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Little Treasures

Started by Captain Maltese, June 09, 2020, 09:55:50 AM

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Captain Maltese

What is value, for a thing? Is it the price tag? The quality, the usefulness, the age, the scarcity, the uniqueness, the name of the creator, the name of the owner? Maybe. However I also find value in how a thing have weathered the years; how time has gnawed on it, how the owners have used and abused it, how the wear shows, the repairs. Some things have great personal meaning for me too. I dedicate this thread to little treasures and the stories they tell. I have found a few over the years and will show them off. Please show me your little treasures too.

A quote from the Lord Of The Rings, the scene where the Companions part with Galadriel to continue their quest. All but Gimli the dwarf gets gift, but she doesn't know what to give a dwarf since they are traditional enemies. His response is a treasure in itself. I hate that this scene didn't make it into the movie.

"...surely, Gimli son of Glóin, you desire something that I could give? Name it, I bid you! You shall not be the only guest without a gift.’ ‘There is nothing, Lady Galadriel,’ said Gimli, bowing low and stammering. ‘Nothing, unless it might be – unless it is permitted to ask, nay, to name a single strand of your hair, which surpasses the gold of the earth as the stars surpass the gems of the mine. I do not ask for such a gift. But you commanded me to name my desire.”  “It is said that the skill of the Dwarves is in their hands rather than in their tongues,’ she said; ‘yet that is not true of Gimli. For none have ever made to me a request so bold and yet so courteous. And how shall I refuse, since I commanded him to speak? But tell me, what would you do with such a gift?’ ‘Treasure it, Lady,’ he answered, ‘in memory of your words to me at our first meeting. And if ever I return to the smithies of my home, it shall be set in imperishable crystal to be an heirloom of my house, and a pledge of good will between the Mountain and the Wood until the end of days.”

---


A little treasure, then. And what better to start with, than a treasure chest? I found this aging jewelry box at a recycling store a couple of days ago. Cost a couple of bucks, nothing more. It probably didn't cost much more when new. Could be Middle Eastern? The wood material owes more of its color to the laquer than the quality. The brass details are highly decorated even though the metal shape is simple. Time, and the chest probably being stored too close to an oven, has warped the lid a bit but the hinges and the closure still work.

And yet someone has cared for this cheap little trinket. I count no less than seven nails that have been replaced clumsily with slightly bigger ones, with a different head and being long enough to push all the way through and slightly crack the exit place. There is a scrape on the underside, as if it was thrown carelessly aside at some point.


And then there is the lid. In the middle of it, there is an inlay of a material I do not recognize. It probably isn't ivory. Nor is it bone, which would have yellowed. Plastic? Maybe, but it doesn't match the rest of the materials. I don't know. Nor do I recognize the carving style, or even what it shows. Flowers? Two angry birds?


The inside has more story to tell. There's a silky material with padding underneath. On the left is a ring stand; I can see that the behindmost slot has held a thick or ornate ring. On the right side is some grime, which indicates there may have been quite a few things stored in it. Maybe for many years.

I could remove the pins, remove the entire inside, but I don't want to. Someone spent time fixing this thing to the best of their ability. Someone had this on a shelf, storing the things they felt made them pretty. Maybe it contained the only valuable things they had. Maybe several generations ago. It was a little girl or an old woman's jewelry keeper. I don't want to remove that history. I'll clean it up, polish the wood and the brass and maybe the carving if I can find out how not to harm it. Then? I may put it on a shelf myself. Or give it away. The important thing is to let it keep telling its little stories. If that isn't treasure then I don't know what is.

Posting status:  25th December: Up To Date 5 of 9 : last month 2, this month 5, total 38 posts for 2023.

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Captain Maltese


I know this doesn't look like much, but it is deeply personal to me.

My grandmother was born right before WW1, in the northern and most rural parts of Norway in a poor family. By the time she was 13, she had gone to all the school there was for her kind and she became a servant girl. The only pay she got per year beyond food and a bed was one roll of fabric, which she sewed clothes from. Later in life she continued to sew her clothes by hand, and walk for miles and miles to sell eggs to the other farms. She died about 30 years ago, her legs completely worn out, but until then she was one of my closest family members. When she died, her belongings were shared between the children. A lot of more private things were just thrown away. As it is her home is now my cabin, but almost nothing in there now once belonged to her.

But I found this dress. It was in a closet, wrapped around a giant saw blade from a long gone yard saw. It seems home made to me, and from what might be a curtain. But it is so what she would wear. I never saw my grandmother in pants. Or skirts. Just simple dresses, like a time machine that stopped. It's the simplest of garments but I am holding on to it for the rest of my life. It is highly likely that it is the last surviving garment she wore.

Posting status:  25th December: Up To Date 5 of 9 : last month 2, this month 5, total 38 posts for 2023.

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Captain Maltese

One of my relatives had a mirror that they didn't want and offered it to me over the phone. I didn't expect much but was floored when I saw it. The damn thing is three feet wide and five feet tall, for one thing. It's also something like 30 pounds, has facet edged mirror glass and enough plaster floral art to fill a garden. From ten feet away I thought it was a cheap plastic copy from some warehouse but the backside is unadorned and unpainted and shows thick OLD planks. I don't know how old this thing is but it wasn't cheap when it was new. Art Noveau?

It was a bit worse for wear at the time. Grimy; when I received it it had been stored outdoors for a period. A piece or two of plaster had been knocked off, and there were scrapes showing the white plaster beneath. I cleaned it up best as I could and attacked the white spots with black paint. I can still tell where the damage is but I know where to look.

Finding a place for something massive like that was an issue for a while. My walls are already full, mainly of bookshelves, and I was loathe to take one of them down. Finally I went with the hallway, where one long wall is filled with nothing but leather jackets and leather coats. Mmmm, leather. I moved most of the hook system and barely managed to clear a three feet wide slot in the middle. The place wasn't just chosen for space's sake. Now that dark huge mirror is flanked by the jackets and reminds me vividly of Alice's mirror entry to Wonderland, and of the wardrobe to Narnia, and of the mirror door favored by the Phantom Of The Opera.

Next, I am looking for a small black chest of drawers in similar style to put under it. Over the top, I'll hang a couple of theatre masks - one white, one black maybe?


Posting status:  25th December: Up To Date 5 of 9 : last month 2, this month 5, total 38 posts for 2023.

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Captain Maltese

#3
Behold, a contraption of intricacy and beauty worthy of a madman's mind or a steampunk illustration. I found this on a rural auction, years ago, got it for a pittance, and never tire looking at it. You are looking at A Better Mousetrap and I'll bet a beer, a unique design. And not just a mousetrap, oh no, it is a DOUBLE mousetrap. Guilliotine, only with falling clubs!

The little ropes had snapped after being stored for who knows how many decades, and I tied them together to make sure I didn't lose any parts. Which obscures the design. Basically the little sticks move when the mice step on the lever they are secured on, and send the blocks of wood down on the little mice heads. But it gets even better, because every part of this devilish machinery is repurposed wood from something else - maybe a table or even farm machinery. There are cuts and slots that have nothing to do with the mousetrap.

The entire machine belongs in a museum, not the little attic nook where I keep many things like this and noone else ever see it. But which museum? The Art Design museum? The Rural Antiques musem? Wherever they store Escher art? I wish I could donate it somewhere honestly, but these days museums just crate and pack down anything they are given because they ran out of display space half a century ago. None the less I can assure you, you won't find another one of these in a Norwegian museum or anywhere else. So feast your eyes upon it now.

Posting status:  25th December: Up To Date 5 of 9 : last month 2, this month 5, total 38 posts for 2023.

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Captain Maltese

#4

Tools are functional and tend to be nondescript; if you have seen one there's probably a million others exactly like it. Or there were, once. I found this Sandvik (Swedish brand) hatchet in a recycling store and it was truly on its last legs. No Before picture, sadly. The axe head was dangling loosely on the shaft, it was rusted and its red paint was scraped badly, the edge looked like a saw, the wooden handle was dried and scraped, and the whole thing must have been a moment from ending in the recycling compactor machines. A brand new one can be had for about 12 bucks in the local tool stores; I paid 6 for a wreck.

Job number one was the axe head. Getting it off the handle was pitifully easy. I dumped the head in a 35% citric acid bath and left it there for two days. Or was it three? At some point I brushed the remaining red paint off with steel wire wool. It offered no resistance. Instead a nice steel difference was revealed, showing how the inch of steel nearest the edge is of a darker and harder material. Very pretty. Once I could see nothing but clean if pockmarked steel, I took it to the grinding wheel and gave the edge just enough violence to return the saw edge to a cleaving edge. The final touch was applying machine oil to stave off the next rust attack. Good as new.

Job number two was the handle. I was worrying that I would have to build a new one from scratch. There is no such thing as hatchet handles for sale in any story I know of in my country. Cheaper for people to buy a whole new hatchet, I suppose. The biggest problem was that the handle top was already proven to be too small for the head. Or was it? It had fitted once and it's not a major wear and tear area. Maybe it had simply dried out over the decades? I decided to put the handle upside down in a cup of water for a couple of days since the rest of the axe was in acid already. And hurray, the gripping end slurped up water and swelled beautifully. I fitted the handle to the head, put back in the steel plug, and the damn thing fits like yin and yang. The shaft didn't look that great though. I thought of sanding it down, maybe give it a fresh lick of laquer, but making it look new wasn't the goal. I found some vaseline oil product meant for polishing furniture and applied it liberally. The color got darker, and the scraped areas became less obvious. I considered but decided against adding some decorations with a burning iron; maybe better done on a different project. Good as new.

Job three. With the ravages of time beaten down I wanted to add a little something of myself. Slightly more expensive axes often have a leather protector to avoid the kind of damage the edge of this one have. Also make it better to stow in a backpack. Leather work I can do, at last to make functional things. So I put together this one. Modern leather protector have a snap button closure which is neat, but not particularly traditional, so I made one with a buckle. The final touch was a hand securing strap. After all that's what that the little hole there is for. I think.

Sandvik has made tools since 1862. This one is probably not that old, but I am confident that I have bought this cheap little tool some more time. I hope to put it to use in the woods before long.


Posting status:  25th December: Up To Date 5 of 9 : last month 2, this month 5, total 38 posts for 2023.

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Captain Maltese


Another little rescue from the trash and Time. This one came from a thrift market if I remember correctly, for a couple dollars. The price reflected its sorry state at the time. Straps and ropes were rearranged, replaced with others, torn or outright missing. The leather was brittle, some of the trimming was ripped off and gone, and the canvas torn in several places. No Before pic was taken but it was a sad spectacle.

Job number one was to idenfity it. There are no markings whatsoever. It's not every day you see khaki canvas mixed with olive drab canvas, and for a while I thought this was a repair job. Eventually I realized the only way to attach a new lid would be to take the entire pack apart and resew it, and the seams does not indicate that happened. So it is an original feature, which means it isn't a military pack and must have come from a civilian factory, and yet the overall design is quite military. This narrowed things down. Scandinavia doesn't have that many armies, nor that many backpack factories. The design of this particular pack fits closely to the Swedish Army model M1935 which was manufactured by the renowned Swedish company Haglöfs. (If you go down this rabbit hole, keep in mind that some websites seem confused about the various Swedish pre-ww2 models. I found the facts I needed from Swedish military museums.) It seems that in between the big military orders they used the production lines and spare parts and materials from various production runs to manufacture small amounts of Frankenstein backpacks for the local community around their factory. This very much looks like one of these. A loss for my militaria collection but a charming, fairly unique specimen from no later than WW2. I'm happy.

My original, hazy plan for this obscure item was that it might do well for fantasy larping or a cosplay convention outfit. Which would allow for making any alterations in my fancy. Successfully identifying the pack made me change my mind, as I now had full illustrations available showing what the original pack look like - and it is kinda cool, in a vintage style. This made it a candidate for restoration, not just repair.

Initial repairs included sewing together the tears in the canvas. I was lucky in that very little actual fabric had been lost and that the damages were not in stress areas. Some of the necessary sewing was on the inside.

Leather repairs were more extensive. All remaining leather needed application of leather fat just to stop being brittle. Especially the thin leather trimmings, what remained, were so decayed that they would crumble at the touch. After applying oil I carefully reinforced and sewed them back on where it was an option. The areas where the trimmings were gone entirely I found some spare furniture leather bits for, cut to size and sewed in place. I'm happy to say the color matches closely. On the rear side, the worst issue was a broken leather strap that had a key function. Fortunately it was an adjustable part and after fattening the strap I cut the edges of the breaking point clean, sewed them together and doused the point in high strength glue. It should be at least as strong as it originally was. With this bit repaired and based on the illustrations I could now return the rear side straps to original configuratio.

One part that the illustrations revealed, were straps on each side of the pack for holding a blanket or a jacket in place. These were entirely missing from my specimen so I made two new ones. They match the other straps pretty close.

The closure strap for the main compartment was not only frayed and broken, but also clearly a much newer replacement. I removed it and put hemp string in its place. Doesn't show on the picture but it looks period, which is good enough.


This was the sum of repairs. I have cleaned and sprayed the canvas with water impregnation, cleaned the metal but refrained from repainting it, and that's it. It's good to go.

For photographing and display purposes I have put on a blanket and a compass and filled the pack with material to show its proper shape. It's a very roomy design.

Posting status:  25th December: Up To Date 5 of 9 : last month 2, this month 5, total 38 posts for 2023.

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Captain Maltese

Based on an old post of mine in a different thread.


This was another recycling store find. An old balalaika, a Russian instrument, that looked like it had served dual service as a war club. Or maybe a child's toy, because it is fairly small. It was just a couple more dings away from belonging in the trash and a just a few dollars away from being free, but a balalaika is not exactly an everyday sight. In addition to ruined string and a badly scratched surface the bridge was completely missing. However upon closer inspection I noticed that the tuning keys were of good quality and that the body, if crude, was intact.

I attacked the wood hull with various chemicals including nail varnish and lighter fuel and finally managed to scrape off those annoying stickers, as well as the ink. From the surface at least. Some sticker glue had seeped deeply into the wood and could only have been masked by painting the entire instrument, which would also have removed all signs of age, so oh well. The remaining marks show up extra well on this poor pic unfortunately.

In addition to the removal work I made a new wooden bridge and put it in place. The entire instrument is lacquered twice; the fretstock and bridge got some black lacquer as well. There's three new strings in place. Balalaika strings aren't exactly something I can go buy in shops in Norway so I have substituted with ukulele ones and am hoping for the best. Restoring musical instruments is not a skill I excel at but it's a playable instrument again and I'm proud of that. It's been given to one of my close relatives who can actually play string instruments.


Posting status:  25th December: Up To Date 5 of 9 : last month 2, this month 5, total 38 posts for 2023.

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Autumn52

It is beautiful, and you did a great job restoring it.
May light guide you through your turmoil and may darkness never cross your path.

White Light be upon you if that is your wish

Lain


Finally getting a chance to sit down and post this lamp. I took time this last winter to clean the basement, in an offset room in the furthest corner of my basement. This room is where my grandparents had stored a lot of their decorations and family mementoes. I never really had it in me to clean it until I realized that most of it had succumbed to mold (black and otherwise). I lost a lot, but it was my own fault for not doing the job sooner for whatever reason or excuse I had at the time.

This lamp was sitting on a high shelf in a surprisingly dry spot in the rest of the rot. I spent a good bit of time looking for an old fashioned student style glass lamp shade, the original was long lost. Surprisingly I came close to finding a fit in my parent's collection, just not the right style (and it already had a lamp it was on lol). We have precious few antiques shops around, no luck in finding one in person. Online, I was a bit shocked by the prices that I decided to wait and see how I was feeling about the piece after I cleaned it up.

I pulled it apart and quickly realized that there was no saving the ring that held the shade- rust had eaten through parts of the delicate design entirely. Between that an the brass plating that was coming off in gentle cleaning and the wood stain not taking well on the curved sides, which my dad informed was not uncommon- he'd learned this truth in his wood working and thought it was something I needed to learn and not be told (he knows me so well- I am pretty stubborn but I come by that honestly). The whole project was looking bleak and I left it sit for a time.

Finally, I went to our local hardware store, looked long and hard at the spray paint- picked up the closest 'brass' that I liked then did the same at the paint sample wall. I find by staring at the while thing I can focus in on the color I like for the project I am working on- it's worked so are in painting the rooms of my house too. Something about the chaos of the colors helps me hone in on the singular one I like? So, the next nice day I sat up my spray paint station outside and went to town on the metal pieces that I was able to clean and save, which where all but the ring. After cleaning and sanding the wood pieces I painted those. Followed, my favorite part of lam p repair- rewiring, tedious as hell but gratifying for some reason.

Honestly, I am still pleasantly surprised with how the whole thing turned out:




I also sprayed the spare oil lamp shade that I got off of my dad and sprayed it with glass frosting. A clear globe looked so very odd with a light bulb. It took me a while... but I did find a low watt flickering bulb for the lamp. Serendipitous.


It may not be restored per se, but it certainly has a breath of new life in it and this old worn out lamp is being enjoyed once more. I will go on a limb and say that I think my grandmother would really like what I did with her old lamp.


It really is not much for actually lighting the room, but when I am feeling especially melancholy (or when I have a migraine) I turn all of the lights off in the house and turn the little key on the side of my remodeled lamp to just flicker in the dark. Much like an old fashioned oil lamp, the dim flicker of this lamp is very calming.


I do want to thank you, Captain, for your encouragement and knowledge while I was redoing this lamp!
My Heritage Is Rebellion.

Captain Maltese

That's a great lamp Lain. All the tender loving care you put into it shows off. I'm a tinkerer and a maker with such skills I have been able to learn, but you have the artist's eye and the artist's hand. I'm happy when I can make something work. You can make something better and nice than it originally was and that's more than skill. That's talent. Well done with this project. I have a feeling your grandmother would be proud of you. I hope you will eventually be posting some of all the others you have done.

Posting status:  25th December: Up To Date 5 of 9 : last month 2, this month 5, total 38 posts for 2023.

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Lain

#10
Thank you Capt! I am always happy, and mildly surprised, when projects come together so well. I am comforted by the thought that she would be proud of me with this piece, she likely would proudly use it as well. Speaking of others... I have recently finished a long going project. A shelf!


This shelf I picked up for under $20 at a upcycling and handcrafted consignment shop may family runs and I have a booth in. It was a sad shelf with great potential. I found that it likely dates pre 1950's. It had a sad weird paint job that was flacking and just needed some TLC.



Step one was to shellac and prime it... then the fun, starting with a high contrast black top. I had little idea of what to do still at this point, but I *knew* I wanted a black shelf on this piece. Cool.


Alright, now it was time to play! I settled on trying my skills at delicate hand painting and try making each type of flower close to what they might look like in life- or inspired by flowers I like. Also, yes, that is my crafting buddy Lilith helping so diligently.


I took a bit of time off for the holidays and went back to the shelf, and other projects. Picked it up with new vigor and decided it was time to get it done. It's been in my pile for 4 months at this point I believe. I was happy with most of the colors here but it still needed something! I felt like scratching my brain in a very Dr. Finkelstein manner. Also, coffee and snacks, yumm.


Okay! So after picking some brains, not just my own, and much trial and error. And a quick 5 months covered in this post... The shelf finally ended up looking like this! My only conundrum now was- do I keep it, or d I try selling it? Well I bought it to keep it and I painted it to my liking, not to that of others'


This shelf has a proud shelf on my wall above my 75 gallon aquarium and holds my 'Mousey' and an old bottle of Jack Daniels. It seems that have to add some dark to everything pretty in my house. I feel like there needs to be something in the middle

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

"Oh... did you want to paint? No. You missed a spot too. I will tell you where- for a price." - Lilith

This is one of several projects I am working on that are at various stages of completion.  There should be more postings from me ... eventually.
My Heritage Is Rebellion.

Captain Maltese

It is truly an awesome piece. The wood carving in itself must have be done by someone very patient and skilled at their craft and you doubled the artistical value of the item with your paint work. It screams Impressionism period now.

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

Posting status:  25th December: Up To Date 5 of 9 : last month 2, this month 5, total 38 posts for 2023.

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Captain Maltese

#12

I was at a cosplay convention this weekend. Two days, so two costumes. On one of the days I was wearing a bad guy costume and the obvious choice for the character was a pair of tall black officer boots. I have that; a pair of WW2 ones I found at an open air market in Hungary a long time ago. Could be German, could be Hungarian or Austrian, there's not enough markings left to tell. But they have it all otherwise; the boot straps, the vintage leather soles with wooden plugs, a possibly replacement rubber heel, the steel toe and heel caps. I collect old military gear so they fit right in. And for once, they actually fit me. However while I happily buy such boots I rarely wear them, especially when they are 80 years old. But now I brushed off the dust, gave them a couple rounds of rich boot polish, and wore them for a whole day while in the costume of a ww2 bad guy character. And gradually I got a feeling that old boots don't normally give me. Know the tired old quote about wearing another man's boots? There might be something to it. Depending on what flavor of spirituality you are familiar with you may have heard about items gaining energy, like the memory of another owner, or animism, or even another owner's ghost hanging onto an item. What I felt after wearing those boots for hours was specifically the sense of someone else being there, watching bemusedly. Someone good, or bad, I could not tell. Just that 'you are wearing my boots to do WHAT?' feeling. I haven't felt that before and I have worn second hand boots many times in the past.

The cosplay con is over and I won't be using those boots again any time soon. But I will polish them again, and I will look for boot trees to maintain their shape better with. After all, it seems they are not just mine.

Posting status:  25th December: Up To Date 5 of 9 : last month 2, this month 5, total 38 posts for 2023.

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Autumn52

Energy is stored in whatever a person loves or uses constantly. This makes perfect sense to me. Happy cosplaying and what a wonderful story.
May light guide you through your turmoil and may darkness never cross your path.

White Light be upon you if that is your wish

Captain Maltese

#14

I found something. Or did it find me?

I trawl the recycling and second hand stores in this area regularly. I come home with something useful a lot more often than I come home with something old, and when it is old it tends to be banged up and of unknown origin but I can tell what it was made for. This time was different. I had seen this box on previous visits; it didn't seem like much and the price was lower than for a frozen pizza so hardly an antique. But there was something different and on today's visit I brought it home.

Basically the box has a volume of about two gallons. It is made of probably whatever materials were at hand; a composite plate for the lid, cheap wooden boards, hinges that seem wildly oversized for the job. There are a few screws but most of the plugs are actually rivets. The board sides have been very nicely joined together. The outsides have been lacquered, the inside is raw but appears pristine. Whatever were placed or stored in it left no marks whatsoever. This box is not a work of art but it is nicely done and strangely robust. What could it be for? I have gone through a database of more than 3000 old wooden box objects tonight (thank you Norwegian museums for making your inventory available online) and have not found ONE identical item. But it being unique in style is one thing. I could not even find an item made for a similar purpose. Instrument boxes, egg carrying boxes, berry picking boxes, dynamite carrying boxes, not one is designed in the same way. That rope is so one can carry the box on one shoulder like the others mentioned, but none of them had the lid opening toward the bottom. So, function remains a mystery. But I will keep an eye up for others like it so I might learn it eventually.

Here is where it gets weird. I know who owned it. I know this because he painstakingly put his name on the top of the lid, on the inside of the lid, on the front of the box, and on the side of the box. Some of it neatly written in a hand writing not used much this side of the last war, some of it with big caps. I don't think I own more than a couple of items with my name on all together, and certainly not more than once. He also helpfully added where he lived; a valley up in the mountains but within this district. That was plenty information to find him. His first name is Ole, and he was born in the 19th century and died after the war. He was a small time farmer, a house carpenter (which explains the box making skills), a choir singer, and was also interested in any technical stuff that came his way - he made his own radios. I like Ole rather a lot. Ole lived a full life, had a family, and died at home after a short period of illness. I know which farm he had and am thinking of driving by it next time I pass there.

Here's the really weird part. Ole and I were born on the same day and month and his middle name is two letters away from my last name. Common names here, but... weird.

Posting status:  25th December: Up To Date 5 of 9 : last month 2, this month 5, total 38 posts for 2023.

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Oniya

Quote from: Captain Maltese on February 06, 2023, 02:56:13 PM
Ole lived a full life, had a family, and died at home after a short period of illness. I know which farm he had and am thinking of driving by it next time I pass there.


I certainly would - it's possible, if any of his family are still in that area, that they might know the purpose of the box, and be glad that it found an appreciative home.  It may just have been a 'fidget piece', not intended for a specific use, but as a way of keeping the skills polished.
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Captain Maltese

Quote from: Oniya on February 06, 2023, 11:35:48 PM
I certainly would - it's possible, if any of his family are still in that area, that they might know the purpose of the box, and be glad that it found an appreciative home.  It may just have been a 'fidget piece', not intended for a specific use, but as a way of keeping the skills polished.

I have chased source material. His widow sold the farm to a relative after he died, and then it was sold again and out of the family - according to info available, noone has lived there the last 30 years. They did have a daughter, who if she still lives is close to a hundred years old, and grandchildren of whom some who live that should be in their 80s. I'm not going to bother them. It was an interesting voyage into a part of local history though, and of lives forgotten. Ole is in the past. His box remains in the present. Of all things. Sure makes me wonder what will remain of my life, a few generations into the future. But if it is something I made with my own hands I think I will be content.

Posting status:  25th December: Up To Date 5 of 9 : last month 2, this month 5, total 38 posts for 2023.

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RedRose

Quote from: Captain Maltese on February 07, 2023, 08:47:57 AM
Sure makes me wonder what will remain of my life, a few generations into the future.

I wonder about this too. There's my children, and we own stuff that survived a world war or two, so I say, probably no need to worry.
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[what she reading: 50 TALES A YEAR]



Sethren

I'll have to show some quilts I've made that had pieces of clothing and old clean bedding patched into them. Patchwork quilts are so great for fabric waste!
                           I am accepting quilt commissions right now to make ends meet.

Captain Maltese


Posting status:  25th December: Up To Date 5 of 9 : last month 2, this month 5, total 38 posts for 2023.

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ObsidianRae

So, I recently had to purge over 3,000 books from my parents collection. I have kept only a handful myself due to space concerns, but thought I'd share this one. I haven't taken pictures of it open as the binding is damaged and the pages are loose. It is from 1878. I am debating if I should ask my local library if they have a restoration program, though I don't live in a large town so I'm uncertain they would. For now I'll keep it out of sunlight and keep it safe.


The night has a thousand eyes, And the day but one; Yet the light of the bright world dies, With the dying sun

Captain Maltese

Quote from: ObsidianRae on November 28, 2023, 01:00:21 PMSo, I recently had to purge over 3,000 books from my parents collection. I have kept only a handful myself due to space concerns, but thought I'd share this one. I haven't taken pictures of it open as the binding is damaged and the pages are loose. It is from 1878. I am debating if I should ask my local library if they have a restoration program, though I don't live in a large town so I'm uncertain they would. For now I'll keep it out of sunlight and keep it safe.


That is a beautiful, beautiful front cover. I am now very curious as to what further art might be hidden inside. My first thought of the title is that it is Art Deco, but in a book from 1878 it would have to be a very early sample. I wish I could make a meaningful contribution to restoring it.

Posting status:  25th December: Up To Date 5 of 9 : last month 2, this month 5, total 38 posts for 2023.

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Captain Maltese



I suspect I need to do some dusting.

What you see here is a REALLY rare find. It is a coffee grinder, which is an item that used to be in every home up to the days of shop bought ground coffee. I always find them in wood, never plastic or metal,  at second hand stores and recycling centers etc, and they are usually from the 1950s or so. I have a couple of those. THIS grinder is a different story altogether. It is home made! Someone got wood, paint and metal and some pins and probably copied another grinder. Even the metal is crudely forged and guaranteed never to have see a proper shop shelf. There has NEVER been hinges such at this from any machinist. But no school kid ever had access to a forge, while no proper carpenter would do work this crude. So, this is likely one of those jobs you get when a clever but poor guy way up in the mountains say 'I'm going to make this thing. Take a lot less time than save up for one.'When I found it it was gummed up with peanuts, and as yet I have not dared to clean it other than get the nuts out. The reason for that is the 'paint', which could be just about anything including chalk. Some detergent and warm water and it is probably gone forever. As it is it still looks functionable and I am buying a bag of roasted coffee nuts just to test it. There's a big crack in the wood which I am debating gluing but I may have to take the whole thing apart first and I'd rather not. Cracks and blemishes aside? Priceless. I'll live a long life without ever seeing another of these.

Posting status:  25th December: Up To Date 5 of 9 : last month 2, this month 5, total 38 posts for 2023.

O/O            Current stories

ObsidianRae

Quote from: Captain Maltese on December 03, 2023, 04:51:10 PMThat is a beautiful, beautiful front cover. I am now very curious as to what further art might be hidden inside. My first thought of the title is that it is Art Deco, but in a book from 1878 it would have to be a very early sample. I wish I could make a meaningful contribution to restoring it.
I wish I knew more about restoring books in general! But I am currently working on a tansu and learning much as I go. I don't want to risk destroying this in the process, so I think I'd best leave it to someone who knows what they're doing. 

The night has a thousand eyes, And the day but one; Yet the light of the bright world dies, With the dying sun