Three years ago Phillip Lakin didn't know how to strip and polish metal. Now he is running an expanding business which he plans to turn over to his grandsons.
The business is growing, but not because of advertising. News of Lakin's business spreads by word-of-mouth. Lakin said it's like the old saying, "If you do good work you don't have to advertise."
Phillip and Irene Lakin have owned an antique store at 2040 Ft. Riley Boulevard for 25 years. Now they don't do much antiquing because the refinishing takes so much time.
When Lakin retired from the telephone company he "just wanted something to do." A man at Peabody taught him how to strip and polish metal in three or four weeks. Lakin refinishes brass, copper and pewter almost exclusively.
Lakin employs a special treatment to prevent tarnishing. How he does it "is my secret." Lakin makes the "secret" out of chemicals he orders.
"It should last 10-15 years, depending on how they use it and how they treat it," Lakin said about the tarnish-resistant finish.
The process is dangerous.
"We have to wear masks all the time," Lakin said. The process consists of two basic steps for the special finish. The first step is to strip tarnish and dirt to clean the metal. Then the metal is soaked clean with four acids. An electrical machine, which costs about $1,000, is used with one of the acids.
Next, $5,000 worth of polishing equipment puts a shine on each piece, Lakin said. Different sized and shaped buffing wheels are used. There are big ones for flat surfaces and big pieces and smaller cone-shaped ones for smaller pieces. Lakin has 15 different buffing wheels.
To smooth the piece during polishing, rouges are used. Rouges are a bar compound with grit. For a high polish the rouge is "so fine you can't feel anything in it," Lakin said.
The polisher runs at a high rate of speed and gets so hot it can melt pewter. This step gets dirty and tiresome, Lakin added.
Each item is done one at a time. For the stripping and polishing of a coffee pot or tea kettle, which are larger than most of today's, it takes 30 to 45 minutes.
Lakins gets pieces from as far away as Duck Lake, Mich., Salt Lake City, Utah, and Tulsa, Okla.
Dealers on buying trips drop things off.
In addition to stripping items Lakin makes lamps out of old flat irons, fire extinguishers and umbrella stands.