Antique German wall sconce

     My work is not limited to just bending curved slag glass panels.  Often repairing glass panels also involve lots of metal work depending on how a lighting fixture became damaged. Typically a shade falls off a table breaking one or two panels and the metal frame becomes bent or broken.  Having worked on hundreds of metal shade repairs occasionally I’m asked to repair a chandelier or wall sconce for antique dealers.   A few months ago an Andover client from Massachusetts sent me pictures of her damaged wall sconce.  Asking if I could repair the sever bend to the decorative metal arm.  As you can see in the original picture the metal arm was forced back towards the wall.  Prior to accepting metal work I have lots of questions and comments reflecting the conditions and the expectations of the clients.  Simply put I need to know the type of metal, type of finish on the metal, the number of metal cracks I can’t see in the pictures.  And a clear understanding with my clients that damaged metal work often retains some visual repair marks.

Sconce lighting repair- Bent cast metal

     Bent metal is a condition where the metal has been compressed and or stretched with minor surface cracking.  This means the cast metal molecules can never be the same.  To reduce metal fatigue and bending requires heat which can often cause the finish of the exterior metal to then look distorted.  My goal is to minimize the visual damage and remove as much of the bending in the metal as possible.

     Below you can view my work bench pictures showing the process of restoring the break and correcting the bend at the same time.  I want to point out that the challenge is not just to drop the bend back down but to also keep the arm straight and not shifting left or right. (not easy)……  The other challenge is to reinforce the break with a copper bridge in the center grove of the arm where the wire runs.  (see detail pictures).

     What you cant see from the pictures is that I deliberately ground down the connection joints to the arm sections where it connects to the wall base and the dish.  By grinding the angle of both ends I was able to micro adjust the bend and make it look really straight. (see picture).  I also learned the original manufacture did not center the drilled hole for the dish shape.

     I was extremely happy with the arm repair knowing it was structurally strong and the visual repair to the crack was near impossible to detect unless you were told to find it.  The repaired area has a black patina to it so it blends into the metal antique finish.