I’m checking to see if any of you fine makers has experience stabilizing slightly damaged enamel. If so, I’d love some guidance.
This doesn’t need to be restored back to unblemished, but it would be nice to stabilize and isolate the area around the two holes on either side so damage doesn’t get worse.
I’d appreciate ideas or strategies!
Whatever you do, you should get rid of all the rust (grind, rust converter, etc) before you repair. The rust will spread underneath the finish, and it will bubble up like it is on the right hand side and eventually flake away. Not a finish expert, but just what I have learned from working on cars over the years.
Does that happen to metal fully sealed under paint, or is there always an exposed edge it starts with? I would assume completely sealing the medallion would prevent further oxidation and also chipping.
Likely source of damage was an overly tightened screw that held this in place on a car. The excess pressure caused the enamel to crack. It looks very much like a chunk taken out of a piece of pottery.
On the close up of the damage, on the right side of the hole, it looks like there is a copper (?) layer below the enamel. So the area of concern is on the left hand side of the close up. I can’t tell if it’s rust or a …non-malignant patina (?)
Ideally, doing some sort of clear coating would be enough. But to Al’s point, I have concern about rust spreading, that said, I don’t know what metal the main disc is made from.
I suppose a jeweler might be the right professional to talk to about this?
Is it magnetic? Also, copper is sometimes used underneath chrome plating.
It is not magnetic
