Antique York Fire Safe

vpool · 2014-04-08T02:11:23+00:00

Hello all, New to the site. I just acquired a “new” safe and in doing some research on it came across this site. I thought you guys might be interested and I may get some ideas. My fiancé and I were cleaning out her grandparents old house and opened a back cabinet door and discovered this old York safe. The house had been abandoned for about 10 years and we were allowed to keep the safe which had belonged to her grandfather’s brother. It was locked and nobody had any clue on the combo so I had it drilled open. Everyone in the family thought it had been used at one of the family businesses to store cash and documents, so I was anxious to see what was inside. Alas, nothing was in it but an old high school diploma of the safe’s original owner. The inside seems to be in great condition to me, especially the artwork on the backside of the door. As you can see its original paint was covered by a coat of the flat green paint. You can see the original stenciling underneath the coat of paint. A few questions: A) Is there any way to look up information on the safe? i.e. manufacture date? B) I intend to fully restore it later on, but I would love to try and remove just the top layer of that green paint and see what the original looks like underneath. Any tips? I was planning on trying mineral spirits, acetone, oven cleaner, and sand paper in small doses to see what works based off research online. C) What is the best advice for restoration of the outside? Any specific paint or things I should know? D) I absolutely want to keep the original artwork on the inside. Is there a protective coating I should put over it? Just leave it be? Any advice would be great. Attached are the pics and thanks in advance. Vpool

vpool

Made a lot of progress the past few days. Pretty much have the entire safe roughed out.

The gold accents on the front are in great shape, the York Lock and Safe Co. logo is the only part that is pretty worn looking.

I was surprised by the stripe on the outer edge of the safe. I was able to see the other striping but hadn’t caught that.

The detailing on the hinges was also unexpected.

vpool

Well the restoration is nearly complete. Finished the exterior paint removal and put a clear coat of Penetrol on to seal the rust and protect the exposed original paint. Finally had it moved inside to my office to enjoy.

I left the Penetrol off the top edge because I am having the lettering re-done.

Its hard to really appreciate it in the pictures but it looks really good. After the Penetrol dried further it isn’t AS glossy. You really get to see all of the rust spots and paint gradients and the decades of character the paint has taken on. Really happy with how it turned out.

Chubby

Looking good! Well done.

thepianolist

Beautiful job! That door design is exactly the same as what is on mine - just as we suspected before the old paint removal. I wonder if the dial originally had the black outer ring as well as the white numbers with black background?

vpool

I have no clue on the dial. Never seen it that way before.

Heres a close up.

bitbuster

are you going to paint the repaired hole?

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