What are polarised plugs? The article also mentions it but I have no idea what it is and why it's safer.

Without a polarised plug it means current can 'flow' the 'wrong' way through the toaster, backwards through the heating coils.

Which is to say when the toaster is plugged in but off, the heating coils could still be live, and touching them would shock you.

Ah, European standard plugs don't have that. I guess that makes it mandatory to have the power switch interrupt both wires, at least that's what lamps here tend to have.

Polarized plugs have one of the prongs bigger than the other and will only fit one way into an outlet. This ensures that you actually know which wire is hot and which wire is neutral and can ensure the switch controls hot (the power source) rather than neutral (the power return).

Not every country even has polarized plugs, though. The concept was new to me too at a time. The German Schuko plug for example is unpolarized, as is the euro plug, so there's no polarized plug options here.

Where exactly is the buy page? I see everything but that!

I just used the form at timstoasters.com/order and said I was looking to buy instead of restore. I agree it could be easier to find!

Thanks for the info. How was pricing? I assume it has be on the high side given the restoration.

Mine was $360 with shipping. Obviously very high compared to a new toaster, but I wouldn’t have wanted to do the wiring myself, so worth it for me.

It's high, but not unreasonably so, compared to a decent modern toaster. For example, a dualit 4 slice toaster is £200/$260. Pretty much everyone I know who has one is happy with it, and it meets modern safety standards out of the box.

Holy cow. We have one of these handed down to us. After learning how to calibrate the springs, it runs great. Didn't realize how much wealth it created for us as well.