Parker 51 Lustraloy Cap Restoration

Once Quincy was done identifying the killer from his tooth marks in this cap, the owner sent it to me to use the guts for parts. Not wanting to be implicitly defeated by this nasty piece, I had a go at it, with acceptable results.

There’s a well-founded belief that steel caps can’t be restored in large measure because the material is relatively un-malleable, and attempting to unroll the cap lip to extract the innards will result in tearing and cracking of the cap’s edge – and then trying to re-roll the edge may be futile, even if it hasn’t broken. I’ve fabricated some special tools for this and I’ve been having good success. However, it is often not economical to restore a Lustraloy cap, as they are relatively common and replacements can be had inexpensively. Hey, I just talked my way out of more work. Typical.

---

All content © Copyright 1999-2004 Daniel Kirchheimer