Ping Anser Refurbish

[Fellaheen51]

Found this Anser at the local thrift shop today for $5.00. Want to give it a new lease on life and will be my first refurbish job.

 

 

 

How does one tell the difference between BeCu and Manganese Bronze? Lots of tarnish and crud on the head. A little tarnex on the bottom barely made any impact. Overall the head is in pretty good shape with minimal nicks and gouges. Shaft is in good shape as well.

 

Should I be concerned with any collector value? From perusing ebay, seems this type is relatively common. What should be the first step for beginning the refurb? From my reading in this forum, a good cleaning and a coke bath may be a good starting point. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. TIA.

[toc]

Just gonna predict now: that's gonna end up looking sick.

[Air Jordan]

Crazy. I was browsing my local PGASS today and came across an almost identical Ping Anser with sound slot, except the one I found has no site lines. It was $9.99 so I jumped on it and it's currently sitting in a Coke bath right now. Not sure how to proceed either...

[Snufles]

Beautiful as is. Why mess with it?

Seen a few on here that have been polished but the one in the picture here is 10 times better looking.

I'll give you $20 plus shipping for it.

[bjackson]

That's MgBr. BeNi don't have sound slots.

[Fellaheen51]

[quote name='Snufles' timestamp='1396052300' post='8971895']
Beautiful as is. Why mess with it?
[/quote]

No, the pictures really don't show the amount of crud and tarnish on it. The sound slot is fully caked with dirt. I really need to perform some significant cleaning, if it messes up the patina, so be it. I will not be polishing it to a high shine.

[quote name='bjackson' timestamp='1396052881' post='8971945']
That's MgBr. BeNi don't have sound slots.
[/quote]

How does the color/tone of MgBr differ in appearance from BeCu? I've seen the latter, not sure about the former. I guess it goes in a coke soak tomorrow and see how things develop.

Note: Those "sight lines" you see are very poorly painted white lines. The head does not have any embedded lines.

[CWB]

BeCu is Copper color closer to Orange

MgBr is Brass color closer to Yellow

There are some lists of PING BeCu putter types out their



So you want to Remove dirt
Clean putter
& keep patina?

Well Patina maybe removed, but well come back after time (oxidation)
some simple chemicals can help process

most old pings came with a tumbled finish

[Fellaheen51]

[quote name='CWB' timestamp='1396103251' post='8974299']
MgBr is Brass color, closer to Yellow

So you want to remove dirt and clean putter and keep patina?

Well Patina maybe removed, but well come back after time (oxidation). Some simple chemicals can help the process.
[/quote]

Well I know more about this putter today. Certain that it is MgBr metal and certainly not a particularly rare or valuable model. That's fine by me, any refurb I perform will not have any material affect on it. It's been soaking in coke since this morning and the appearance has improved dramatically. Plus, a little acetone has gotten rid of the ugly "splotches" of sight line paint. Yes, I'm loosing the patina, but it can't be helped. The next step in the process is to even out the overall coloration of the head. The patina will return someday.

Have not decided yet to what level of "pristine" I want to take the refurb. There are some nicks on the topline and elsewhere. If I start hand sanding these, my thought is they would become to smooth in appearance relative to the tumbled look. Should I just leave them as "character" marks?

FWIW, I'll post a pic after the soaking. Thx to those that have responded to my little tale.

[LittleLeftToRight]

I would just clean the putter up, get rid of some of the dings with a brass mallet. sand it smooth, then re-patina it. If you do it right the patina will be perfectly even instead of mottled which is how they usually look when left to tarnish on their own. I have a way to put a super dark patina on it if anyone is interested thanks to my background in photography.

[Fellaheen51]

Before and after, so far:

[attachment=2147311:image.jpg] [attachment=2147323:image.jpg]

Cavity needs work and additional detailing in the crevasses, but its a start. Have some stain / discoloration on the sole that is not coming off.

[attachment=2147335:image.jpg]

Think I will be doing some "metalworking" on the dings and dents. Also thinking about smoothing out the area where the stem joins the blade, kind of coarse right now. Some surfaces are quite tumbled, other areas smooth. Guess I leaning toward making the entire head as smooth as possible. No sense stoping now, just getting started.

Then I will decide on the patina issue. Read about liver of sulfur as an option. Thinking a muted brass tone but not real dark. Finish with a new Pingman black grip.

[Sporting chance]

As your putter is manganese bronze it is relatively easy to get rid of the dints with sandpaper, although access to a belt sander or flap wheel will make the process faster, although a little less precise. Spend most of your time preparing and a host of finishes are then available to you.

Firstly you could have someone do a very light bead blast to give you a satin finish, which is useful if you plan to game it in the sun. Secondly you could polish with mops on a drill or bench grinder to a high shine that looks like gold. You might start World War 3 on here with the traditionalist police but you do what YOU want!
I'm assuming that you want a total DIY finish, so having a re-tumbled commercial finish by Ping isn't an option.

Whatever you decide on, leaving the finish alone and gaming it will darken the head naturally. Keep it polished if you want a bar of gold on a stick.

And finally, welcome to the addictive hobby of refurbing classic putters...you'll soon be planning your next project!

Dare to be different as well...do something unique to you. Here's one I did for a bit of fun!!!