This one is pretty neat! I intended on making curtain hold backs out of silverware to use in our kitchen, but since we don't have a window there that requires curtains, I had a bag of old silverware sitting around, just waiting for a project. I had seen some photos of bent silverware hangers attached to boards floating around Etsy and decided to attempt my own. After creating, my dear husband nailed them to an antique rolling pin, which we mounted to the wall as an apron hanger. Yay!
Each type of silverware required a different process to bend into the right shape. The spoon was the easiest, simply banging flat with a hammer, hooking into a table mounted vise, hooking the handle into a hand-held vise grip and pulling up on the handle to create a hook.
The knife was also pretty easy, but the blade was pretty thick towards the handle, making it hard to control what angle the blade bent at to form the hook. It was also squeezed into the table vise when bending with the hand-held vise grip, but bending the blade, not handle as was done with the spoon.
The fork was definitely the most work. I started by trying to simply bend the tines with a pliers while the fork was hooked into the table vise grip, which was ridiculous. So, Mike taught we how to use a blowtorch- yes, I used blow torch! Each fork tine was heated until red hot and then bent into a curve using pliers. It probably took 6 or so heating sessions to get everything in place. Then, we hit the fork with a hammer until the tines were flat and even with the others, instead of some sticking out and looking silly. The handle was bent into a hook using the same process as the other utensils.
Mike then drilled a hole into each utensil (careful not to overheat your bit!) and nailed the pieces onto the rolling pin. The silver wall mounted hooks were purchased at Lowe's, for the pin to sit on. We screwed in the Lowe's hooks, set the pin on top and voila!- a vintage, kitchen themed hanger for my aprons!
Some tips if you try this at home- make sure your silverware is all silver, not just silver plated. This will make it easier to bend and have a prettier finish. We scraped off some silver coating when bending the fork, leaving an ugly black finish behind. I colored over it with a silver sharpie to try to hide it! :) Also, we bent the utensils over the curve of the table vise "grabber" area so the hooks had the same size and shape. Make sure to bend the handles backwards, to show off the pretty pattern on the front. (When completed, you see the back of the eating area and the front of the hooks.) Once hung, the rolling pin kept spinning so the hooks were touching the wall due to the weight. This was fixed with a dab of hot glue on both wall hooks to secure the handles and a dab on the inner handle area to secure the large middle rolling part.
What do you think? Worth an hour and $15?
