Ornate 1890s Ice Box Lock Restoration | Random Restoration

Welcome!
Today I will be continuing my hardware restoration spree by restoring this old brass 1890s ice box latch, patented June 29, 1897. Unlike the very rusty restoration of my previous video, I decided to restore a (mostly) brass piece of hardware to make things easy on myself. As per usual with my restoration videos, I started the restoration by disassembling the ice box lock. After a quick spray of penetrating fluid the case screw came loose. All of the interior components were very rusty after 120 years, but luckily didn't put up a fight during disassembly.
After the latch was disassembled I threw the steel parts into the rust removal fluid. While waiting for that I moved onto the paint removal stage for the remaining three brass parts which had been coated with a thick layer of awful green paint. After the paint stripping I threw the brass parts into the rust remover as well, as there were rust stains on them from the steel parts.
After removing the parts from the rust remover, I cleaned them up with both an abrasive buff and wire wheels to achieve a semi-gloss finish on all the parts. Then, despite the fact that I am not a locksmith, and therefore not an expert at key cutting I did some DIY cutting of an oversized bit key, or skeleton key if you prefer. Then I moved onto sanding the rough areas on the main brass pieces.
Next up it was time for polishing. Polishing brass up to a mirror finish is always satisfying, but due to the rather rough casting of the piece a high shine is all that I was able to achieve, aside from the areas that were sanded. Then I had to figure out how to best repair the heavily pitted case screw, and after a decent amount of careful sanding I was able to return it to almost new!
Then I moved onto cold bluing all the small parts. Bluing steel is always enjoyable to watch, and I made sure to get some good footage of it this time 'round! Upon inspecting the interior, I noticed that there was a missing broken spring, so I cut a new one and adjusted the tension. Then I moved onto painting the case cover. A bit of body filler, sanding, and black paint later, it was good as new!
Overall this was an awesome restoration project, and dare I even say a near perfect restoration (in my opinion, considering I intentionally kept some of the original casting imperfections) and I'm quite happy to add it to my Ever Given... no wait, ever growing collection of restorations.
Time Stamps:
0:00 Welcome!
0:22 Disassembly
2:00 Disassembly Complete
2:23 Paint Stripping
2:50 Wire Wheeling
3:13 Making a Key
4:12 Making New Screws
5:22 Making a New Flat Spring
5:54 Sanding Rough Areas
7:25 Polishing
7:47 Body Filler
8:03 Paint Prep
8:21 Painting
8:38 Restoring Case Screw
8:55 Bluing Small Parts
9:24 Reassembly
10:54 Testing it Out
11:11 Before and After
11:41 Thanks for Watching!
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