over-polished one just needs to be completely stripped of the remaining nickel that was polished off, and then use baking soda to turn the pink copper to a natural copper. But DO NOT TOUCH the one that is still silvery. You will destroy half the value to serious collectors, by removing the nickel plate. Collecting is vain: We see only what is on the surface of items, and usually that's what we care about most.
Thank you for the advice & cleaning tips, SpiritBear! Much appreciated & good info to know (: