I have just acquired an O'Keefe & Merritt stove, probably from the 40's or 50's. It has two ovens, a pancake griddle, and a glass shelf above. I have spent many hours cleaning it(previous owner never did!) and using 00 steel wool on the chrome. But the chrome parts(oven handles, burner pans, face plates, glass shelf edging,etc...) are in pretty bad shape. I've made them shinny, but there are still many pits and rusty spots. I think it will be difficult to find replacements for the chrome pieces, and where does that leave me? Re-chroming is not cheap, but is there another solution? I'd like to hear any ideas.

John

John

-- JOHN CLEMENS (jbclem@earthlink.net), October 07, 2001

Answers

there isnt any way to fix pitted chrome, without re chromeing. How about putting something else over it? They have appliance refinishing kits,,like a heavy duty paint

-- stan (sopal@net-port.com), October 07, 2001.

I know notheeng! Just a comment - it may not be chrome plating - it may be nickel. Could account for why it's in such bad condition now. Don't think it makes any practical difference right now, but it might in the future.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), October 07, 2001.

It probably is nickel. Chrome tends to get a bluish sheen to it when heated up the first time, and the bluish cast doesn't leave once it cools down, so on stoves they usually used nickel plating. Just do a web search for "plating, nickel" and you'll find places that do this type of thing.

-- Justin Shelton (justinshelton@netscape.net), October 08, 2001.

Thanks Justin and Don for the suggestion about nickel plating. There are easy to use nickel plating kits available(as well as brass, gold, silver, etc...) and it looks like nickel plating is much less demanding than chrome plating(which requires nickel plating first anyways). Do either of you know if all stoves used nickel plating instead of chrome? It makes sense, since the shiny parts such as the handles are really pitted all over and you wouldn't expect that from chrome. If nickel plating can be made as shiny as chrome, than that's the solution to my problem.

John

-- JOHN CLEMENS (jbclem@earthlink.net), October 10, 2001.