Mass Wood working

A while ago I finally finished the Shaker cupboard project - mostly. In the final push, I just went ahead and used the nickle plated hinges "as is", even though I knew the bright, shiny finish would bug me. It did.

Well, I finally got around to antiquing the hinges. Heres what I came up with: fire. I made a small fire in a metal bucket, threw the hinges in the coals and left it alone until it was cool. They came out looking funky, but a quick wipe with an oily rag took off the surface layer (oxidation? ash?), exposing the steel underneath.





I really like the color - it has a nice, varied, aged look to my eye. Next step is actually putting them on the cupboard. I hope that doesnt take another year...

We do this repair pretty often ... Broken bow .... We set it up so we can rout accurately with a small laminate trimmer, first the fromt usually, then the back, which is a little more complicated. we glue the repair pieces on as we rout. This bow was hickory and we had some ... Rout, glue, rout, glue, file trim, sand, color ... Will did this one and it went by so fast I didnt even get pictures of the intermediate steps... The chair was a worthy example though and it looked good when it was done ...
Broken
Front view finished ... A good save ..
Repair zones ... one side is usually longer than the other to (hopefully) eliminate new weak spots
Close up .... cant hardly tell ...