I was cruising the on line auction site late one evening and found an interesting walnut box. The seller’s dad was a woodworker who made projects from found wood and recycled furniture parts. Judging from the walnut pieces, he probably worked sometime early in the 20th century. Both brother and sister kept one each of dad’s projects and offered the third up for auction. Obviously the goat of the collection, this one needed restoration as it was missing several pieces of trim.
OK. I am a woodworker and how hard can that be, thought I. My small bid was accepted and the little jewel arrived within a few days. My initial inspection showed that it needed trim on most of the drawers and it needed a rosette repair on one end. In addition, it needed some sort of bottom. And finally, there was a pincushion in the middle between two drawers. It was shabby and needed to go.
I replaced it with a drawer. To match the others, I made mine a contrast and used birdseye maple and topped it off with a matching brass knob.
I added feet so it would float in order to enhance its appearance.
It hung around the shop for a few months as I tackled the eight missing pieces of trim. The smaller drawers had quarter round. It was simple so I tackled that first. I split a walnut dowel in half and then planed that half down to a quarter.
The other mouldings were complex and not that easy to reproduce. I used my H&R plane set on those final pieces.
I finished the walnut with amber shellac and the missing pieces blended in with the vintage pieces. HA! Those tiny mouldings were a real chore, but I pulled it off. The finished sewing box is very charming. My hat is off to its maker and I was glad to honor him by restoring his little treasure.
One day I gave a shop tour to my youngest daughter and she fell in love with the little sewing box. Now it is hers. I was happy because this project ticked off so many boxes. I was able to save a nice little treasure from the trash, I was seriously challenged by the mouldings, and I made my daughter smile. It was a woodworking win all around.