Niels Cosman
08-31-2009, 4:28 PM
Against my better judgement I bought a fairly old, very rough old bench this weekend and now I am trying to figure out what to do with it.
Background:
It's an old Hammacher Schlemmer european style bench. Solid maple with a top just shy of 3" inches thick. The Seller claims that it's from 1920-30's bought by his father, which seems correct. The pictures of on craigslist looked promising enough to justify driving taking a two hour drive to check it out. Long story short, I found the bench having been stored in a dark damp basement for many years in less than pristine condition. I got out my flashlight and gave the bench a thorough inspection. There were splits in the boards in the top and the large wood screw vises were mostly seized up. Both problems symptomatic of the humidity and temperature. The wood looked good no rotting (but lots of mildew), the dogs looked ok, and the vise screws looked fine.
While every rational bone in my body was screaming dont do it- my old-junk-loving-heart pried opened my wallet and forked over a sizable chunk of change to rescue the old gal.
So what to do now...
I reckon i've got two options:
1. Rehab the lady and try to put her back to work (preferable).
2. Clean it, flip it to some city folk (manhattanites) as rustic decoration and run with the money
Right now:
Yesterday I gave her a bath- with first with some mildly soap and water then with some mineral sprits and a pad to clean off the majority of the surface grim and any mold/mildew that i could find. After three days of dryness both vises are screwing (the face vise is very smooth) the tail is getting better. The more with lots of the dirt gone and in the light of day, i am discovering cracks everywhere, but nothing that seems life threatening yet. The most troubling cracks are in the tail vise -particularly in the screw at the end with the handle.
I would love to hear what you fine folks think of the situation and offer any opinions you might offer about how I should proceed.
Regardless of how I choose to proceed, I think I shouldn't touch it for a week or two and see how things start settling out. I wouln't want to flatten the surface before it stopped moving or remove more of that "valuable dirt" if it turns out to be past the point of repair.
Cheers,
Niels
Background:
It's an old Hammacher Schlemmer european style bench. Solid maple with a top just shy of 3" inches thick. The Seller claims that it's from 1920-30's bought by his father, which seems correct. The pictures of on craigslist looked promising enough to justify driving taking a two hour drive to check it out. Long story short, I found the bench having been stored in a dark damp basement for many years in less than pristine condition. I got out my flashlight and gave the bench a thorough inspection. There were splits in the boards in the top and the large wood screw vises were mostly seized up. Both problems symptomatic of the humidity and temperature. The wood looked good no rotting (but lots of mildew), the dogs looked ok, and the vise screws looked fine.
While every rational bone in my body was screaming dont do it- my old-junk-loving-heart pried opened my wallet and forked over a sizable chunk of change to rescue the old gal.
So what to do now...
I reckon i've got two options:
1. Rehab the lady and try to put her back to work (preferable).
2. Clean it, flip it to some city folk (manhattanites) as rustic decoration and run with the money
Right now:
Yesterday I gave her a bath- with first with some mildly soap and water then with some mineral sprits and a pad to clean off the majority of the surface grim and any mold/mildew that i could find. After three days of dryness both vises are screwing (the face vise is very smooth) the tail is getting better. The more with lots of the dirt gone and in the light of day, i am discovering cracks everywhere, but nothing that seems life threatening yet. The most troubling cracks are in the tail vise -particularly in the screw at the end with the handle.
I would love to hear what you fine folks think of the situation and offer any opinions you might offer about how I should proceed.
Regardless of how I choose to proceed, I think I shouldn't touch it for a week or two and see how things start settling out. I wouln't want to flatten the surface before it stopped moving or remove more of that "valuable dirt" if it turns out to be past the point of repair.
Cheers,
Niels