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Post by mach12 on Sept 11, 2020 19:45:39 GMT -5
Labor Day has always been a big day for the fruit stands and the prices are normally good so we decided to grab our masks, handwipes, Lysol wipes, etc. and do our usual trip, Covid-19 style. The fruits and vegetables were 2020 consistent and most were not what we'd normally expect, nor were the prices, but it was still worth the trip. A lot of the farmers just couldn't maintain or harvest a lot of what they grew because of Covid-19 restrictions so what was available was short supply and high demand and priced accordingly. A lot of the stands have expanded and also sell antiques so it was fun looking through those, too. I found a cool old Universal kitchen mixer that runs great but is in serious need some cleaning and buffing. And a new cord. I stepped back about 6 feet extra and made sure I had a clear path to the exit when the guy said he'd plug it in and test it because I was sure that cord was going to explode and burn the place down. I did a quick search on my phone and the couple that popped up like it were dated 1910 and 1915 so my guess is that that's a ballpark on this one since it's identical but am not sure. Here are a couple of pictures:
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Post by mach12 on Sept 11, 2020 21:41:21 GMT -5
Another item I found that I've been looking for for a long time is the large Wagner Magnalite round pot. I see it referred to as both a stock pot and a Dutch oven and have never found an ad or anything showing all three that I knew existed (there could be more but I'm only aware of three sizes). Somewhere there has to be some documentation but the only thing I know of is this ad: Here's the one I found (the tag shows the asking price but we negotiated): And here are the three sizes:
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Post by voodoochikin04 on Sept 11, 2020 23:02:39 GMT -5
I think I have one of those pots!
Nice scores.
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Post by pooka on Sept 12, 2020 6:58:36 GMT -5
Wow! that's pretty primitive. In searching for it, I find it called a mixbeater. Here's a little preview for you mach12. Those Wagner Magnalite pots are great. They've been making pretty much the same ones since 1934. They were designed by a noted guy, John Gordon Rideout. He & his firm was responsible for some important Art Deco products of the day. He designed my tea kettle in 1933, then did the pot in 34. The pans, I believe came much later. I've got a couple of the oval pots, though I've never used them. They were just too cheap. I couldn't pass them up. It's some of my stuff I should have passed on, but I know I could sell it for more than I paid for it. I've got some of their professional grade pans. They're just about indestructible. They are hard anodized, with forged steel handles, & have polished cast aluminum lids.
This is all my Wagner Magnalite stuff. I've got another big roaster too somewhere. I know I paid $10 for one. I can't remember what the other cost, but it can't have been too much, because I'm cheap. The pan on the right in the back has a steamer top on it. The little one is the only one that gets used. This is the kind of stuff that'll last a lifetime, & more.
The kettle, while not as old as the stove, it came out about the same time. It originally had a black painted handle. Someone replaced it with this home made one. It's shape was a bit cruder when I got it, but I worked on it with a rasp to refine the curve a little. It still need some work, & a good polish. I think they still make everything in that ad you posted, except the kettle. I think they stopped making it in the 50s or 60s. I ran across this link for a modern one that was submitted for a design competition & won a prize, but apparently was never marketed. Too bad. It's pretty cool. I don't care for the pans in that ad, The handles feel awkward & not very beefy. The lids are odd shaped to fit the poring spout on each side. They are nice pans, but could use some improving. I prefer the fat wooden handles on my 30s & 40s Wear-Ever pans.
A last note. The kettle is in the Museum Of Modern Art (MOMA), & a few others for it's design. So it" art you can cook with. Art for the stove-top.
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Post by mach12 on Sept 12, 2020 10:11:12 GMT -5
Thanks Pooka. Those videos people do on restorations are really helpful and that's a good one since I'm going to do this one. I imagine the plating was nickel since chrome wasn't used until the 1920's, and then not extensively. At least that's what I've always been told. When I restored my 1930 Model A Ford pickup I took some parts to the plating shop I used back then and he said to be authentic I needed to have the parts done in nickel. My pickup came from a Northern California winery and had been ordered new by them with the brightwork package so I wanted to keep it original. He said most of the nickel was called a Butler finish but that some parts are done with a harder nickel finish that he called a high luster nickel. That guy had been electroplating for so long that he had stories about problems when they started using chrome and how they solved them and things like that and he loved to share the stories. Most of what little bit I know is from him. I sure wish he was still around but he passed a couple of years after the EPA found contaminated ground water on his property and shut him down. He was right on the edge of Ft. Lewis and it turned out the contamination was superfund level contamination from the old Nike missile repair facility but by then it was too late.
Anyway, I suspect the plating on this is nickel and my Model A Ford club has a guy who does nickel plating so I'll probably have him refinish the plated parts. Once I verify that's what it is.
Those roasters and Dutch ovens are awesome. I have most of the other pots and pans shown in the ad, too, and man do they perform nicely with the Chambers burners. I haven't found anything yet that compares. I've been holding off on soda blasting and polishing them but will have my new blast cabinet up and running shortly and will get it done. Some of them have a bit of pitting inside after years of use but it's relatively minor and should clean up. The exterior finish is what I'm not so sure about though. I don't know what the surface hardening process is for polished aluminum so have some research to do. Anodizing is easy but I have some research to do before I polish the exteriors. I have a couple of sauce pans that are dull grey, I'm sure from being put in a dishwasher, so have a couple to play with before I mess with the ones that still have some luster.
I'm getting to the point where I need to make a decision on whether I'm keeping my Wearever or my Magnalite though. Just have too much stuff. Ten years from now I'll probably be hobbling around here with a cane and saying the same thing.
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Post by karitx on Sept 14, 2020 16:56:13 GMT -5
Nice finds! That mixer is cool and a little terrifying!
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Post by mach12 on Sept 14, 2020 23:12:51 GMT -5
I don't know why vgy.me keeps dumping the photo of the mixer so here it is again, this time from Photobucket. I still have an active account that I am downloading all of my photos from before I close the account so will go with linking to there for now.
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Post by Chuckie on Sept 15, 2020 8:26:14 GMT -5
I don't know why vgy.me keeps dumping the photo of the mixer so here it is again, this time from Photobucket. I still have an active account that I am downloading all of my photos from before I close the account so will go with linking to there for now. You know, I was REALLY PI$$ED @ Photobuckets latest threat, BUT when I went back OUT there, I only had < a DOZEN photos that were actually "family" or stuff that I actually WANTED to keep, so switched them to vgy! The rest were from posts out HERE, so guess what--in FIFTY YEARS or so--when folks are reading my old posts w/o pix, they'll say " WTF was he referring to/TALKING about?!!" Oh well, such are they mysteries of history... *sigh* CHEERS! Chuckie
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Post by mach12 on Sept 15, 2020 10:04:08 GMT -5
I don't know why vgy.me keeps dumping the photo of the mixer so here it is again, this time from Photobucket. I still have an active account that I am downloading all of my photos from before I close the account so will go with linking to there for now. You know, I was REALLY PI$$ED @ Photobuckets latest threat, BUT when I went back OUT there, I only had < a DOZEN photos that were actually "family" or stuff that I actually WANTED to keep, so switched them to vgy! The rest were from posts out HERE, so guess what--in FIFTY YEARS or so--when folks are reading my old posts w/o pix, they'll say " WTF was he referring to/TALKING about?!!" Oh well, such are they mysteries of history... *sigh* CHEERS! Chuckie Yup, they've gone off the deep end. My granddaughter has a photography business and she has an account with them because her website is set up to let her customers go in and review their photos, select packages and so on and switching to another site will mean her entire website is going to need to be rebuilt. My account is an affiliate account to hers. A couple of weeks ago I logged in to it and was getting ads so I wrote to them and said I shouldn't be getting ads on a paid account and they came back and implied that I was an idiot because they don't use ads. I think my B.P. went through the roof. I logged in and there were the ads so I did a screenshot and sent it to them, plus I added the history file from my antivirus that showed I'd run all the scans, including deep scans, and showed all of my security settings. They came back with yet another snotty reply that they had found the problem and fixed it but that it was the fault of one of the other account holders, not theirs. Bull. I don't know what will happen to all of those photos I've posted over the years but at a minimum I'm sure they'll all have that banner and be very low quality. I had been going in and deleting the ones I could find and replacing them with vgy.me versions but that's a massive undertaking and I'm sure I'll never get them all. Plus, what's in the future for vgy.me?
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Post by vaporvac on Sept 15, 2020 23:21:50 GMT -5
Love that blender!!! I wonder if it came with a bowl?
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Post by mach12 on Sept 16, 2020 1:20:48 GMT -5
Love that blender!!! I wonder if it came with a bowl? I haven't been able to find any info on what bowls came with it but I'm still looking. I found two different links, one for Pinterest and one for eBay, that said they were to that mixer with original bowls but no info on the bowls and when I clicked on the links they were dead links. I'm running pretty crazy trying to get caught up on stuff so haven't had much time to dig further. I have an old set of white glass bowls (would they be called milk glass?) that my mother-in-law said she got from a neighbor in the 1930's and they fit perfectly but I don't know whether they are correct. I sent an email to her son and he's looking through their old photos to see whether they have one of the mixer, so we'll see.
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Post by pooka on Sept 16, 2020 12:11:12 GMT -5
I found this restored one listed at Worthpoint.com. It has a white glass bowl with it, but I'm not sure it's original or not. If you zoom in on it, it appears to have a scalloped ribbing on the outside. Note also, the restored one is missing the turntable the bowl sits on. In searching eBay, I find some Fire King bowls that look at least similar, but Wikipedia listing says they weren't made until the 1940s. In two flyer I found for similar, but later Universal mixers from 1936 & 1937, they say they come with "Two French Ivory Heat Resisting Glass Bowls - one-quart capacity and three-quart capacity".
Whatever bowl you get, to make it work properly, the base or foot has to be broad enough to fit securely into the groove in the turntable. I'd be looking at Pyrex or Fire King bowls. I see the ones for old Sunbeam mixers frequently. They might fit.
Here's the 1936 flyer.
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Post by vaporvac on Sept 16, 2020 16:26:21 GMT -5
Well, I was going to posit a suggestion on the turn-table action, but the very informative add answered my question! The turn-table is turned by the mixing action of the beaters. I have a German mixer that does this and I thought it was so clever. That refurbished on is a beauty.
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Post by pooka on Sept 16, 2020 17:30:16 GMT -5
I found this Antique Universal Electric Mixer-Beater-Juicer probably from the 1930s that has enamel mixing bowls. They'd seem a bit too light weight, but I suppose it was a cheaper option than glass.
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Post by mach12 on Sept 16, 2020 18:28:08 GMT -5
Pooka, you never cease to amaze me on the stuff you come up with. I haven't been able to find a single ad yet. I did find the last one you posted with the enameled steel bowls and saved the link because that's the only one I've seen with the juicer and I wanted to see how the juicer attached. I also found one with bowls in the Smithsonian but it's kind of flaky and I'm not sure of the accuracy. It's the same model and style as mine and it's dated ca 1935 and that date doesn't fit with anything else I've found. All of the 1930's mixers I've found are similar to the one you show in the ad and the one in the link with the enameled steel bowls. The Smithsonian mixer appears to have stainless or nickel plated bowls and they look similar to the ones in the ad. If I remember right, stainless came into production in the early 1920's, so it's quite possible that the this style mixer could have had different kinds of bowls, depending on when it was produced. The museum in New Britain has a Lander, Frary and Clark section so I'm thinking of sending a note to them. They have a lot of electric stuff in the pictures posted but the only mixer I see is similar to the one in the ad you posted.
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Post by mach12 on Sept 16, 2020 18:43:48 GMT -5
I did a bit of digging on the Moire paint finish mentioned in the ad and it looks like that's going to take me down another rabbit hole lol. That was a great detail to find too - Thanks!!
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Post by mach12 on Sept 16, 2020 22:25:34 GMT -5
I can't believe how tough of a time I'm having finding ads. I have an account on the genealogybank.com website that I do family research on and if I use a company name instead of a persons it pulls newspaper articles and ads on the company, and you can filter it by date ranges and keywords. I normally have to sort through hundreds of results to find the specific one I want but on that mixer, nothing. Bread mixers, on the other hand, hundreds! I used Landers for the first name, Clark for the last, 1/1/1900 thru 12/31/1930 for the date range, and Universal, electric, and mixer for keywords and I had no idea they made so many different bread mixers. And cake mixers. All were hand crank mixers so I don't know what happened to the electric part though. When I use Chambers Stove or Chambers Range for the name I get over 100 pages with 15 or 20 articles, most of them announcing cooking schools but also new model announcements and Chambers Company news stories. I'm really surprised that I'm striking out on these mixers. I'll have to try some different names, like maybe Universal Electric.
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