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What is a "good" repair?

Repairing metalware is an art. It is also a craft and while you are at it, also a science. When all of these elements, correctly come together at one time in one piece you can say that a repair is "good." But how do you measure quality of workmanship while it is going on, ensuring high standards when it is finished?

I recently visited an exhibit at the Museum of Art in San Diego. It was called: "Art of the European Silversmith." I wanted to see what kind of repairs had been done and how well. The pieces ranged in age from about a hundred to three hundred years old, so I knew they were bound to have needed some attention during that length of time.

What I found was interesting. The same varying standards evident in the repairs in the exhibit are similar to what you find today. This question must go back to the time the first person repaired the first item made from metal.

Conditions and needs vary, of course. One piece in the exhibit which I felt was badly done had been pinned together the repairer seemed to have been in a hurry and the pieces didn't line up at all. Maybe no one cared how it should have been repaired; maybe the owners just wanted it stuck back together in a hurry. Often there are conditions that make it hard to do good work; maybe this piece was the result of that dilemma. It's good to remind yourself that you don't know all of the details behind a bad repair job; whenever I am called upon to rework a bad repair I always try to analyze why it failed so as not to make the same mistakes.   Invariably repair failures fall into the three categories mentioned above: craft, art and science.

The craft element of a repair comprises all of the physical techniques that actually make up the repair. If a crack needs to be soldered "craft" is concerned with joining the metal completely and strongly.

How that crack looks after it is soldered is the "art" side of repairing. It is concerned with how pleasing the job looks when it is finished. It also decides when a job is not yet finished. The best repairs are as close to invisible as possible. Since art and craft are a team they work together at the same time. If the repair doesn't look invisible yet and it could be, "art" will tell "craft" to go back and make it better. Art looks for the flow of line and other elements of design, surface texture, color and the other qualities of finish. It makes the difference between a crude and professional looking repair job.

"Science" is the skeleton of repair work. It dictates what materials to use and when so the repair will be functional over a long period of time. It is concerned with internal strength. At times it may need to modify the decisions made by craft and art, if in having their way, the piece would be weakened or possibly destroyed. Back to our soldered crack:  "Science" would dictate what kind of soldering needed to be done.

It's good to academically review the various parts that go into repairing because the approach you take to repairing influences the outcome and quality of the job more than anything else. So to ensure high standards in the finished job even before it is started the approach should focus on at least these three elements: craft, art and science. When they work together as a team in harmony you are sure to get a "good" repair.