Paula Deen, it ain't. Eww.
Clockwise from left: Before, during, and almost done.
Hit the high spots so I could show y'all the detail that popped out right away.
After ten minutes of scraping on it with a little putty knife and a dull five-in-one tool.
Awesomeness.
So how long did it take? Five or six hours of soaking in the Crock-Pot. (I didn't pay any attention to what time it was when I put 'em in there.) Ten minutes per set of hinges to get the worst of it off, and another 20 minutes or so to get the paint out of the little nooks and crannies.
And the recipe? Plain water. Probably six hours on low heat, which may or not be the same as three hours on high heat. Thirty minutes or so (per set of hinges) of picking at the paint with a small flexible putty knife and a very dull five-in-one tool. Picking time includes re-heating the hinges in the Crock-Pot for a minute or so when they cooled off. (It seemed to be easier to peel off warm paint.) Your time may vary, especially if you aren't listening to "Hair Nation" on XM, which causes you to periodically use the five-in-one tool as a mic when a really cool song comes on. C'mon now, you know you've belted out the lyrics to Bon Jovi's "Livin' On A Prayer" a time or two yourself.
Please take note that I got almost every little speck of paint off of four sets of hinges in less time than it took me to strip that one itty-bitty little operator rod knob. My heartfelt thanks to Kate, Karen Anne and Marley for teaching me that boiling water removes 50 years of paint and to Christine, who suggested the Crock-Pot.