Posted 10 years ago
bjb5859
(27 items)
Hi Folks
First posting to the CW, Have been following forever.I have been restoring and refinishing these old relics for about 8 years now. This is the first one that I have replaced the leather on.
All the original embossed patterens were done with a lazer printer and actualy burnt into the leather. It has zinc metal bindings so my question is why did they use zinc on some trunks?? And is this a stage coach trunk ? Patened date of 1865 found on the wheels.
Thanks
Ben
Wow Ben, that is very sweet. What did you use to glue the leather to the trunk?
I used Ultra Foam Bond Adhesive
Manufactured for Albany foam & Supply
800-235-0888
worked very well
Thanks for the comment
This looks beautiful, great job.
Hi Ben, Welcome to CW , that is a great 1st post. Your work on this one is stunning to say the least ,wonderful attention to detail. If this is your first attempt at changing the leather you have hit a home run.I love the idea of
putting the original embossed lines back on the new leather using a laser printer.
Curious,How were the burnings done,by hand or machine?
Can't wait to see what other work you have done.
As far as zinc goes, it was a prevalent durable material of the time period.At
some point they stopped using it. "The natural Progression of trunk manufacturing", my guess would be cost savings, as it had to be a more expensive material and the number of trunk manufacturers probably doubled from 1870 to 1900 . It was the
Acceleration of the industrial revolution,cheaper, faster.etc. I always keep in mind
That M.M. Secor started his trunk company in his kitchen,and ended up creating one of the largest trunk manufacturing company's.
Wow, just wow.
The embossed lines are burnt into the leather with a lazer machine.
It runs back and forth across the leather burning small dots were needed ,useing a computer program. Its really amazing to watch and comes out perfect.
But not cheap!!
I have this one that I might keep and a dome top to do for a customer
Thanks for the comments
Neat interesting process, I am currently hand burning the original embossed lines from the leather that was present on the Abe Foot Trunk I posted a while back. I however did not put the leather back on this cross slat trunk(removal of 2000 nails and 75 pieces of hardware to put the leather back on for me is just too much. I did however decide to burn the original embossments directly into the wood underneath the removed leather . This is a my way in which to try to pay a little respect to
the intent of the original embossments.
That is exactly why I chose to replace the leather on this trunk.I also would not have wanted to remove everthing from a more ornate trunk.
Burning the lines in the wood will look very cool,can't wait to see it
I have burned into the wood on many occasions,I have done a good amount of artwork with the burner(Something real permanent in burning).Once the covering is beyond repair,a trunk for me is like an open canvas(everyone does them a little different).You can see multiple examples if you look at some of my past posts Look for the "Four Chiefs" C.A. Taylor trunk I did about 6 months back or the Brass banded Jenny Lind to give you an idea of just what can be done.I'll post pics when done it will take some time though.
Most people don't realize the level of work/and skill it requires in replacing all the leather.You did outstanding work.
Thank you for your kind words Drill.I have seen both trunks,very impressive to say the least. A true art form.
Wish I had that talent as well.
Absolutely INCREDIBLE work here!! What a beautiful job you've done with this one! I've never replaced the leather on a trunk, but your results are absolutely amazing! Welcome to CW and thank you for sharing with us!!
Thanks for the comments jscott0363
Have admired your work as well.
Hi Ben, as I've told you before on this trunk, you did a fantastic job. I don't know how you could part with it. As you know it's hard to date these trunks very precisely but the patent dates help some. The trunk could have been made between the mid 1860's to the mid 1870's based on historical information I've seen. A few trunks similar to this are even shown in an 1881 catalog that I have from St. Louis. The zinc sheet metal was used some during the 1860's and then more into the 1870's and mid 1880's. The more common metal covering was sheet iron, but the zinc was more corrosion resistant. By the mid 1880's the embossed tin became more popular and I expect was cheaper as Drill mentioned. They had to keep their costs down as much as possible because the trunk business was very price competitive. You could say this was a stagecoach trunk as that was still a common mode of transportation during that time, but it may have been too large for some stage lines, so may have more likely been used for train travel. None of the early trunk catalogs or ads that I've seen ever mentioned "stagecoach trunks", but rather called them mostly by their shape, such as a Round Top, or Barrel Top trunk. I hope that helps. Marvin
Certainly does Help
Thanks Marvin ,and you will never see the price go down on this one.
Gorgeous and awesome combined... what a fabulous restoration job...
Thank you very much Trunkman
I'm currently working on another new leather trunk for a customer
Will post pics when I'm finished