【Terms of service】

YouTube rabbit holes are Terms of servicean inescapable reality of the internet. You go to the site with one clip in mind and those damn thumbnails pique your interest enough to make you click on another video, and another, and another.

There is one benefit to the never-ending cycle of YouTube videos: You only need to watch one clip on historic painting conservation to find one of the most oddly satisfying YouTube communities out there.

SEE ALSO: Painting restoration YouTube is the niche relaxation you need

The restoration community is a corner of YouTube boasting thousands of subscribers and millions of views. For the most part, it breaks down into four major subdivisions: shoes, swords and knives, small machinery, and toy restoration. Surprisingly, though, while all of these items are different, most of the content creators all had similar things to say.

One channel, my mechanics, is dedicated to the restoration of antique tools and small machines. The channel boasts over 352,000 subscribers and the most popular video has over 10.5 million views.

The man behind my mechanics said that while a lot of his viewers were mechanics themselves, a decent amount of his audience is watching his videos purely because a YouTube wormhole brought them there.

So why do people love restoration videos so much?Eric, who runs Hand Tool Rescue, a tool restoration page with 500,000 subscribers, puts it concisely.

"For some reason, modern society has decided that clean things are better than dirty, so everyone wants to see something make that transition. It's basically the same reason people like shows about home renovations."

But it's not all about cleaning up dirty things. Toy Polloi, who runs a toy conservation channel, said that a lot of comments noted that it was his narration that made the videos so relaxing. He added that his fans enjoy the tone of his voice, "and I guess because I am British, the Americans love that."

Black Beard Projects, who comes from the knife and tool restoration community, touched on another common theme from across the subsections. Nearly all of the YouTube restorers got into it for the same reason: It's cheaper to restore old things than buy new ones.

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He got into restoration long before he started making videos because buying and fixing old tools was an economical way to start creating things on a budget.

John Manalo, a prominent shoe restorer on YouTube with 141,000 subscribers, had similar comments in regards to viewers watching for a source of relaxation. However, Manalo uses his YouTube videos as promotion for his shoe restoration business. He estimates that around 70 percent of his business now comes from people who have viewed his videos.

"I do tutorials for people to know that I know what I am doing. This makes them more comfortable sending in their expensive shoes to a complete stranger by mail," he said.

Most of Manalo's viewers are from the sneaker community, and his most-watched videos are of the most expensive sneakers he's restored.

Eric from Hand Tool Rescue also does restorations as a side business. "I would buy rusty and dirty antique/vintage tools, clean them up or restore them, and sell them for a higher price. It was a fun little hobby."

Similarly, Toy Polloi mentioned that when he started restoring toys he preferred to buy the cheaper and more beat up selections. Not only were they less expensive, but he also found it far more satisfying to figure out how toys worked and fix them himself.

But not all people believe in the restoration process. Some of the YouTubers claimed backlash from some of the more hardcore antiquaries.

"I see some people comment on my videos telling that I ruined an antique, destroying its history and its value as an antique," my mechanics said. This sentiment was echoed by Toy Polloi, who has been kicked out of some forums by particularly aggressive Star Warsfans, who say that he is destroying the toys he refurbishes.

Both my mechanics and Toy Polloi said that the negative comments didn't bother them too much. Many of the restorers view themselves as providing entertainment rather than tutorials. Their purpose isn't historic conservation; their intention is to make old pieces new and useful again. They restore for use, not historic integrity.

One of the best things about this community is that although the individual items these YouTubers are restoring are completely different, they all have a lot in common.

Eric, admittedly biased towards tool restoration, said this of the niche community: "Other YouTube videos that restore way less interesting things (in my opinion) still seem to get a lot of traction, so I do not think it's the specific subject in the video, but more the process."

Whether you're an enthusiast for the individual items, or just enjoy a relaxing transformation videos, restoration YouTube is a great way to spend some time.

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