restoring #10 fruit press

[Gary Salsman]

 Book states they were gray. Was that paint, or gray japanning, or porcelain?  Just curious, was debating on restoring mine, or selling as is.

[Adam Hoagland]

[size=12]Catalogue 55 says that they were "Made with bright tin or battleship gray finishes."

The only 10 I ever saw was pretty rusty, but I think it had been bright tin when it was new, rather than battleship gray.  I saw a size 4 once that was flat gray, but it looked like somebody's half-cocked attempt to restore an otherwise rusty piece, and it really was not cosmetically appealing at all.  I saw it at an auction, and I don't think it sold for very much, either.  But, technically, I guess battleship gray was an option.[/size]

[Gary Salsman]

The base of mine, and the press plate show remnants of gray, looks like paint, but I haven't studied it closely. The outer round housing on mine appears to be galvanized or bright tin. It does not have an impressed logo as the book says, but other presses did not have a logo, so some variations of the 10 may also have come without, or it is a replacement. The strainer round housing is also tin, and is rusted thru in a couple of places near the top edge, which surprizes me, as I thought it would rust first near the bottom.
 All the lettering on the press plate show surface rust because the paint is gone, the screw has surface rust as well, as it was probably bare metal.

[Adam Hoagland]

[size=12]I think that the cast iron parts were all tinned (coated with tin at time of manufacture) like the grinders that Griswold made, rather than painted or Jappanned.  That would be the base, the presser plate, the strainer plate, the yoke, the handle, and the two Kremlin-shaped tops that the yoke fits around.  The side rods themselves probably would have been steel, for strength.  I don't know for certain, but I think that the only part that was painted battleship gray when that was the desired finish would have been the outer sleeve.

A lot of the presses don't have the logo on the sleeve.  There should be a logo on the bottom of the base, but if you have it mounted on a board of some kind, or if it's very rusty, it may be hard to see.

As to rusting up top vs down low?  It'll rust wherever somebody didn't wash it properly, or it'll rust wherever somebody knocked the finish off first.  The top probably got battered somewhat for every ham-handed miss whilst attempting to center the presser plate into the sleeves.  Maybe that's why it rusted first.  But, I'm guessing...[/size]

[Gary Salsman]

I'll try to load some photos from my phone, but mine is the exact opposite of what you said. 90% of the paint is still on the presser plate, and the base shows some gray. The sleeve and strainer sleeve is tinned. The cast strainer plate, I'll have to look closer, but may be bare steel, but could be tinned. Griswold name is on the presser plate

[Adam Hoagland]

[size=12]Photos would help, and I can be wrong any day of the week, but I think that the block tin coating is duller than the bright tinning that they would have put on the sleeve.  When I think of block tin coating, I think of what's on the grinders and choppers that Griswold made, and that's a sort of dull gray color.  But maybe they did actually put flat finish on all component parts of the battleship gray ones, too.

There ought to be Griswold pattern numbers on all of the cast iron parts, and they ought to come pretty close to running in series with each other for that size strainer.  My annoted p/n list is MIA right now, but going with what is in the blue book, they'd be 54/55/56/57/59 for base/strainer plate/plunger plate/cross bar/lever handle, and I'd bet that the missing 58 is for the knobs on the tops of the side rods.  Side note; the p/ns for the Kremlin-shaped knobs on top of the side rods are visible unless they're filled in with tin, but they aren't listed in the blue book's appendix of p/ns.  They're on the inside edges.  All the other ones should be pretty apparent.

I'd certainly be interested in seeing photos, but I know it can be a pain to transfer them and post them, so don't feel like you must.[/size]