Fixing or Repairing a Broken Silver or Gold Trophy

 Several times now over the years, I have had trophies from my parents that have needed repairs. 

Having 8 children, and four of them being boys, anything of value got quite destroyed, especially anything shiny and enticing for children. My dad had this small silver plated trophy he got as MVP of a team he played on in 1956. He was not really big into sports due to working as a teen, but was very athletic so it was the only trophy that my dad has for that type of thing. 

Many years ago, my dad had some items that they were getting rid of out of his home, and this trophy was one of those items. At the time, one of the handles on the trophy was broken. No one else seemed to care about it, so I grabbed it hoping to be able to find a way to fix it as I had fixed my mothers large trophy a few years before. 

As you know, I have been working on my dad's history since his health scare this summer. I pulled out several boxes of items I have had in the garage for many years hoping to organize it while working on his history these past few months. 

I contacted my brother-in-law and showed him the trophy and asked if he had any ideas as to how to reattach the handles as the other was half off. He didn't have any ideas, and I tried to glue the handle on with several types of glue and used rubber bands to hold it on. 

Obviously, that method of repair didn't work and I got busy with other things and put the trophy aside. I knew it wasn't worth paying to have it repaired so I just thought about it for a month or two not wanting to keep a broken trophy, but not wanting to throw it away. I thought it would be a cute thing to share with my grandsons at some point if they play basketball. 

I have my mothers large beauty queen trophy as she represented the US as a beauty queen so I think it is fun to have a trophy from my dad as well. 

I had an inspiration moment a few days ago where I had an idea come to my mind. I thought that if I broke off the other broken handle, then I could make the trophy look more like a chalice or cup and no one would know any differently as all the information is on the cup face. 

I was really excited about that thought and so I broke off the other handle and then used a grinder tool on a Dremel and ground down the handle edges that were still left on the cup. I ground it down and then buffed the area and polished up the silver and I was super happy with the results of the grinding and polishing and made a video of how it looked halfway through so you can see the before and after on the cup. 

I share lots of other tips that I used on fixing my mothers trophy many years ago, so watch the video all the way through if you have questions on fixing a trophy. Now I can show my dad the fixed trophy and hopefully get him to share some stories about his experiences playing on the team. I also found some pictures and news articles of him playing and getting the award so I may put the trophy in a shadowbox and put a picture in the box with the trophy and a copy of the newspaper article in with those as I think that would be a fun memento. 

Hopefully you can get the idea, and feel free to ask any questions you may have.

Have a Blessed Day!