11/07/2022
Restoration for St. Paul’s Episcopal Church of Chestnut Hill. The threaded top of this brass thurible broke and I was asked if I could repair it. Of course the answer was yes! Once it was in my hands I quickly noticed some other inadequate “repairs” made over the years and how it was long over due for a cleaning and polish. I disassembled the whole thing to make cleaning and polishing easier. The screw attaching the base was bent and I replaced it with a new brass machine screw. I extracted the broken thread out of the top of the thurible, put the broken “flame” in a lathe and faced off the remaining threads. While keeping it in the lathe I drilled and tapped it for a new thread post. I took another brass machine screw and screwed it in using permanent locktite the cut the head off and to size for the top of the thurible. The links of chain were attached to the handle with a mix of wrapped brass and steel homemade jump rings, that weren’t welded connections. This is what caused the thurible to fall and break. I removed the jump rings and used the end links on the original chain to slice open, place on the top piece, pinch shut, and braze it together with a brass fill rod. The “flame” topper need a new link made for it since the original links were too small to use and the previous one was another jump ring. I took a small piece of the brass fill rod and bent it around a 1/2” rod to make a U shape, I left the two sides long and took one of the and bent it around a 1/4” rod, sliced the on the straight side where they met and brazed it together. After the repairs were done, I polished it again, reassembled, and delivered it back to St. Paul’s where it had its big moment last night for the Requiem All Souls evensong service!
Paige Miller shared a post on Instagram: "Restoration for The threaded top of this brass thurible broke and I was asked if I could repair it. Of course the answer was yes! Once it was in my hands I quickly noticed some other inadequate “repairs” made over the years and how i...
