I’ve been buying low priced O’Keefe & Merritt stoves for parts. Apparently there are many owners that, for one reason or another, have decided the ole messy girl’s gotta go. Why buy? I’m collecting the best possible parts to restore my stoves. What I don’t need I can sell on ebay, etc.

The Bakelite knobs on some of these stove can look pretty disgusting after years of neglect or storage. I don’t want to come into direct contact with whatever glommed on to knobs and door handles that are strangely coated so I usually wear gloves.

However, many are restorable with an investment combination of patience, cleaning, repairing, sanding, polishing. After cooking the knobs and handles in soapy boiling water, it’s usually easier to remove the guck.

Bling-up those resin burner control knobs.

The metal strips on the control knobs of my O’Keefe & Merritt  were pretty dull.  I wanted to shine them up but turns out they were corroded. The control knobs of the parts stoves I bought were in worse condition.

So I decided to replace the metal strips. The closest thing I could find was rectangular wire from Rio Grande, a jewelry supplier.  Another source was in Etsy. Replacement was fairly easy. I used pliers to remove the old strip, removed debris and old glue from, and cleaned out the groove with a little Goof Off. Next, cut a 3 1/2″ strip from the sterling silver wire, placed it onto the knob, used my chain nose pliers to bend it around and into the knob’s backside and crimped it into place. The wire was stiff enough to remain in place without glue.