Uncle Rich and Aunt Barb bought us a carload of goodies from Pennsylvania, including this wonderful old metal scale, 60 pounds capacity compared to most of the kitchen scales I see which usually only go up to about 25. It had been repainted sort of barn red, which is why they thought of me when they were deciding where it should find a home.
To the amazement of all those whom I hold dear, I didn't keep the red, nor did I repaint it bright fire-engine red, which was Barry's guess. I saw on close inspection that it had originally been painted black, and underneath the red, there were decals on each side, and by careful use of paint stripper, I was able to get at least enough of the decal uncovered to make a fake. I then spray painted the scale with Rustoleum black gloss and put my fake decals on the sides. The originals had what I think was a squiggly thing down at the bottom point of the shield, but so little was left, I'm not sure, so I just left it off.
The decals would look a lot better if I had an ALPS printer that could print with white inks. I'd almost be willing to trade one of my kids for an ALPS printer. Almost. As it is, I used white decal stock, with black overcoat for the background and the lettering is just the white showing through.
You know, a Smart Person would have taken a "before" picture to post, but I didn't. I'll at least post the photo I took of the decal on one side after using paint stripper. You can see it was pretty rough.
The face of the scale has lots of rust freckling. At first glance I guessed it was paper, but of course it isn't, it's tin litho. I'll just leave it alone. The scale still does a good job of weighing bulk food, so I'll get to use it in the kitchen! I love old stuff that can still be put to work.
I changed the decal a bit to make the lettering more like the original.
And again! Thanks to Shelly, who emailed me a picture of the American Banner scale she bought on eBay recently, I was able to add the squiggle - which is actually a little scale, I think. I also messed around more with the lettering, and I kinda wish I had just left it alone.
1 comment:
Nice scale. They always add just the right touch to a kitchen. Nice job with the decal.
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