>>how to make stainless steel nails look old.

We have been finding reasons not to use SS nails on exterior woodwork
besides their appearance. We
are getting rotting wood around the SS nails when the wood is not
particularly rot resistant. After 3 years of comparitive field testing
hot-dipped galvi nails do not have rot around them while SS nails do. It
seems that rain water takes some of the zinc into solution which then soaks
into the wood around the nail protecting the wood from decay. The SS nails
have no such beneficial effect. SS nails? One step forward, two steps back,
do not pass go, do not collect $200.

>>--keep your sandpaper curl-free until use - I can't find any box or other
device

Grasshopper, you must examine yourself before you can hope to understand the
curly paper. Could you not use the sandy paper in its own self-realized
curly
state? Perhaps the paper's highest existence is within the curly state for
good and useful reason. You must learn to walk upon the
sandpaper without disturbing the spirit of the sandpaper. Then, grasshopper,
could you not examine the
sandpaper to learn why it would curl? The spirit of the
sandpaper was created in another universe where fundamental materials are
with similar comparitive moisture contents. Here in your universe where
bi-laminar-tensional relationships are a part of the natural world the
situational moisture migration affects the temporal aspect of the
sandpaper's spirit lending it the curly character, just a passing state of
its forever changing
existence. When you learn to live in another's universe, grasshoppper, you
will enjoy the flatness of the sandpaper. Here in your own universe you will
easily remember the old saying: go soothingly upon the rough sandpaper, for
there
in lurks the curl demon. (Editor's note: for further realizations on the
connections between two universes examine the Univeral String Theory to tie
up any loose ends.)

>>--keep you chisels in a tool box but free from damage

When I was growing up in Nebraska I apprentised for two years with Frank
Kabot, the
old-time Czech harnessmaker. He began working in a harness shop when he was
8 years old in Budisov, Moravia in the 1890s. Upon imigration to St. Louis
he went to work in a harness factory and by the 1950s & 60s, when I knew him
he had a little leatherworking shop in Lincoln. While he and I did
make some harness, his main trade then was making black leather belts to
hold cop gear and
custom leather cases for the field scientists based at the university. I was
enthusiastic to bring my new leatherworking skills into my dad's woodworking
shop so I made a set of leather covers for his finest set of cabinetmaker's
bench chisels. This was a special set of chisels made of every width by 1/8"
increments from 1/8" to 1 1/2". They were made by Addis Bros. of finest
Shefield steel around the mid-19th century--easy to sharpen, yet hold an
edge forever. So, I got out my stitching horse and made the leather covers
by folding a 1 1/2" wide strip of
leather across the end of the chisel and hand-stitching around the end of
the chisel and up the other side. Frank showed me how to insert a little
strip of leather between the two peices right at the stitching so the sharp
edge of the chisel cuts into the leather and not the stitching. My dad
thought the leather covers looked swell--until about two weeks later he
picked up on of the chisels, took off the leather cover, and found the steel
under the cover was entirely coated with a bright orange layer of rust. We
took the chisels and leather covers over to Frank's shop. I had used a scrap
of acid-tan leather which corroded the steel. Frank handed me a piece of
vegitable-tanned leather which had been specially washed and buffered for
use next to steel and I stitched up a new set of chisel covers. I learned a
lot about leather that day. For the next two weeks I learned a lot about
steel and corrosion as I removed the rust from all those chisels and honed
out every single rust pit.

John
by hammer and hand great works do stand
by pen and thought best words are wrought

John Leeke, Preservation Consultant

mail: 26 Higgins St., Portland, ME, 04013, USA
Phone: 01-207-773-2306
email: [log in to unmask]
website: www.HistoricHomeWorks.com