The case of my Blickensderfer 7 is structurally good, but was given a dousing in creosote (?) some time in its life. This had turned the outside to a sort of 'burned black'. The fittings were also 'black' and the Blickensderfer decal could only be made out faintly in relief when glancing over the surface.
The typewriter itself is in superb condition, so decided to re-finish the case to make it match the condition of the typewriter. Starting to sand away the old layer of 'lacquer', the gold Blickensderfer made a brief appearance again before also being sanded away:
This remained covered in the 'creosote' for probably more than 50 years. (The Blickensderfer Serial Number Master List enables finding out that his machine's been in typewriter-collections since probably the late 1980s. Somehow it made its way from the US to Europe, to now be typing in the Low Countries.)
The 'burned' bit on the front-left and the flaking top areas give a good idea of why to re-finish the case - the light/bare spots were already touched by sandpaper.
All fittings were removed from the case, the rivets ground off. Surprisingly, the rivets themselves are brass and the washers holding them inside the case are copper - that's not what I'd expect where the softest of the materials would be. The riveting was done with some serious force, back around 1907 - the rivets are crumpled and bent inside the wood.
Fittings to be cleaned and made to look good first, then figure out how to re-attach securely. And of course to get a good reproduction decal and a nice ochre color wool-felt for the bottom of the base.
Still all the de-laminating of the case and base to be fixed - one glue-step at a time and given hours to set. (Not even near to Will's levels of restoration skill, but being inspired by his work :-)
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