In a situation where it is not possible to recreate or manufacture a missing piece, like a drawer pull, the next best thing is to find some currently manufactured part and try to make it as close to the original as possible. A good example is a Drexel Declaration dresser we got for our daughter – it had two of its 1″ diameter ceramic globe knobs and brass backing hardware missing.
In this particular case, the biggest difficulty was finding 1″ diameter ceramic knobs since the standard size today appears to be 1 1/4″ and 1 1/2″. We did find some eventually and when they arrived, it was clear that the brass hardware between the knob and the drawer were noticeably dissimilar. The face against the drawer was larger than the original brass pieces.
With a little work on the metal lathe after creating a special jig to hold the piece in the chuck, the diameter of the brass was turned down to that of the original piece. The new piece was also shinier, so my options were to shine the old pieces or treat and age the new pieces. If the new pieces look very close to the old pieces, I like to clean and polish the old to make the entire piece look new. If the shining makes the difference between the two stand out, I’ll age the new one. Here’s a quick shot of the new and original (without polishing or aging):
