#antique lock

[themuseumlady]

neat metal detecting find!! lock from 1910!!!

found this neat Eagle Lock Co. Lock today (finally got permission to metal detect at my work:)) - it is likely from c. 1910 as that was the primary time that the section of property was used !!! this is probably my coolest find so far metal detecting!!

[cleverwordsandotherstuffilike]

[heavensdoorways]

"Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs"

Designed and carved by Frank Koralewsky

This took Korelewsky seven years to complete, and he won the gold medal at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in 1915.

[shewhoworshipscarlin]

Key, 1300-1400.

[unfurl-th]

treasures

[pearl-kite]

So I came to the realization today that I am not going to get anymore work on this trunk done this year. I still need to finish stripping the paper inside and redoing that, but it's just. Not happening until spring. With that realization, I decided it's time to finally bring it back inside, put all the junk on my floor that used to be in it back in it, and guys

It looks good.

This is going to be a summary post of the project, so let's go back and remember what I started with. Back in, like, 2015 or something, I bought this dome-top steamer trunk at a missionary shop for $65

Yeah. Rough. But underneath that paint it was sturdy, and the only thing missing was the lock and the right-side hasp. While I lived overseas this sat in my parents' house, and when I got back I kept meaning to do something while storing all of my yarn and cat food in it. When I finally got my own space (almost a year ago now!) with my own garage, I finally decided: it was time.

Heads up, this is a long post under the cut.

Did a lot of research online, grew to hate how generative AI has even permeated niche topics like how to refinish a vintage steamer trunk, WHY is there generative AI for that, PLEASE stop, went to Lowe's and bought some supplies (I used Citristrip for the paint stripping, it worked VERY easily), and started stripping that hideous brown* away.

Almost instantly I could tell how good it could be. The tin looked amazing, and for most of the stripping process I wondered why on earth someone would cover it with any color. It took multiple layers of stripping, and I got better at it over time.

I did also start to see some oxidation issues with the tin that made the purpose behind the paint job a little more understandable.

One side was particularly bad, but I will never forgive the decision to paint the entire thing one single color.

At first, the flat metal seemed okay, but the longer I worked on stripping, the longer it was exposed to air, the rustier it started to get. I had already planned on coating it, and I ended up getting some Rust-Oleum Rust Reformer spray paint. Instead of removing the rust, it bonds to the oxide and stops the process from continuing. It also happens to leave it a nice matte black that didn't need additional painting. I taped everything off, then sprayed.

Then it was time for the tin. I looked for ideas, and the best one I found was Rub'n'Buff. It's not so much a paint as a pigmented wax, with the idea that you can buff it to a higher shine. As I was stripping paint, I found a spot under one of the slats that the painter missed, and the original tin had been painted a gold color, so I used that to decide on color. I decided on Grecian gold, though I used the antique gold as a kind of base to make sure the Grecian stretched far enough.

I originally started applying it with some craft foam brushes, but they didn't really want to work for me, so I ended up buying a pack of makeup sponges, the little disposable wedge ones, and the finer texture worked much better. I had to trim them down pretty frequently, because the wax would build up and stop applying as nicely, but there were more than enough in the pack to finish the job.

The coverage is amazing for this stuff. This side was the worst of them, and one layer of the stuff was almost perfect. The Grecian gold was almost a bit runnier, though, and ended up needing a second layer to cover some patches that were almost too thin, thus the other underneath.

This tin is so pretty though. I still kind of regret that it needed it; the places that weren't oxidized were so bright in a way that the Rub'n'Buff had no hope of emulating. There are some places you can still buy the embossed tin for rehabing trunks like this, but I haven't found one with a pattern quite like this, and this one is so much nicer than the ones I've seen. I'm very glad that it was all intact except for where the lock goes.

After the tin came the slats. I knew from sites like Brettun's Village that I wanted to use tung oil, so I had bought what I thought was tung oil. Turns out Minwax gets to call their tung oil finish that even though there's. No... tung oil. in it. ? So uh, if you want actual tung oil, do NOT listen to Minwax, they're lying, I don't understand why it's allowed. It still looks nice enough, but quite annoying.

Speaking of Brettun's Village, they not only do their own restorations AND provide a guide, they have a very extensive supply of recently furbished and original parts. They happened to have a nearly identical hasp to the one that was missing (so nearly identical I only noticed after my dad pointed it out) and an old lock also similar to my original, made in the late 1800s/early 1900s.

The next step was to tackle the inside. Instead of just adding more paper on top (like the last people did, so now there are two layers, one of which hides some original stickers ;3;), I decided to try to scrape that out, and I've found some structural issues that the metal and slats outside have held together and kept hidden.

The top split in the wood is an actual crack on the front that needs fixing. The middle split is just the gap between the planks. The bottom is also a crack, but not as extensive as the top one.

So the final steps, when I get the motivation again come spring, is to finish getting as much of the paper off as I can. Then my dad is going to help me use some bondo to hold the cracks, and I'll find a removable wallpaper I like. Then I can sort out what I'm going to do with the lock. That top split runs right through where the lock should go - you can see some of the wood filler we already put in from where the original was ripped out - so we can't try to put anything there or it'll crack worse.

But I brought it in today!

It looks so good, I glance over and get to feel so satisfied; I did that.

*I don't like to call any color hideous, because a lot of the time it really depends on the context, and it's an okay brown. But for THIS? It was probably the worst brown they could have picked. Mixed with the orange of the paint stripper it looked like I was scraping diarrhea.

[chasingrainbowsforever]

~ Colors ~ Silver and Gray ~

[oldfarmhouse]

https://www.pinterest.com.

[ephemeral-antiquities]

HoW but the Sinclair brothers discovered therapy…

Bo: “who are these people and why are they in my house.”

Vincent, slapping his hand on the table to get Bo’s attention: OUR HOUSE

Bo: “my bad, our house. Still.”

Lester, from the couch, eating: “oh! These guys? Eh, they’re harmless! I found em on the side of the road so I picked em up, figured you guys wouldn’t mind.”

Bo: “I-“

Lester:

Bo: “…is that my sandwich??”

Lester: “M-“

Vincent, mournful, as someone messes with and consequently almost breaks a painting: MY BOB ROSS PAINTING

[autixel]

☝️ the noticerrrrr

[ourg0dsal]

Did you know that cows have bestfriends?

[mothmiso]

Aschaffenburg 2013 (2) (3) (4) (5) by Achim

Via Flickr:

(1) Security system at the door of Schloss Johannisburg. (2) Old houses at Stiftsplatz seen on a company outing / Betriebsausflug. (3) Schloss Johannisburg, built 1605-1614 by Kurfürst Johann Schweickard von Kronberg, destroyed in WW2. Reconstruction was finished in 1964. (4) Statue of St. Alexander. (5) Seen at a balcony in Aschaffenburg.    

[shewhoworshipscarlin]

Iron lock and keys, late 1800s-early 1900s.

[graveyardrabbit]

Trick or treat! 👻

you get

antique casket keys!

[yellowocaballero]

hello! i really liked your fics, especially the dc-xmen ones, and they made me interested in reading the comics. do you have any recs for starters? thank you :D

So a long-running gag between my sibling and I is that they aren't allowed to send me any panels or information about the X-Men, because I don't like the X-Men comics. Have I legitimately read a bunch? Sure. Would I recommend any of them? No.

I'd say X-Force (starring private eye Jamie) wasn't bad, except the 10yo girl got aged up into an 18yo and started making out with the lead. Cable & Deadpool probably barely counts as X-Men but it's definitely the best Cable and the best Deadpool comic simultaneously. My X-Men fics are based almost entirely off the children's cartoon X-Men Evolution, which is the only X-Men media I can say with my whole chest that I really enjoy. I heard that X-Men Blue was good.

As for where to start with DC comics...I'm struggling with a personal opinion on that too. I can't give a single comic that's the best Batman comic to start with, because the popularity of the Batman arc has an inverse relationship to its quality. The best Batman comic is some random one-off by Denny O'Neil in the 70s that was never mentioned again. I'm not sure how often this rec is given but Batman: Black and White is one of the few one-off Batman things that is sincerely gorgeous and moving (unlike The Dark Knight Returns or Arkham Asylum A Serious House on Serious Earth or The Killing Joke or Batman: Year One or The Long Halloween or Under The Red Hood or). If you've rolled up here for the Batfam exclusively then Cassandra's 90s Batgirl run is unironically pretty good.

If you enjoy reading teenagers being awful the late 90s-early 00s Young Justice comic by Peter David is delightful - if you enjoyed Impulse in it, then check out my favorite comic run of all time Impulse (not best, just favorite). The 90s Mark Waid Flash run was lovely. Outside of the heroes I've actually written, if you're pretentious as fuck the the 80s Denny O'Neil Question is fantastic. If you're not pretentious and want something much lighter then the early 00s Blue Bettle and 70s Shazam comics are unbelievably fun.

That probably doesn't help much! I love Batman so much but I couldn't believe that I couldn't actually list of any famous Batman arcs or stories that I genuinely love. Life of a Batman fan. I'm so sorry I can't actually recommend an X-Men comic. I'm sure there are good ones I just haven't read any.

[answrs]

anyway so a few years back at one of mom's old churches, someone snuck a pair of nunchucks (illegal in Ohio, also sir this is A Fucking Church) into the donations for the rummage sale.

I went to help out sorting through and pricing things yesterday for her newest church's sale and found a whole-ass iron(?) dagger with a very sharpened foot-long blade in one of the bins...

with a bonus eagle & swastika hilt

so that's fun 🫠

my dude. like what was your plan here. "yes the 50¢ an item fundraiser is definitely gonna sell a fucking nazi knife to support their free community breakfasts. I am a Good Person."