If folks know you do any kind of woodwork at all, sooner or later you will be asked to make some kind of odd ball repair. Sometimes, it will be as simple as replacing a drawer bottom. Sometimes, it will be a request for a whole drawer and sometimes, it will be some odd little sliver of a carving to match another one on the opposite side of an antique table. Being the packrat that I am, I seldom toss good material if I can help it and I pay close attention to the bits I keep. Doing repairs often means trying to match grain closely and having an assortment of scraps to pick through is a good thing. I tend to salvage wood when and where I find it which also includes old stuff not worth fixing. Just because the item isn't worth fixing, doesn't mean the wood and hardware isn't worth keeping. Hardware, especially the old stuff, is expensive to buy yet lots of it goes to the trash because nobody took the time to salvage it. I salvage whatever comes my way and I keep the hardware I've collected in parts chest. The fine grained hardwoods from old stuff is racked by itself and only used when I am repairing a comparably old piece. Most times I can match pretty close, grain and color from my modest scrap rack. These odd ball repairs find me once or twice a year through friends or family. I don't actively pursue these kinds of jobs because furniture repair and refinishing is not really my cup of tea. I will take the occasional job but they aren't jobs I look for. I do woodwork for the pleasure of working wood, new wood preferably, and the actual crafting is mine and mine alone. However, I find myself hard pressed to pass on making a buck if it is dropped in my lap. My sometimes overzealous tendancies to salvage whatever I can really pays off when these jobs come along. I began by pretty much keeping anything then I refined it to keeping only stuff I honestly believed I would use. Having a stock of old wood and hardware is worth the time it takes to acquire it. Salvaging, is just time well spent. Try it!
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Last update : 21-01-2010 11:02
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