Hello,
I have a couple of 17th and 18th c. pieces in need of minor to moderate restorations, and am having a dickens of a time locating a restorer.
If you know of a talented restorer, please let us know, either here, or through a PM.

Thanks!

What is the reason for the restoration? Almost everyone I talk to says do not restore the piece, as it destroys the value of it.

If it has sentimental (and not monetary) value, I can understand, as I did the same thing with restoring a ~100 year old rifle. Destroyed the value, but it's a family heirloom and would never be sold anyway.

I am not sure if Christian Fletcher does restorations, or possibly try emailing Albion, A&A, etc, and see if they would be willing to do it?

There is restoration and then there is stabilization of active rust to stop continuing deterioration. ;)

Less is usually better and only someone knowledgeable in both restoration and when restorations become excessive and lower the value of the piece: Not just monetary value but when restoration destroys the accumulated history of the piece by making it look new or newer than it's real age or worse damages historically relevant details out of ignorance of the importance of those details.

If the piece is genuine, old and possibly valuable then maybe a museum curator could put you in touch with a good restorer or give you a list of people he or she can recommend. ( It helps if the museum in question has a collection of arms and armour and actually know something about arms and armour ).

Dmitry is an experienced antiques collector and is familiar with conservation vs. restoration, etc.. I am sure that he is seeking restoration for a good reason! :)

It is indeed plausible to think that the ones who work in the US, are museum-based. So far I've located a couple people that work in Europe.
Jonathan made me blush. :blush:

Dmitry blushing is something I can somewhat picture but has appeared quite fearless to me while dismantling something on my table one day :D then, handing me the pieces back to put it back together lol.

Dmitry, one name that comes to mind for the older stuff and you may have already been in touch would be E.B.Erickson
http://eljay.myArmoury.com/

There was a fellow at the Hartford show but didn't think to chat re his scope of restorations. Mathew Zabinski. I don't know if he is a regular there and there is no web or email but a number if you want to pm or email me for it, or catch him at Hartford. Mark McMorrow was mentioning someone for grips but may have been mostly for grip work on later swords. Victor of SFI is another you might want to contact for raperish stuff and others if wire is the subject. I still need to walk into a local guy here because he is a jeweler that rep[airs stuff and has a nifty laser welding kit.

Cheers

GC

Philip Tom does a lot of antique restorations with an emphasis on Asian, middle-eastern and eastern European weapons. You didn't mention what you want restored but Philip might be an option. He did a fantastic job on an antique jian for me.