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Joe gwinn Joe gwinn is offline
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Default Stainless steel, epoxy, and tableware

In article ,
wrote:

On Wed, 01 Jan 2014 10:34:49 -0500, Joe Gwinn
wrote:

In article , Frnak
McKenney wrote:

Are metal-related questions still allowed here? grin!

Christmas brunch was wonderful. My sister and I were invited to eat
with a cousin and her family, and the French Toast -- made with slices
of French bread and peach butter -- was delicious.

As we sat around the table afterwards, one topic that came up was the
odd look of their stainless tableware, or to be more specific, the
knives. These were made by a company named Gorham (Fairview pattern?)
and had given wonderful service for many years, but recently they had
noticed that some of the knives were "separating": the blade had begun
to separate from the handle, showing a minor gap of roughly 1/8".


The Gorham line apparently still exists, as a part of the Lenox group:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorham_...turing_Company

More generally, any major jeweler and/or manufacturer of silverware
will know what cement is used, and how to re-cement a loose handle.


Hoping for a simple fix, I spent a couple of hours exploring the 'Web
with different combinations of keywords looking for instructions like
"heat to 400degF for 10 minutes and the epoxy will soften, then gently
press the blade back into the handle and it will be as good as new for
another decade or two". Nope. Most of what I found related to
stainless blades set into sterling handles (not the case here), and
there were more descriptions of how to tear the handle off and sell
the sterling than ideas of how to repair a knife.

Has anyone here ever seen this problem? My cousing said it might be
related to washing the knives in a dishwasher, but only about a
quarter of the knives seem to be affected.


I doubt that a dishwasher can do this to quality silverware, such as
that from Gorham. Lloyd's theory that most of the use is suffered by a
few of the knives may be the answer.

But this may be the answer:

.. http://www.silversuperstore.com/faq/silverware_9.html

The effect of the dishwasher may be chemical, caused by the detergent.


Does anyone know how I could learn about the properties of the "epoxy"
(an assumption, the term pops up a lot)?


Depending on the age of the silverware, it may or may not be epoxy,
although epoxy may be what's used these days.

The best epoxies cure slowly and require heat for a complete cure and
maximum strength.


Joe Gwinn


I recommend Sauereisen cement but I have no idea about where to buy a
small quantity.

http://www.sauereisen.com/AdhesivesPottingCompounds.aspx


It's good cement, but I doubt that this is what's used.

I bet the original cement was litharge-glycerin. but I bet that's
illegal now, because litharge in lead oxide.

Joe Gwinn