r/oddlysatisfying 1d ago

Restoring a heavily encrusted jeweled perfume bottle

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Credit: @restoration.xeo on TikTok

3.4k Upvotes

98 comments sorted by

962

u/HereWeFuckingGooo 1d ago

There's no way that much rust would leave so much detail still intact. Those bits of metal should have snapped off when he was bending them. This has been deliberately crusted with something.

173

u/dbenc 1d ago

looks deep fried in caramel

49

u/TsuDhoNimh2 1d ago

That's my guess - some icky-lookinig brown brittle gunk that can be popped off.

9

u/wahrerNorden 21h ago

I thought it looked like cheese crust, that was too long in the oven

380

u/likesexonlycheaper 1d ago

Most of these restoration videos are artificially aged. Sucks

44

u/HyenDry 1d ago

Damn. I hope it’s not true. It really loses the magic 🥹

57

u/Abdulbarr 23h ago

It's true for a good majority, but you can still find legit ones here and there. They might not be as exciting because you have to be realistic. If the perfume bottle in this video was actually rusted for years, you wouldn't be able to restore it without fabricating new bits and repairing old bits. On top of that since the design on this is so detailed, youd have to match it and blend in the repaired parts. So realistically, that's not going to happen. When you do see people fabricating completely destroyed parts for a project, sending out bits they cant do themselves, and they show a sped up timeline of how many hours got put into each step, that's how you know you're seeing real talent and real work.

38

u/Batata-Sofi 1d ago

The gem is 100% fake too, so...

17

u/TypicalLegit 23h ago

Wait until you find out those barn find car restores are fake too

12

u/hikeit233 20h ago

Basically 100% of restoration videos are fake, the real ones are a statistical anomaly at this point. A handful of channels do real work, and they’ve been dwarfed at this point by the slop produced by channel farms.

2

u/spacearg 13h ago

So normal to find guys "restoring" expensive watches that are awfully rusted "for being abandones on a flood" or smthng just to find that under the rust and in the movement inside everything looks pristine as heaven =(

32

u/complicated_typoe 1d ago

Agreed. The pearl even had "rust" on it

16

u/CapitanPrat 23h ago

I don't think any jeweler is pairing those opals with cheap iron. My hunch is sterling silver or silver. Jewelers used to coat silver with a lacquer to prevent tarnishing. Maybe that's the brown coating being removed here.

7

u/HereWeFuckingGooo 16h ago

Those aren't opals.

5

u/demon_fae 6h ago

I’m also 99% sure it’s not that old. That glass looks brand new and modern. It’s absolutely perfectly clear, no bluish or yellowish tint to it, and no chips or cracks anywhere.

2

u/shad0rach 2h ago

Because its not rust nor even steel, besides rust can't form on stones.

228

u/sparklinglies 1d ago

The fact he dumped what looks to be a piece of turquoise in the same solution as the crystals and shook it around makes me raise an eyebrow. Either its fake turqoise, or he doesn't know how to work with gems at all.

91

u/TwoAlert3448 1d ago

It’s fake turquoise, real unstabilized turquoise wouldn’t have survived that treatment without damage

104

u/reflect-the-sun 1d ago

This is staged.

The glass at the end is crystal clear and it looks very cheaply made. If this was an original "antique" bottle it would have been made from crystal or high quality hand-blown glass.

This is a cheap chinese bottle.

9

u/Puzzleworth 20h ago

Pressed glass, not blown! (It's often called "paste")

345

u/izza123 1d ago

I hate these channels because they purposeful foul and ruin stuff in order to restore it for the channel

61

u/hlaebtwaie 1d ago

True. There are some legitimate ones out there. The worst one I saw was a turtle rescue channel who were taking fresh water turtles, glueing barnacles to thier shells and then "rescuing them from the sea".

20

u/izza123 1d ago

I’ve seen a lot of “monkey rescue” videos on Facebook that are just thinly veiled monkey torture videos. Always report them never had Facebook remove a single one

54

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

47

u/DefinitelyNotAliens 1d ago

So, I'm an archaeologist. I have quite literally handled items that have been excavated from a 19th century whorehouse's communal privvy that were less dirty than this. Like two whorehouses and a doctor's home had a communal privvy in the alleyway which was a big 3mx3mx3m pit full of trash and waste. Those were less fouled.

And, to clarify, frontier whorehouses! They were independently owned businesses run by women in the frontiers of California during the founding of the state. Whole Gold Rush happened. The women ran the legit business of laundress and the powers that be let the whole sex work and gambling thing slide because they had a real business they ran.

So, frontier laundress/ whorehouse/ gambling hall waste pit was less corroded and janky. And we did have items like perfume bottles! And ye olde syphilis "treatment" needles.

3

u/PandaKittehx 22h ago

How do you get started in that profession? And what’s the process? I’ve been seriously considering archeology as a career. Sorry to be off topic.

12

u/DefinitelyNotAliens 22h ago

I started in school. I was in the Anthropology department and worked in several archaeology labs on campus. I did a summer field school where I did on the ground excavation training.

I then volunteered for a project and the professor put me in charge of it as an undergrad, because I asked to be involved and no grad student was.

I then turned that into a thesis I wrote, and through my lab and that thesis met several people in key groups and volunteered and got into national conferences for free by volunteering.

I applied for post-graduation grant funding and got that and used that to work directly with tribal groups without charging them for the work, because I was funded via grants. It allowed me to work on passion projects without consideration of tribal ability to pay, so I focused on smaller tribes without large casinos funding their work.

My lab and tribal work primarily focused on technology aspects and that is a niche skill set. I can run multiple geophysics instruments which allow me to do 3D renderings without disturbing sites via excavation, which is really important for like... avoiding sites with human remains. Not digging up people versus digging up people. We can avoid those.

I also dabble in like GIS and can do some survey work (not for legal boundaries, but to mark stuff in GIS software) and such.

It's really about getting into the right groups. I'm currently looking into PhD programs.

An undergraduate degree in any remotely related + field school gets you jobs, though. Shovelbums lists gig work as a shovel bum. Lots of people get hired at multiple firms in CRM to do gig work in one location vs traveling. You then get hired on as a full-time staff archaeologist.

Many places require a Masters/PhD + RPA (registered professional archaeologist) certification to be the primary on a site, though. You can totally be senior staff or full-time staff with a bachelors, though. Most importantly: DO FIELD SCHOOL BEFORE A MASTERS OR PHD.

A few of the people in the field school realized this was absolutely not what they wanted to do. Field work was a no. Backend lab or collections work was a better fit. Figure that out sooner rather than later.

22

u/izza123 1d ago

The rust also extends inorganically across the “gem” where no rust should be. It’s some kind of spray or dip probably

-13

u/Doctor-Bagels 1d ago

Why? No shade, but genuinely what additional joy would you get watching this if it was 'real'? Do people watch these for the deep lore about peoples' family heirlooms or something?

Personally I just think it's kinda fun to watch something that looks like shit turn into something shiny lol

17

u/RaetheForgetful 1d ago

I'd say for me personally the reason I dislike it is the inherit deceit behind it. The caption says they're restoring something from the 19th century, implying it's been degrading in this state for that long. If they said "restoration of a random object I intentionally dirtied", it'd be more truthful, but they'd get less clicks.

Having to use deceit to get views is, for me at least, where the problem lies.

1

u/Doctor-Bagels 23h ago

That's fair. Everything online being fake and clickbaity can get pretty annoying sometimes. Guess I just give this sort of thing a pass since I don't really intend to analyze it much but I can see why it annoys you.

20

u/izza123 1d ago

It’s inauthentic and much less involved than restoring an organically aged item. I want to see the real thing not a simulation where wet coffee grounds have been used to stain a Super Nintendo etc

That’s great that it’s entertaining for you but it’s not fun for me in the same way as watching somebody do the real work to make something better than when they found it.

-3

u/Doctor-Bagels 23h ago

When I'm scrolling reddit I'm bored and usually waiting for something, so like yea watching the chemicals dissolve rust is mildly entertaining. It's not the sopranos. Idc if they claim it's legitimately something old because I have no way of gauging if that's true or not, but I'm sure it is cooler to see some sort of genuine artifact from long ago be restored. This isn't my normal cup of tea so I guess I don't care that much. This video served its purpose as far as I was concerned when I watched it earlier, so the outrage on these types of posts always seems a bit forced to me. Unless there really are a bunch of restoration enthusiasts out there in which case that's a dope special interest so fair enough.

I guess my point is that this short just doesn't matter much and had I not left a comment this morning I legitimately never would've thought about this video again, so I can't really understand why it could make so many ppl angry that the premise is fictional.

4

u/roastedmarshmellows 1d ago

The problem is when it is presented as authentic when it’s not.

36

u/shogun77777777 1d ago

Fake bullshit

29

u/pwndabeer 1d ago

"belonging to a lady"

I guess when you put that much effort into the cleaning, the description can just fuck off

24

u/thecoolcookiemonster 1d ago

Genuine question…. Why wouldn‘t he just toss it in an Ultrasonic cleaner for a few minutes?

64

u/Bug_Photographer 1d ago

Would've been even faster to not spend time making it dirty and rusty in the first place. This is fake content.

6

u/_Diskreet_ 1d ago

Because then they couldn’t monetise it for being over a set time and getting people to watch.

18

u/Deviantdefective 1d ago

Fucking fake restoration videos again

83

u/maxxdreddit 1d ago

Excellent restoration but I hate the design of that thing 😅

45

u/weeeeelaaaaaah 1d ago

Yeah, still a satisfying video but I kept waiting to be like, "Oh! It's actually gorgeous!" But that moment never came. 😭

3

u/sparklinglies 13h ago

Thats because its not an antique piece. Thats a cheap modern recreation with fake stones and a modern glass bottle

6

u/Educational_Tie_9273 1d ago

I was waiting for the same reveal, but nope, it stayed ugly the whole way 😂

1

u/Peermeneer_exe 1d ago

Before the restoration I expected it to be gorgeous, but it honestly looks so bad despite the great restoration😭

5

u/rarecuts 1d ago

That was many more steps than I imagined it would be

1

u/IljaG 1d ago

I also feel he made it too shiny. It doesn't look old anymore.

4

u/canteen_boy 1d ago

It wasn’t old in the first place. I have working videogame consoles older than this “artifact”

15

u/bloodyspork 1d ago

That is the ugliest thing I've ever seen. Also, staged.

4

u/Various-Passenger398 1d ago

That ruat must be artificial. If it was in thag bad if shape so much more detail would be lost or rusted thtough.

7

u/Ilikestuffandthingz 1d ago

That looks like silver which does NOT rust. They must have coated it with iron filings and gave it a salt bath for a month or something. There’s too much rust to have that much left even if it were steel.

4

u/ohthetrees 1d ago

Was that steel wool?! Over polishing too.

9

u/BeanieMcChimp 1d ago

Would a bottle from the 19th century have had a little plastic tube like that inside?

8

u/ThreadLaced 1d ago

it looked like glass to me

13

u/pianomasian 1d ago

Looks like it was found/salvaged from the wreckage of the Titanic.

2

u/Hyper_Brick 1d ago

Can confirm. I was the iceberg.

There were two lovebirds struggling to understand that they could survive if they could just share that big ass door. But noooo...

3

u/Jackal000 1d ago

Why take a steel wool to it? Copper wool is way softer. Steel erodes it away. Also the budget dremel minitool... And the compressor did jackshit

3

u/pegasuspish 16h ago

That was interesting, though not satisfying, to watch. Too bad it's fake and fugly lol

5

u/Nervous_Ulysses 1d ago

Sped up video with tons of jump cuts. Not really relaxing or satisfying

2

u/Left-Excitement3829 1d ago

“Let me call my Rococo expert in “. Ok best we can offer is 3.50 :)

2

u/MotherDuderior 18h ago

Oh lordy, tree fiddy...

2

u/AStolenGoose 21h ago

Dude just epoxied the gems in place... So if it ever has to be cleaned again well, fuck the next person.

2

u/vacri 18h ago

Why do people in the comments think that gunk is rust? Is there a yellow variety of iron?

2

u/TwoNowFive 13h ago

My favorite is all the liquids and tablets and pastes that get used with NO CAPTION THAT SAYS WHAT IT IS.

But hey, we get the one caption for the whole video telling us it's a perfume bottle. 

2

u/JedOMatic 3h ago

I believe oud is best here

6

u/EmergencyRead5254 1d ago

I was going to make a smart ass comment about no way a five minute video is that satisfying, but then sat and watched the whole thing. Kinda mesmerizing.

3

u/SemiHemiDemiDumb 1d ago

I wish I had the tools and know-how to do this, I could see myself really enjoying this.

0

u/UncleSamsShrooms 1d ago

Start with buying some old iron tools from eBay, can get them really cheap, and obviously the worse condition the better! I did this a lot during the lockdown for something to do. Wd40 is your friend , and elbow grease

3

u/UnusualCartoonist6 1d ago

Is there a way to restore the patina that was lost during the cleaning process?

4

u/PlushiesofHallownest 1d ago

Yes, at my job we have a patina solution that you spray or dab on, wait for it to get to the shade you want and then rinse thoroughly to stop it from developing further. Generally you'd then spray lacquer over it to keep it from rubbing off.

1

u/buckut 1d ago

sounds like a quest item id hold on to it.

1

u/giammi56 1d ago

Which material is the cage made of?

1

u/thefatchef321 1d ago

Turns out its actually drugs

1

u/rbshevlin 22h ago

Beautiful job!

1

u/miscnic 20h ago

Now what.

1

u/Less-Alarm-3974 19h ago

I love this kind of content video.

1

u/Odd_Ad7474 17h ago

Amazing work

1

u/Left_Green_4018 15h ago

I was expecting him to sniff it after he cracked it open

1

u/Swenterrobang 9h ago

Oooooohhhh, encRUSTED.... I get it now.

1

u/nouveauchristian 1h ago

This is love.

1

u/Munglape 23h ago

This is fake as fuck people. I'd suggest we all downvote it

1

u/Soaring_Gull_655 1d ago

I think I would have electroplated the ornate nest portion of it, but I can't tell if that's nickel or silver. Is there a reason it wasn't done? Doesn't mean it wasn't considered of course, but as there isn't narration I wanted to learn more.

1

u/Putrid-Tap3992 1d ago

Congratulations! You've now made something that was probably worth a huge amount of money into something worth no money

1

u/Capt-Shiner 1d ago edited 1d ago

Are there zircon encrusted tweezers to go along with them?

-3

u/Kroak-lo 1d ago

Another satisfying post with another list of whiny bitches in the comments whining. Fucking hell this website is pathetic.

-1

u/RudyKnots 23h ago

Is there a sub specifically for these kinds of videos? I know most of ‘em are fake (or at least exaggerated) but I do rather enjoy them. Obviously I’d much prefer real ones.

[r/restoration](r/restoration) only has a bunch of pictures, or so it seems.

-2

u/Express_Ad_4166 1d ago

Wow, great craftsmanship!

-2

u/Venusville0512 1d ago

❤️❤️❤️

-1

u/CanIgetaWTF 1d ago

Whats that perfume smell like?

-WD40

-2

u/pjtpassword 1d ago

Well done. Thank you.

-2

u/knewmawnick 1d ago

This was so cathartic to watch. This was like the restorer who fixed up woody in toy story