ApexRestorations

Restoration of A REAL Italian Arditi trench dagger from WW1. For me, it is one of THE HOLY GRAILS. It is VERY uncommon to find a knife from 1915 in such a beautiful condition. See me restore this knife with respect. ABOUT THE WW1 TRENCH DAGGER I got this dagger donated by one of my Italian subscribers who has seen some of my other World War restoration videos. He told me that this is a Piemonte National Guard knife from around the mid-1800s that was shortened to be effective in the trenches during the battle of WW1. So this dagger most likely belonged to an Italian “Arditi” from the Royal Italian Army elite special force of World War I. They were the first modern storm troops and they have been defined as "the most feared corps by opposing armies". Italy fought as allied with Serbia, Russia, France, Britain, and the United States against Germany, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire who together formed the Central Powers. For me, it feels like I’ve been given the holy grail. Thank you so much. ABOUT THE RESTORATION I started by removing some of the corrosion from the brass so I could figure out how to disassemble the knife. The knife blade and the handle were in unreal good condition with only minor damage to repair. I started sandblasting the knife blade and MIG welded a reinforcement in the upper side of the blade cause the upper part was in really bad shape. I also repaired a big crack that went through both sides of the tip of the dagger. I chose TIG welding for this job to have more control because the metal was fragile. I ground the knife blade hardened the metal and made it all look as good as possible, without compromising the original trench build from WW1. The beautiful old dagger handle got a gentle sandblasting too. There was a big hole in one of the quillons that I chose to fill up with solder. I had to grind with my smallest files to make this look good. That repair came out really nice. For me, this could easily be one of my best restorations. So epic and so satisfying to get my hand on such a historical and well-conserved relic. I did this repair as lightly as possible without overruling the beautiful old look. So I’m very pleased with this restoration video and I really hope that you like it too.

Zippo lighter restoration from the Vietnam War Long Binh post. This time I did a full restoration and repair of a very dirty and rusty Zippo lighter that was sent to me to restore. I don’t know anything about this lighter because the person who sent it was anonymous, but I assume that part of it is real. The Zippo lighter outer case seems real enough and was way more damaged and elder-looking than the inner part. There was a very vague Zippo brand name in the bottom lighter case with serial number PAT 2517181 (Maybe the 8 is a 0?) The inner part of the Zippo was surprisingly shiny, after getting some wd-40 rust remover, considering it should be over 50 years old. If you know anything about this Zippo, if it’s a fake Vietnam War lighter or the real deal then please leave a comment below. I like to know. Thanks. The inscription on the lighter was VIETNAM LONG BINH 67-68 WE HAVE DONE SO MUCH FOR SO LONG WITH SO LITTLE THAT WE NOW CAN DO ANYTHING WITH NOTHING FOREVER

ABOUT THE BROKEN ANGEL I got this rusty broken angel from the local antique store. It’s made of cast Iron and is used as a metal decoration in people's homes or gardens. I think the angels are supposed to be rusty when used as decoration. I got this restoration project for absolutely free because it is hard to repair and weld cast iron and at the same time make it look good. But I am always into a challenge, and I was blown away by this little figure's beauty, so I have to save her. ❤ ABOUT THE RESTORATION I started by sandblasting the angel’s base and body to weld those two parts together. I did a few tack welds which hold the two pieces very fine together. I prepared it for TIG brazing/welding by grinding a deep groove all around the front/back legs and heating the cast iron to around 175°C/350 °F. I TIG brazed it with aluminum bronze and had 110 amps on my welding machine in DC TIG mode. I used 100% argon as my shield gas. I slowly cooled it to normal temperature by burying the angel in the sand. I ground and removed the excess material and polished the welding. After that, I used the same procedure when I welded the wings back on the angel’s body. Cast Iron is OK to solder if you know what you are doing. But it is very difficult to make it look good. So I had to grind to make the weldings look natural. I decided to decorate the angel feathers by giving the wings a layer of smoky white paint with my airbrush. I also added some gold color to the wings. I dry-brushed a lot of details to make the restoration look even more beautiful. Finally, I did a lot of polishing to make the metalwork look outstanding. I’m very pleased with this restoration video and I hope that you like it too.