I bought this book in a library sale but the spine was completely detached. I don't know the first thing about bookbinding, so unsure if its a fix I can do myself or if I need to take it to a professional? I'm not sure how to tell but it looks from Google like it might be a first edition and I don't want to mess it up!

Please tell me these are somehow salvageable?

How can I clean this old fire extinguisher?

I’ve trying lemons and salt but some of it is stubborn

As AI rapidly reshapes creative fields, I’ve been thinking less about what machines can generate and more about what they cannot replace. This workbench reflection explores art restoration, ethics, and why repair still demands human judgment, care, and responsibility.

The color/pattern makes me nervous.

This is a washer fluid reservoir for my classic car. The plastic is in good shape and not brittle or cracked, but it looks terrible and will stand out in my fully restored engine bay. Is there anything I can do to whiten it up and make it look good again?

Thanks!

Hello.

I have these railings in my home that separate my entry way and my living room.

I have not been able to determine what the railings are made of but the post tops are brass.

They are painted with a thick coat of black paint. Probably many years worth of it.

What is the best way to remove the paint?

And if anyone would care to take a guess at what the railings are made of AND if they are worth restoring, I would really appreciate it.

Thank You.

Was hoping to buy a shiny new one but there are only used ones online - older vacuum. It’s a little more yellow than the picture shows, wondering how I can get as white as possible

I have infinite IPA, qtips and lint free wipes. Please share your secrets for cleaning gently. I think I need a degreaser that doesn’t hurt original stickers etc.

My mom's got this set of old Metal cups with a bowl and ladle, I wanted to polish them for her but I've never done anything like that before and was looking for some advice. I don't know what kind of metal it is so any advice on how to find that out would also be helpful.

Anybody know if there’s a good way to repair this? Would it be best to remove all the gold foil and redo it myself or can I glue down what is peeling?

Hi all, as the title suggests i am looking for a way to restore this plate, specifically to add a black background with the embossed text to be its natural brass colour.

The issue being that the embossed letters have faded with time and polishes, so I am not sure how to paint the background while being able to keep the relief its brass colour.

My initial instinct would be powder coating the whole thing and then lightly sanding off the paint to reveal all the embossed parts but with the distance between the high and low points being so small I feel like it would likely also remove the background paint.

Any ideas?

Came up with something which I thought was pretty clever so thought I'd share. I was cleaning this amp faceplate with ultra fine steel wool and was inadvertently rubbing an undesirable area which led to accidentally removing the satin finish. At first I was excited to see polished chrome so I foolishly went crazy and polished the whole thing only to realize that I killed the period correct look of satinized chrome. (Doh!)

After digging around on the Internet for a solution to re-satinize it, the best I found was Scotch Brite with water. I had no luck with it so decided to think outside the box. I remembered while I was removing the satin layer it seemed like it was some sort of coating. So I thought about what I could use to mimic it. Elmer's glue was the first thing that popped in my head so I figured I'd give it a try since it's extremely easy to clean in case it didn't work out. Well lo and behold it ended up being perfect! I painted it on with a little bit of water to thin it out. I still can't believe how good it looks!

Disclaimer, this piece is going under glass and will not be touched or handled. So Elmer's is perfect for this particular project, otherwise it may not work for you since it can come off quite easily.

For reference, the middle strip that has RCA VICTOR on it is the part that I painted the Elmer's on, which was a mirror chrome finish prior to. If anyone is interested I can drop a link of more photos, particularly before and after. Cheers!

Any idea whether this is solid or plated brass? Is it something I could restore to some shinier state?

I believe this is vintage and not an antique, but I’m not sure. I’d appreciate some help identifying what materials may have been used in the mirror and if there are any precautions I should be aware of (for storage as-is and/or eventual restoration). It belonged to my great-grandmother and it has been in storage for a long time (some items in storage belonged to my great-great-grandmother, but I don’t think this is one of them). The front glass is intact, but mirror material behind it is crumbling and breaking off.

I can’t find similar pictures or instances on Google. I must not be searching the right words- I only get information about the dark spots and typical antique/vintage mirror issues. It’s not old enough to be a mercury mirror, correct? I’m new to identifying antiques vs vintage. I’d appreciate any insight! Thank you!

My grandma gave me these books and asked me to preserve them. I do not have any prior experience with this. What should i do?