Thread: Chasing 1820's factory finish: Stenton Improved Silver Steel

Originally Posted by ScienceGuy

It looks like the lettering is filled with red rust. What does gold-filled lettering signify as something to look out for?

I think it's a mix (rust and gold)...but on the look out note, i was thinking it's tricky for restoration...if I sanded it all down and reblued it, no more gold lettering. We'll see how much needs to be done when it arrives...

Originally Posted by ScienceGuy

It looks like the lettering is filled with red rust. What does gold-filled lettering signify as something to look out for?

I'm pretty sure there's gold leaf in there as well as rust. As far as what it signifies, most likely simply that it was a more upscale product.

Originally Posted by ryanjewell

I think it's a mix (rust and gold)...but on the look out note, i was thinking it's tricky for restoration...if I sanded it all down and reblued it, no more gold lettering. We'll see how much needs to be done when it arrives...

Fill in the letters with nail polish before you sand and blue, then acetone and a brush will clean them back out. Alternately, you could just clean the rust out of the letters using naval jelly, fill them with nail polish, sand, blue and then re-apply gold leaf after cleaning out the polish. You can pick up gold leaf in small quantities pretty cheap at places like Michael's.