Restoring, Repurposing Edison Style

Restoring, repurposing Edison Style.  We love nothing better than finding something old and beautiful and giving it new life.  Not only is it environmentally friendly but restoration brings with it a rich history and a story that can’t be replicated with something new.  We have a large range of salvaged and restored lights, here’s a few of them.

Our salvaged ship lights come from the massive ship breaking yards in India. They arrive  in all forms of disrepair.  You can’t help but wonder what ships they sailed on, what seas they travelled and what adventures they endured?  We admire the quality and craftsmanship that went into producing these beauties and love making them functional again.

Ship breaking or ship demolition is a type of ship disposal involving the breaking up of ships for scrap recycling. Most ships have a lifespan of a few decades before there is so much wear that refitting and repair become uneconomical. Ship breaking allows materials from the ship, especially steel, to be recycled. Equipment on board the vessel can also be reused. This is a great way to obtain the highest quality solid brass lighting components for use in industrial style design. All lamp parts show their age in a wonderful polished patina, and it’s amazing to think they date back to the Japanese ship building days after the war.

Restoration takes place in our Melbourne workshop where the lights are carefully stripped back, rewired and polished.

A new addition to our reclaimed lights are the Flame proof fluoro tube lights.

These are restored and polished Daeyang ship lights previously employed in ships’ engine rooms, cargo decks and similar areas.  They were designed to allow efficient lighting on LNG or LPG carriers and chemical container ships where explosion proof lighting was essential. Built in the 1970’s, these light fittings are extremely heavy duty weighing around 15kg each.

These lights have been stripped of their original light green paint and then polished to a degree, but not to a “perfect surface”. The original vapor containment system and ballast for the fluorescent tubes are removed  and then retro fitted with LED tubes and all new wiring ready to be installed by an electrician.  They are an authentic and unique light fitting perfect for that industrial look.

An item we have been repurposing from our humble beginnings is the insulator.  We have sourced various vintage glass and ceramic insulators from around the globe.  We have Russian fluted power cable insulators made in China for the Russian power grid, Hemingray insulators from North America, and Australia Crystal Glass insulators just to name a few.

The insulators are scrubbed clean and holes are drilled through them so they can be converted into various lights.  They look great grouped either as pendants or as a multi bulb ceiling light in various shapes and colours.

These reclaimed lights are adaptable to any voltage country.  Connection solutions are at times not standard and some require a specific type of connection. Please contact us if you have any questions in regards to using them.