Usually, the skills are passed down from father to son, or through apprenticeships. A lot of business comes from antique dealers and from people in other cities where no replating firms exist. He has replated gold scabbards owned by a sword collector in Virginia and polished buckets of brass door hardware salvaged from old buildings. Guests dining at the Hotel Atop the Bellvue use the silver from the old Bellvue Stratford hotel, replated and polished by Kieserman when the new owners brought it out of storage. There are jobs he and other replaters don't enjoy.
Brass beds are high on the list, unless they're antique.
Those can be really valuable and beautiful. If you have a chandelier or brass-plated table, look to see if they have screws. If it's a good piece, it has to be taken apart. The price Kieserman charges in not determined by the value of the piece but by the time and effort required to do the job. Sometimes what looks simple ends up being a nightmare job.