Vintage Industrial Spunk or Just Rusty Old Junk?

Salvaged Nails for sale at Vintage Hillbilly.

Ever wondered just where the rusty and crusty lost remnants of industrial age yesteryear actually go?  These days most of it goes to the scrap pile for sure.  Recycle yards for scrap metal and in this economy we all need the money.  Top dollar is paid for brass, copper, and aluminum. Recently Vintage Hillbilly was cleaning up an old farm, and seeing those great nails (above) buried in the mud. Those little spikes of yesteryear may be used in assemblage art, or used to make old-looking new wooden creations. Wayne says, "I just had to fish them out of the mud."

Aluminum glove molds at RetroChalet

Retro Chalet was buying out an old glove mold factory for porcelain hands for catering when she saw antiquated rusty equipment with aluminum  glove molds still attached to the machine line. "I asked what they were doing with them, and they said going to the scrap yard. I told him, I don't believe I can let you do that. He looked at me a bit funny, but I pitched the industrial part of history speech and soon we were negotiating prices. The rest of the weekend was spent dissasembling them from the original machinery.  Now the aluminum hands were saved from being a part of forgotten history. I will slowly sell them off to people who can appreciate them as much as I do."

Old Brass Porthole at RetroChalet.

Sometimes the salvage becomes impractical. This brass porthole was bought at high dollar prices years ago because it was going to the scrapyard.  Still worth more in scrap to most, the beauty is there, for the right collector. For practical purposes, who has an old yacht that needs this?  Most stores would try to sell it for a few cycles, then get discouraged, scrapping it themselves.  For Retro Chalet, it's worth waiting for the right person to give it a home, and save it from the scrap pile, for a bit longer.  "It may look good in an industrial house, in the bathroom or a study. The right designer may have a dual purpose for this, or someone will come along with a boat."

So what do you think? Save it from it's eternal demise? Or scrap it for top cash?


Guest Post by IraMency.