In this restoration video I restored an antique butter or cheese slicer from around the year 1905.
More about the slicer :
this item was used in commercial purpose. It was usually used in shops for the exact purchase of slices of butter-cheese or in luxury hotels where pats of butter were served in the morning at breakfast. You can cut one pound of butter into pats for individual servings. The butter or cheese lies in the top and is pushed to the left into the wires while you turn the handle. Another part is located on the same axis as the handle and has a well-stretched wire attached. As soon as the butter is pushed through the rotation of the handle, by the same motion, that wire will cut the butter.
The slicer is made from aluminum, steel, brass and cast iron (a pleasure to restore ). The base part has attached a clamp that hold the slicer to the table. After I bought this gem I didn't really find much information about the year of production. I asked some subscribers from the country of origin of the slicer, USA , and they found me information that it was produced somewhere around the year 1905. I hope I am not wrong and mislead people, but how I saw this slicer was made, I tend to think that this is the year of production.
More about the restoration :
After inspecting the slicer I thought it would be an easy restoration but
during disassembly, I noticed that the 2 parts that make up the gearbox of this slicer , were cracked. They were made of aluminum or antimony. I couldn't figure it out exactly. I inspected these 2 parts and I realized that I can't talk about a restoration here. Making new parts like that was essential as soon as I couldn't find spare parts to buy . After I finished the disassembly, I decided to take care of this gearbox because if I hadn't been able to do them, the whole restoration process would have stopped. So I made the plans and I made new parts on lathe and milling machine from an aluminum block. After that , one part had some markings and numbers which I had to transfer to the new part. So I made some auxiliary tools and marked the new part with those 12 markings, after which I punched the numbers on the side of the new part. The same part I talked about also had the company name engraved and needed to engrave the new part using a CNC machine . After days of works I finished these 2 parts and the whole restoration process can continue further. Next I sandblasted the parts , powder coating them. Also , in my restoration videos I try to restore the items like original condition. This slicer was zinc plated mostly but I found slicer like this one painted in many ways and I choose one way : the base and the top black with cream ivory the other parts. At the end of restoration I'm very glad that I took this decision and the item looks amazing. Although it was difficult, the restoration went very well. In addition to everything I mentioned above, I also made some parts that were missing, on the lathe and I nickel-plated some of them.
The wooden handle was on the list of restoration. For a couple of minutes I thought to make new one but after I sanded the wood, stained with walnut stain and applied some antique wax , the final outcome was awesome.
In conclusion, you have what to see in this restoration. And the slicer has been restored in a good way, keeping the vintage look but at the same time looking amazing. Doing the test after the restoration, I noticed that it works perfectly and I'm proud of this work, probably my best restoration video I ever made.
I hope you will enjoy the restoration and will be a pleasure video to watch...cheers ! David .
#butterslicer #cheeseslicer #slicerrestoration