The Gear Box

Jake von Slatt — Mon, 05/25/2009 - 23:43

TxInkman writes:

I dabble in the restoration of old wood maschinist's chests. Gareth over at the Make blog wrote a very nice article about of a couple of my boxes and Toolmonger has featured a few of them. One you might particularly appreciate for it's moderate Steampunkyness, the Gear Box, which Gareth described as Capt. Nemo's shore locker can be found here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26012426@N08/page10/ on my Flickr site.

Wow! somehow I managed to miss this absolutely gorgeous toolbox! I've been wanting a toolbox like this for a long time and I have a little pile of "special" wood just waiting for some free time for me to build myself one. Be sure I'll be stealing some ideas from TXInkman!

Tool Chest

jdmorse — Tue, 05/26/2009 - 22:33

I would never thought of modding a Gerstner chest like that. In my world of tool makers and machinists, a chest like that is a status symbol. Even if it started out as a total wreck, my first thought would be of restoration and not modification.

Click through to his Filckr

Jake von Slatt — Tue, 05/26/2009 - 23:03

Click through to his Filckr set and you'll see lots of restoration - this box was WAY gone!

Wow!

jdmorse — Wed, 05/27/2009 - 09:30

OK, I take it all back. He obviously knows and appreciates the real deal. I'll try to dig a little deeper before I comment next time.

Wow!

txinkman — Wed, 05/27/2009 - 20:00

That was refreshing. You sir, are a gentleman.

Seems that every time one of my boxes lands on the web there's always comments on how I've committed the ultimate sin -- the cries of "I've got a rope!" echo in the background -- of altering the "patina" (how I've grown to loath that word) of some box. To which my response is usually something along the lines of, "Take a look at it's condition, doofuss, this thing was only one short kick away from a dumpster."

I've previously likened my hobby to the world of "barn find' cars. Some you can salvage with breathing on it just a bit, some you can restore to a Concours level with some work, and some you've just, because by God they're begging for it, have to turn into a hot rod.

Thanks for recognizing I can perform a decent restoration when I see one.

Although I have to admit I prefer hot rodding.

Reminds me of something....

undeadbydawn — Mon, 05/25/2009 - 23:58

There's a stunning old chest in the Museum of Scotland that this reminds me of. The chest itself is a fairly simple, solid black box, but the lock mechanism inside the lid is both deeply complex and utterly stunning. I'm sure I have a couple of half-decent photos of it, if you're interested.