Snapshots

"I'll play the part, and I won't need rehearsin', 'cause all I gotta do is, act naturally."  And I won't say which part, but he won't need makeup for the role.

I spent about 5-1/2 hours today moving a roll-top desk my father had restored from basically a pile of scraps about 50 years ago. I think he ran across it by accident while looking around in someone’s barn for something else. It was, from what I remember, barely recognizable as a desk. But he saw something in it and restored it to its glory.

They have TV programs now specializing in showing this kind of stuff. This would have made a good episode — as would our attempts today to move the desk out of the house (it’s being sold) to my office. Long story short, we succeeded. But it required minor surgery. We had to amputate one leg in order to get it through a tight space. It was not a perfect solution, but it’s what had to be done if I wanted that desk.

After making the move, we delivered it to the office where I cleaned it and applied a very healthy dose of lemon oil. It sucked it right up. I could probably apply some more tomorrow and it would be no worse for wear.

It now looks pretty good, if I say so myself. My father was an accomplished amateur craftsman in various disciplines. Basically, if he wanted something done, he’d figure out how to do it. It wasn’t always perfect at first, but that’s how you gain experience and the confidence to try just about anything.

Here it is with the roll-top up and then in the down position:



Roll-Top Cam



Roll-Top Closed

I like that idea, Mr. Flu. And it would be a great place to sit down and write a story (the next Great American Novel)....even if you cheated and used a computer instead of pencil and paper.

This is what I use, Mr. Flu:



Oil Cam

To the best of my knowledge, a good lemon oil is safe, it won’t discolor, and it has a cleaning effect as well. Ideally you want to blow off or dust off any dirt and not just rub it in with the lemon oil. But all I did with the desk is generously apply lemon oil to a paper towel (yes….a softer rag would be better) and have at it. If the surface was large enough, I would squirt from the bottle directly onto the surface and then rub it in. Rub with the grain, of course, despite your nature to always going against it.

Brad that desk is wonderful. It reminds us of the time when elegance was the norm in everything, even mass produced goods.

My father used to be a modest coin collector. He passed on a view of his coins to me including this Roman coin. Can anyone translate the text on the coin?



CoinCam
iPhone 6s, RAW, Affinity Photo