How to Make an Old Mirror Look New Again
Re-Silvering Old Mirrors
A mirror, in its about bones course, is a piece of drinking glass coated with silver and protected with backing paint. The silverish coating is non paint - it is a very thin layer of pure elemental silver that forms straight on the glass as the silverish chemicals react with each other.
This video shows yous how to re-silver a beveled bathroom mirror using our Mini Silverish Kit.The photo on the correct is an old engraved mirror that has been re-silvered using this process.
To silver and re-silvery telescopes, sextants and other scientific mirrors see our folio on scientific instruments.
When to re-silver an old mirror
If the drinking glass is beveled, curved, beautifully engraved (every bit in this photo), carefully shaped or has sentimental value it is certainly worth re-silvering.
Mirroring (re-silvering) is a very wet process. In order to re-silvery a mirror, you will have to remove information technology from its frame. This is a good time to see if the frame itself needs to be strengthened or repaired. The best fourth dimension to do this is after yous have carefully removed the mirror.
Re-silvering a mirror does not bear on the glass itself. It volition not gear up any scratches, fries or cracks. In fact, the bright new silver could make these defects more than noticeable. If your mirror is scratched, look advisedly to encounter if the scratch is in the glass or the silver. It is not possible to polish a scratch out of the drinking glass by manus just re-silvering will remove a scratch in the silver layer.
Re-silvering one small department of a mirror
Before you decide to re-silver just ane section of an one-time mirror, check to see if the backing paint is stiff, smooth and firmly fastened to the drinking glass. Pouring or spraying silvering chemicals onto delicate backing paint will probably lift information technology off and make the problem worse.
Even if the backing paint is in excellent condition, and you are able to remove just enough of information technology to silvery ane section of the mirror, there volition be a fine gray line between the old silvery and the new silver. Just yous tin decide information technology this is a problem. Of course, if you try this and determine that the issue was not what you desire, y'all can e'er strip the entire mirror and re-silver information technology. Silvering does not change the glass – you can re-silver a piece equally many times as you like if you remove all of the sometime paint and silverish first.
For this procedure yous will demand a Mini Argent Kit and extra fine pumice. Smoothen the afflicted area with a paste of distilled water and pumice to smooth the edges of the surrounding backing paint and silver. Follow our Mini Silver Kit Instructions to clean, tin and silver the scratch. You tin always add together a second layer of silvery if you lot think the first layer is not thick enough. Once the silver is dry, protect it with the paint in the Mini Silver Kit.
Mirror scratch repair pigment
The paint that is sold to repair scratches in mirrors is made of extremely small-scale flakes of aluminum. If you lot paint information technology on the mirror and view it from ane angle, information technology looks perfect. If you view information technology from another angle it looks like a vivid white line. The flakes of aluminum do non reflect calorie-free in the same way that individual argent crystals practice when the crystals accept formed on the drinking glass during the silverish mirroring process.
An culling to re-silvering
The alternative to re-silvering your old glass is to remove all of the silver and paint and so buy a new mirror cut to size and place it behind the old glass in the same frame. The erstwhile drinking glass and the new mirror must exist perfectly clean earlier you lot put them together.
This trick does not work if
- The frame is not strong enough to back up the extra weight and thickness of the boosted glass.
- The glass has a pattern engraved into it. The back of the design will be reflected past the mirror behind it.
- The trick does work if your mirror only has beveled edges considering the back of the bevel is flat and it will non create a double reflection.
Tips on cleaning an sometime mirror
- Never use a dust cloth or vacuum to remove the dust from the dorsum of an old mirror. Go out it dusty. The integrity of the silvery depends on the integrity of the backing paint. Suction and friction can loosen the backing paint and expose the silver to further corrosion.
- Clean the mirror face up past spraying glass cleaner on an quondam towel or T-shirt so wiping the drinking glass. H2o is the enemy of mirrors. Do not spray the cleaner directly on the glass.
- Run across more than most how best to care for antique furniture including mirrors here: Porch.com
Mercury mirrors
The process of creating a mirror with silver was invented past Baron Justus von Liebig in 1835. Earlier that, mirrors were made with mercury and can. Louis XIV'southward Hall of Mirrors at Versailles in Paris are mercury mirrors. If the back of your old mirror is covered with fine white dust and it has no paint, information technology may be a mercury mirror just they are extremely rare. Given that mercury is poisonous and should only be handled with gloves, they practise not take a high budgetary value.
We welcome any questions you may have regarding re-silvering an old mirror. Contact Us
Source: https://angelgilding.com/re-silvering-old-mirrors/
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