As I am working on all these lamps simultaneously I figured I could post them that way as well. I wouldn’t want you to think that I am actually logical and do one thing at a time. !

As I mentioned the other day I immediately stripped my Hadrill Horstmann Simplus (hereafter referred to as ‘simplus’, because I just can’t be arsed) on arrival.

Being my usual impetuous self, I neglected to take ‘before’ shots of the damage, so only have the blurry ebay shot as reference:

If you look really hard and use some imagination (heh) you can see the rusty on the arms and weight. The base was mostly peeled  and only had a few flecks of grey paint left and the shade was in the best shape of the lot.

After many days of coating with crappy ‘eco-stripper’ TX-something (if someone wants the exact brand name so they can AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE, let me know and I will go out to the shed and …pay attention) and then wrapping in cling wrap over night I finally managed to get most of the paint off. Then I had to spend quite a bit of time sanding off the last bits and new rust that formed from leaving the steel covered in wet go for nearly a week.

Trust me – go for the toxic, skin searing Nitromors. It isn’t worth the hassle.

So on a beautifully sunny day it was finally done. Ta dah!

The shade is definitely in the best condition and needs the lest work.

I can’t figure out if these white ‘bloomy’ marks on the aluminium are scratches or some kind of patina, but think they should come out with a minimum of pain.

More traumatising is the condition of the rust-pocked steel bits. Remember, this is after quite a bit of sanding already!

I got really frustrated at one point as I know this weighted bit must screw together, and tried desperately to get it apart to clean between, but my little girl hands just weren’t up to the job, so I gave up. Frustrating! Think it is rusted together and the WD just wasn’t doing it.

The base bit is ok, as it is made out of zinc (I think).

After all my deliberations regarding how to refinish these vintage lamps, I am thinking a ‘sensitive restoration’ is the way to go. So instead of revamping these to look new, I am going to clean them up and make them safe for generations to come.

I am hoping to find a way to treat the 2 metals of the base and weight/arms to have a dark finish like my ideal example below:

It looks like the metal has been patina-ed, which means using 2 different chemicals – one for steel and one for zinc.

You can still see all the scratches and dents in the metal, but it is protected from further rusting and inhances the finish.

Unfortunately metal patinas are not cheap! But look how damn fine it could be?!

Minus the white cord and bulb holder, of course. That kind of ruins it for me! WTF?