How do you replace top on bottle?

[oldcrownbock]

Lol I looked around for "rock shop" but only found drums and guitars just kidding but will look into it.Hi Joe that is nice bottle and it is only $20? sorry was gonna ask ya thanks for pic.I dont have any area to find bottles but these are oldies are 1880 blobs applied as well?

 

[JOETHECROW]

Hmmmm,....I suppose I should never take our old dumps up in the woods as a given,...Someday they'll be gone too,....(sigh!)[] Anyhow, It shouldn't take too much effort to find your new top....It's not a weird color or anything>???Someone in your area might be able to give you some broken blobs, or take you to a 'dug out' dump for frags.... Also,..yes that Golden hill bottle...19.00 + shipping to a good home...[] Thanks for asking... Joe

 

[oldcrownbock]

Joe you know anyone who can do a better job then me? I never done it before lol so if someone hasdoneit they got one on me.

 

[JOETHECROW]

There was someone on here that cut down a broken top torpedo style bottle for someone (into a vase/pencil cup style thing) and did a nice job,...but I'm not sure about actual repairing/replacing......I'll keep my ears and eyes open for someone. Have you tried the search function on here?....... J.B.

 

[suzanne]

Or maybe you could contact a local glass shop or windshield replacement shop. Ace hardware stores do glass cutting also. The 2 tops would have to be cut off at a pretty accurate right angle. Then you could take the new top and set it on the bottle to see if it lines up well before actually gluing it on. I use windshield repair kit from autozone. The only part of the kit you really need is the resin and the clear plastic curing strips. The sun does the rest. It's easy.

 

[BarbaraInCalif]

Hey Rick...look up "lapidary" in the yellow pages or online..that will get you to the kind of rock shop you want!

Found this picture on eBay today and thought of you...and how NOT to do the repair. My apologies (geez I miss spellcheck here) if this bottles belongs to a forum member:

 

[ombudsman]

I realize that this is an issue of personal attitudes, and we can all do what we are comfortable with, but...

If you "repair" this bottle by cutting off the damaged top and replacing it with an undamaged similar top you will be discarding part of the original object and turning the bottle into a "fake." The word "fake" is strong and wouldn't really apply unless the bottle were offered for sale as original, but still, what you would have is a facsimile of the original bottle.

Even if the results of the method I have proposed does not produce an invisible repair, at least you have recreated the pre-damaged bottle without destroying part of the original. I'm sure you have seen, in museums, ancient objects repaired with very obvious fills. This is the same deal. No museum would cut off the damaged top of an ancient amphora and replace it with an undamaged one.

The resin method I have proposed has, as I have pointed out, the advantage of retreat - the craftsman can easily remove an failed attempt with no loss of anything but time.

There are certainly businesses that specialize in the restoration of porcelain and glass objects. A professional could certainly produce an invisible (or nearly so) restoration. No one here, myself included, seems to be familiar with specific companies. You can find these businesses if you try. You might check with larger museums as to the best company. I believe I can assure you that none of these businesses would suggest that you cut off original glass to put on a "fake" top.
Dave

 

[ombudsman]

A Google search for "antique glass restoration" (without the quotes) produced over a million hits. Try it.

 

[suzanne]

Messing around with a broken bottle frequently results in a more broken bottle. Maybe it is sometimes better to do something "fake" that looks real than to end up with a pile of broken glass.

 

[ombudsman]

ORIGINAL: suzanne

Messing around with a broken bottle frequently results in a more broken bottle.  Maybe it is sometimes better to do something "fake" that looks real than to end up with a pile of broken glass.

One is more likely to break a bottle cutting the top off than by adding and shaping a resin filet. In any case, and this is strictly my preference, I would prefer real to "looks real."