Does anyone have any experience of having mirrors re-silvered ? If so
by whom and how much !

I have a bevelled mirror in the upstand of an Edwardian sideboard that
is roughly 25" x 27" that desperately needs re-silvering due I suspect
to damp in it's previous location before I owned it. It is too bad
just to ignore.

Although I could put in a piece of new mirror, it would scream 'new in
a piece that has more than its share of the patina of age

AWEM

On Sun, 28 Jan 2007 15:03:21 -0000, "Andrew Mawson"
wrote:

Does anyone have any experience of having mirrors re-silvered ? If so
by whom and how much !

I have a bevelled mirror in the upstand of an Edwardian sideboard that
is roughly 25" x 27" that desperately needs re-silvering due I suspect
to damp in it's previous location before I owned it. It is too bad
just to ignore.

Although I could put in a piece of new mirror, it would scream 'new in
a piece that has more than its share of the patina of age

AWEM

I asked exactly this a few weeks ago.

The answer was buy a new one, it is likely to be cheaper.

I was going to DIY it, it's not that difficult, particularly with the
smaller size of your work. Just messy.

EricP wrote:
On Sun, 28 Jan 2007 15:03:21 -0000, "Andrew Mawson"
wrote:

Does anyone have any experience of having mirrors re-silvered ? If so
by whom and how much !

I have a bevelled mirror in the upstand of an Edwardian sideboard that
is roughly 25" x 27" that desperately needs re-silvering due I suspect
to damp in it's previous location before I owned it. It is too bad
just to ignore.

Although I could put in a piece of new mirror, it would scream 'new in
a piece that has more than its share of the patina of age

AWEM

I asked exactly this a few weeks ago.

The answer was buy a new one, it is likely to be cheaper.

I was going to DIY it, it's not that difficult, particularly with the
smaller size of your work. Just messy.

They say you can give new mirror glass an antique look by putting a
sheet of clear greenhouse glass in front of it (assuming you have room
in the rebate)

"Andrew Mawson" wrote in message
...
Does anyone have any experience of having mirrors re-silvered ? If so
by whom and how much !

I have a bevelled mirror in the upstand of an Edwardian sideboard that
is roughly 25" x 27" that desperately needs re-silvering due I suspect
to damp in it's previous location before I owned it. It is too bad
just to ignore.

Although I could put in a piece of new mirror, it would scream 'new in
a piece that has more than its share of the patina of age

AWEM



I believe it is possible to do it at home, though I don't know the details.
Amateur astronomers used to grind, polish and silver their own telescope
mirrors, so that might be a good area to start googling, if you're really
interested.

Andy

Does anyone have any experience of having mirrors re-silvered ? If so
by whom and how much !

A bookmark I made some time ago...

http://www.gaynor.co.uk/reports/secrets/sec14.htm

"Rob Griffiths" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"Andrew Mawson" wrote:

Does anyone have any experience of having mirrors re-silvered ? If
so
by whom and how much !

I have a bevelled mirror in the upstand of an Edwardian sideboard
that
is roughly 25" x 27" that desperately needs re-silvering due I
suspect
to damp in it's previous location before I owned it. It is too bad
just to ignore.

Although I could put in a piece of new mirror, it would scream
'new in
a piece that has more than its share of the patina of age

AWEM

Is the sideboard good quality or a bit of tat? If tat mess about as
much
as you want. If good quality, messing about with the mirror would be
a
very bad idea - its resale value as an antique would be severely
affected.

Hence wanting to re-silver rather than replace !

AWEM

In article ,
"Andrew Mawson" wrote:

Does anyone have any experience of having mirrors re-silvered ? If so
by whom and how much !

I have a bevelled mirror in the upstand of an Edwardian sideboard that
is roughly 25" x 27" that desperately needs re-silvering due I suspect
to damp in it's previous location before I owned it. It is too bad
just to ignore.

Although I could put in a piece of new mirror, it would scream 'new in
a piece that has more than its share of the patina of age

AWEM

Is the sideboard good quality or a bit of tat? If tat mess about as much
as you want. If good quality, messing about with the mirror would be a
very bad idea - its resale value as an antique would be severely
affected.

On 28 Jan, 15:31, EricP wrote:

I was going to DIY it, it's not that difficult, particularly with the
smaller size of your work. Just messy.

Likely to have you arrested as a terrorist these days too.

(Actually it isn't. But it probably ought. My last chemical shopping
trip involved buying the ingredients for two different sorts of home-
brew high-explosive and some isopropanol. Guess which one caused a
problem with paperwork to track who was buying it? As to buying
ethanol in 5 gallon quantities, forget it...)

On 28 Jan, 19:45, Colin Wilson
o.uk wrote:
Does anyone have any experience of having mirrors re-silvered ? If so
by whom and how much !

A bookmark I made some time ago...

http://www.gaynor.co.uk/reports/secrets/sec14.htm

You do just wonder how someone invented that process. Glass mirrors
have been around for a long time - just how long ?

Rob

On 2 Feb, 12:04, "robgraham" wrote:
On 28 Jan, 19:45, Colin Wilson

o.uk wrote:
Does anyone have any experience of having mirrors re-silvered ? If so
by whom and how much !

A bookmark I made some time ago...

http://www.gaynor.co.uk/reports/secrets/sec14.htm

You do just wonder how someone invented that process. Glass mirrors
have been around for a long time - just how long ?

Rob

Replying to myself --doh. Anyway here's the history answer

http://www.mirrorresilvering.com/a_b...of_mirrors.htm

I only read the history, maybe there's more help on this site for you.

Rob

Andy Dingley wrote:
On 28 Jan, 15:31, EricP wrote:

I was going to DIY it, it's not that difficult, particularly with the
smaller size of your work. Just messy.

Likely to have you arrested as a terrorist these days too.

(Actually it isn't. But it probably ought. My last chemical shopping
trip involved buying the ingredients for two different sorts of home-
brew high-explosive and some isopropanol. Guess which one caused a
problem with paperwork to track who was buying it? As to buying
ethanol in 5 gallon quantities, forget it...)


I've had no trouble buying peroxide and isoproponol. Don't Bolloms have
a branch in Bristol?

On 2 Feb 2007 02:34:30 -0800, "Andy Dingley"
wrote:

On 28 Jan, 15:31, EricP wrote:

I was going to DIY it, it's not that difficult, particularly with the
smaller size of your work. Just messy.

Likely to have you arrested as a terrorist these days too.

(Actually it isn't. But it probably ought. My last chemical shopping
trip involved buying the ingredients for two different sorts of home-
brew high-explosive and some isopropanol. Guess which one caused a
problem with paperwork to track who was buying it? As to buying
ethanol in 5 gallon quantities, forget it...)

I want a couple of litres of isopropanol for cleaning as my bottle is
almost empty! (

That asian chemist was difficult last time I bought it. Now he will
probably faint. )

On Fri, 02 Feb 2007 13:18:24 GMT, Stuart Noble
wrote:

Andy Dingley wrote:
On 28 Jan, 15:31, EricP wrote:

I was going to DIY it, it's not that difficult, particularly with the
smaller size of your work. Just messy.

Likely to have you arrested as a terrorist these days too.

(Actually it isn't. But it probably ought. My last chemical shopping
trip involved buying the ingredients for two different sorts of home-
brew high-explosive and some isopropanol. Guess which one caused a
problem with paperwork to track who was buying it? As to buying
ethanol in 5 gallon quantities, forget it...)


I've had no trouble buying peroxide and isoproponol. Don't Bolloms have
a branch in Bristol?

Bolloms sell isopropanol?

EricP wrote:
On Fri, 02 Feb 2007 13:18:24 GMT, Stuart Noble
wrote:

Andy Dingley wrote:
On 28 Jan, 15:31, EricP wrote:

I was going to DIY it, it's not that difficult, particularly with the
smaller size of your work. Just messy.
Likely to have you arrested as a terrorist these days too.

(Actually it isn't. But it probably ought. My last chemical shopping
trip involved buying the ingredients for two different sorts of home-
brew high-explosive and some isopropanol. Guess which one caused a
problem with paperwork to track who was buying it? As to buying
ethanol in 5 gallon quantities, forget it...)

I've had no trouble buying peroxide and isoproponol. Don't Bolloms have
a branch in Bristol?

Bolloms sell isopropanol?

Any french polish supplier should sell isoproponol and ethanol. If they
don't, John Myland certainly do. I bought a litre from them quite recently

http://www.mylands.co.uk/

Crap website but their catalogue is extensive

On 2 Feb, 13:18, Stuart Noble wrote:

Don't Bolloms have a branch in Bristol?

A while since I went there, but they certainly used to. It's a
derelict building in Ashton Gate (just short of Robbins), way down
South. Easy to drive past though -- most of the neighbours are
abandoned and their's doesn't look much better.

I'm not a great fan of isopropanol as I find the smell only slightly
better than pyridine. I clean things with it if I can't use acetone
on them, but I'd much rather use ethanol/methanol for shellac.

On 2 Feb, 12:08, "robgraham" wrote:
http://www.mirrorresilvering.com/a_b...of_mirrors.htm

Silvering with nitric acid is older than Liebig (17th century at
least). As soon as you have access to powerful acids you try to
disssolve precious metals in them. You store the results in glass, as
not much else will hold them. The rest is just observation of what
happens afterwards and applying it as a practical technique. They
probably knew this stuff back in the Hogwarts era.

Amalgam silvering works pretty well (as does fire gilding), but I
don't fancy arranging adequate fume control for something as big as a
mirror.

robgraham wrote:
On 28 Jan, 19:45, Colin Wilson
o.uk wrote:
Does anyone have any experience of having mirrors re-silvered ? If so
by whom and how much !
A bookmark I made some time ago...

http://www.gaynor.co.uk/reports/secrets/sec14.htm

You do just wonder how someone invented that process. Glass mirrors
have been around for a long time - just how long ?


Not that long..18th century I think.

Rob