Rant: That hinge pin that snapped after 120 years of service

Someone dropped off a family Bible from 1904 to have the spine redone. I got the old boards off fine, but one of those brass hinge pins just snapped clean in half while I was easing it out. It wasn't rusted or bent, just worn down to a thread after a century of opening and closing. I spent the next two hours trying to source a matching replacement in Portland with no luck, so I ended up machining a tiny pin from a brass rod on my buddy's lathe. Worked out in the end, but now I'm wondering, how do you folks handle vintage hardware that fails mid-restoration? Do you ever tell the customer the piece just gave up after 120 years, or do you always eat the cost and time quietly?