Dresser Set Accessories

Sterling Silver Nail Buffers

before photo of dented sterling silver nail buffer repair

STERLING SILVER BUFFER BENT

This sterling silver buffer arrived bent out of shape, dinged, and missing the buffer block and chamois. In addition to hours of reshaping the sterling silver buffer, I had to carve a new block of wood and cover it with chamois. Most buffers had a matching box or tray so it sat upright. This is usually missing (possibly repurposed years ago.

repaired and polished dresser set accessories

STERLING SILVER DRESSER SET TOOLS

In this photo, you can see the nail buffer completely restored. It took hours to shape the silver, carve a new wooden block and cover it with chamois. Below the nail buffer are the matching shoe horn, cuticle knife, and button hook.

STERLING SILVER NAIL BUFFER

It is rare to find the nail buff top along with its matching tray. So often the tray is separated from the nail buff over the years. This nail buffer arrived with the old leather dried out and hard from a combination of old glue and age. It was a challenge to remove the vestige of its former life. The wooden block inside, however, was perfect to reuse. After cleaning up the wood, I cut batting and a new chamois to stretch over the surface. Dents were removed from the sterling silver nail buff before the block was fitted into the top.

Files, Button Hooks & Cuticle Knives

sterling silver dresser set button hook, cuticle knife, file

Restoration of dresser set accessories like button hooks, cuticle knives and files are extremely limited. In this situation the client provided extra parts from orphan pieces (upper left group) so that that these three pieces (center) could be restored best possible.

In the photo below, the file and button hook were very rusty. I polished the steel file and steel button hook aggressively to remove the rust best possible to keep the orginal parts. The sterling silver handles were carefully polished.

Antique file and button hook with sterling silver handles and matching comb

rusty button hooks sterling silver dresser set comb fitter, and dented lid

sterling dresser set, dents removed, new comb, polished button hooks

Dresser set button hooks, lid, and comb restored

The button hooks arrived very rusty. I was able to remove the rust and polish the steel button hooks. The dents in the lid were removed. The sterling silver comb fitter was very unusual as it was cast (instead of stamped) and very substantial. After the corrosion was removed, and the silver carefully polished, the comb was replaced.

Sterling Silver Shoe Horn

sterling silver and steel shoe horn before restoration

sterling silver and steel shoe horn after restoration

STERLING SILVER SHOE HORN RUSTY ORIGINAL AND RESTORED

This sterling silver shoe horn arrived with the original steel shoe horn, but it was incredibly rusty. Deeply etched corrosion had eaten into the metal. The shoe horn was so rusty that it had also eaten into the edge, so I had to reshape the steel into a uniform shape. The customer wanted to use the original shoe horn, so this involved hours and hours of grinding and buffing the original, rusty, steel shoe horn. It looks amazing, but I would have doubted this was even possible, and do not promise perfection. The dents in the sterling silver handle (left photo) can not be removed because the neck of the handle is too narrow.

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