So I have been watching this since it was listed and just had to ask what peoples opinion was on polishing brass with a flat wheel on a mini grinder. For anyone that doesn't know what i'm talking about please see HERE . To make matters worse it is the later lamp with the hanging ring. Yet it still made more than I paid for mine. I hope that the buyer is going to bring it back to a reasonable looking lamp but if it doesn't leak I would be very surprised.
That looks like an angle grinder was used to sand it down. It seems like the prices are going mad for some lamps on the bay!
That tank must be extremely thin in places, looking at the creases near the base rim and the feed outlet. This is a rare lamp, so I think that price was fair but you are right because others lamp prices have gone through the roof. Pete, the mind boggles trying to imagine what was going through their head when they got the grinder out. On top of all that the metal tags that hold the ring to the tank have been broken off and the pictures where it looks like it is hanging are just rotated ones of it sitting on a table. There will be a fair amount of work just to get it hanging.
I'm missing the right vocabulary to express what I am thinking about what someone has done to that lamp, it's a real shame. To top it all there are bidders that honor this mess They must be real artists to bring this lamp back to life, maybe body makers with lots of filler.
Yes its in a state now at least it was only the angle grinder good job he did not have access to a shotblaster!!! It is a rarer version of the WL as well shame. pete
I have just spent the afternoon polishing a tank I bought which had been shot blasted and I think it was better than that one. I wouldn't use a flat wheel on a steel tank let alone brass. Stephan, I think if anyone uses the right vocabulary, they may be banned from the forum.
I assume the seller has put the golden bay seller rule »Make it shiny and the price will go through the roof« a little bit too fast into practice in order to optimise his profit. Maybe a backfire
Like i said in my "More silley Tilley" post even the rough ones are making stupid money & what the hell did they polish this poor thing with a concrete block in an angle grinder Stu
I was being a little reserved when I first commented as it did go through my mind that it may have been someone on this site who bought the lamp. I really didn't want to offend. On reflection I should probably be shot for thinking that But you guys don't sit on the fence.
Don't worry brian, as I said hopefully the buyer will bring it back to a reasonable condition and as it is rare, it is understandable that someone wanted it. I thought about buying it just to put it out of it's misery and lay it to rest.
Absolutely... I know not everyone agrees with polishing at all. I'm afraid I'm one who likes my lamps highly polished but that lamp has been totally butchered - really quite sad to see and probably on a par with an electric conversion IMO. I thought I had problems dealing with a stress cracked non pressure lamp font, I can't begin to imagine where you would even start with restoring that lamp and I'm not sure I would ever trust it in operation again.
I'm not sure how they're going to replace missing metal, though. It reminds me a bit of that unfired Vapalux 320 that an eBay seller had had 'professionally distressed' by braying it all over (including the hood) with something like a 1lb ball-pein hammer...
You have to wonder what goes through some peoples heads... It seems to me they are the sort of people who would take a crayon to the Mona Lisa My real pet hate is electric conversions to wick lamps, and the way eBay sellers so proudly announce "converted to electricity" as if they haven't ruined a perfectly good lamp! I have a 140 year old lamp font here that some idiot has drilled a hole though..
That is nearly as bad as that horrible sectioned Bulleid Merchant Navy loco in the NRM. Just makes you want to do murder!
John, did we need to know why you edited your post? Wouldn't it have been easier just to click on the '+' next to 'Reason for Edit' at the bottom of your reply page and then tick the box 'Don't mark this post as edited' Quicker for you, saves space, less clutter etc. Two keystrokes; job done. Hope that helps... 8)
It would be a job for the buffing wheel I think. I take back what I said about the buyer bringing it back to a good looking lamp. I've studied the pictures a bit more and it is scrap. If you attempted to buff out some if those deep marks you would almost certainly go through the tank. There are two options for it, masses of body filler and painting or that was a very expensive spare swan neck.
