Cleaning Old Kitchen Gadgets for Food Prep Use

[KC]

I remember those coolers as well!!!!!!  Ahhhhhh, the memories!  They would sweat like crazy from the cold beverage inside!

[talesofthesevenseas]

I think they are cast. I don't see any sign that the holes were drilled through, but I could be wrong. Looking with the loupe again, the sides of the holes are pitted too, so there's no way to see if there were any drill marks originally. The positions of the holes are irregular if that tells us anything. I can't tell if the irregularity in the hole shapes is due to them being puctured through a sloped surface (resulting in an eliptical rather than round shape) or if they are actually made with different size objects. I put it next to an old 1850's patented cast iron pan and I think you are right, there is a lot of iron in this, it is kind of a dark silver, but not quite black like cast iron usually is. The plating is quite bright and light colored, what's left of it that is!

No worries, I'm not planning to use this one for food prep. The cleaning was because I wanted to stop the deterioration. I have a nice 1940's juicer that I use.

This is about the best picture I can get of the holes, it's taken with my Droid, my camera went belly-up yesterday.

[fancypants]

Thanks for the extra images , talesof !

I like the off-kilter holes in the juicer , myself .

The whole unit looks sturdy enough to drive nails (almost) !

[ironlord1963]

Reading and watching this post brought a few question in mind about a Chopper I have, I just posted it again for the third time on Ebay, have got watchers but no bids.  First do you think I should clean it like tales cleaned hers?  But what I want to know the most is about the style of handles.  You have wood handles, but mine is Metal and red.  I have seen many kitchen gadgets with this style handles.  At what point in history did the metal handles become the fad of the kitchen?  And any ideals of maybe what I should post the value at?  Then of course any thing else that might enlighten the Forum.   

[talesofthesevenseas]

I think I would clean the blade and aim it at the retro kitchen crowd. The color on the handle is great! There are a lot of red/chrome retro kitchen items like blenders that the chopper would go great with.

[talesofthesevenseas]

Just wanted to comment that the old food chopper has become one of my favorite kitchen tools. I can't believe this design ever fell out of favor! It is great because your fingers aren't down where the chopping is going on, it does thin, fine slicing and the curved blade lets you do a rocking/chopping that produces a very finely chopped result. Hubby helped make dinner last night and was quickly raving over what a great little gadget it is. If you see one in good shape, grab it!

[waywardangler]

Try a good ulu knife, you may be equally impressed.

[KC]

Go to this site for some excellent representations of older kitchen items.

The choppers are 3/4 way down.....

http://www.lonehand.com/antique_utensils.htm

[mariok54]

Great site, KC, I was almost expecting to find the scissored scoopy thing there 
I particularly like the Nutbrown Veg Chopper

[talesofthesevenseas]

Very cool. I particularly liked that wooden grater.

[talesofthesevenseas]

I picked up two more kitchen gadgets today. One is a flour sifter, which I'm finding that vinegar isn't working too well at removing the rust. I'm hoping to use this one, my modern spring-loaded one broke so no more pies for hubby until I get the sifter issues resolved!so I guess I'll keep at it with the vinegar. I have a light coat of olive oil on it now, hoping to soften it up a bit. I used a whole bottle of white vinegar and its still rusty!

The second item is a really cool ice shaver. I thought it was aluminum, but when I got it home I found that a magnet sticks to it. So I guess it is steel, since it is dull silver color and not black like iron. The inside of it is very bright silver, which makes me wonder if it could be coated in tin and might have a high lead content. So I'm going to pick up a lead test kit before I use it to shave ice. This one still had the blade in it. The blade has two edges, one was used and rusty, the other was brand new and still sharp! I'm hoping this one will turn out to be useable. It was really clean and in phenomenal shape. I love the art deco style decorations on the outside of it.

[marcylove]

I really like the ice shaver and your chopper as well.

I have a chopper (like ironlord's) and wooden bowl that were my grandma's that I use to this day for tuna fish.  Actually, I stopped using the wooden bowl because it finally got a big crack in it.

[talesofthesevenseas]

I like the wooden bowl that I have too. I've been planning to use mineral oil on it to rehydrate it a little, because I am concerned that it might crack, since most of the old bowls you see do have cracks in them. But I've been holding off on doing that because I'd really like to try to find someone who could help me date it first (we decided here that this needs a hands-on inspection) and it seemed best to let that person see it just as I found it. But I don't want to wait too long. I keep looking at it and worrying that it is dry.

I totally like that candy mold you posted today. VERY cool. You could make some neat desserts with that this Christmas! Maybe make chocolates to go on the top of a round cake!

I'm really hoping that ice shaver doesn't turn out to be toxic. I was imagining how I could freeze a block of ice and scrape it and have really nice shaved ice for drinks, snow cones... all kinds of stuff!