1920's cast iron bulkhead after restoration

I bought this bulkhead a few years ago from an antique centre, full of dirt, missing the glass, cage bent and broken, it looked an absolute disaster. I saw beyond that, and the potential it had, so I bought it much to the shock of the shop owners. I had a spare glass, so was duly fitted, and then I just simply put it away for a day where I would be happy to work on it.

Christmas break provided me that opportunity, and honestly it was actually worse than I expected. with more rust than my car (somehow...) corroded, bent and broken brass, all screws seized, it took about 2 or 3 hours to carefully unseize and strip it down to its separate components. Thankfully no screws snapped, a huge bonus.
First I repaired the break in the cage, the easiest way to do this is to clamp it so it won't move, and drill down into the metal, thread it, glue the screw in place and then snap the screw off. It creates a permanent and solid repair. Followed with a lot of wet dry sanding with 400 grit paper, and a good polish, the cage came out absolutely beautifully. Some black paint on the ring, and some clear lacquer, the shine of the brass should stay with the bulkhead for a long time.

The base now gets attention, and getting all the rust gone was no easy feat. I must have used at least 4 different wire wheels to get into every little area to get as much rust gone as possible. Once that was done, I applied rust treatment to kill off what's left, followed by top coats of hammered black outside, and gloss white inside.

Every brass screw, the copper glass clips, the hinge pin and even the lamp holder received a good polish to bring those up too, and then I could finally reassemble and get it lit, the first time in absolutely decades judging from its condition when I first got it. Let this be another lesson not to judge a book by its cover, anything can be revived given some time is well spent, seeing this light again made the whole lot worth it for me. Its a gorgeous bulkhead that really needs to be installed somewhere now.