Wabbit Season!

Wabbit Season!

Dec 12

 

Yes, I’m a Looney Tunes nerd.

 

Click on the picture to see the Wabbit Season skit

 

Any who… I recently got the opportunity to repair a really nice figural rabbit (A.K.A. – wabbit) nutcracker for a Nutcracker Club member.

 

The rabbit had a big chip at the top of the left ear, an old very obvious repair on the jaw, a broken pin, and basically needed an overall refresh on the aged finish.

 

The repairs on this piece came out great and replacing the pin gave me the opportunity to make it a “hidden pin” which really adds to the overall quality of this piece.

 

Here are some before pictures:

 

 

Here’s how the piece came out:

 

 

Honestly, this was a fun piece to work on. It came out great and the customer was very happy with the work I did.

 

—– Brandon

Many Hats

Many Hats

Nov 24

 

My little workshop has to be flexible and wear many hats.

 

Today was no exception. Today’s task was to convert it to an electronic repair shop to see if I can resurrect an old 22″ Dell monitor they were throwing out at work.

 

I disassembled the monitor, pulled the power board and found 4 bad capacitors which is typical in Dell hardware.

 

– Power board on the bench being diagnosed –

– Bad Capacitors (domed tops) –

So after about 30 minutes of my time and 4 new capacitors (56 cents total), I have a nice large Dell monitor for my home PC. Nice!

 

– It’s Alive! –

This was a nice little project that yielded a nice much larger computer monitor for my home PC for next to nothing.

 

Awesome!

 

BTW – Yes that’s a VCR under the monitor. I use it to transfer VHS tapes to digital media, and the pint glass you see has Thirsty Dog’s 12 Dogs of Christmas Ale in it which I highly recommend. 🙂

 

Joan of Arc

Joan of Arc

May 12

 

Here’s a rare piece that I just finished recently for the Leavenworth Nutcracker Museum.

The antique dealer Arlene Wagner (Nutcracker Museum’s curator) bought it from thinks the piece is from around the 1830’s and was made in France.

I only fixed the lower lip and left the rest of the piece’s character intact. When a piece is this old, doing a minimal restoration helps maintain its age and integrity.

 

Before Restoration

 

Before Restoration

 

After Restoration

 

Thanks for looking,

—– Brandon

 

 

A rare piece…

A rare piece…

Mar 14

 

Here is a rare Swiss piece I was lucky to find on Ebay back in December of 2013.

As you can see it had some extensive damage. Most of the base was missing and it had a hole drilled in the top of the head. It also had some damage on the face, especially the nose.

I wanted to have the piece fully restored for my wife’s birthday at the end of February. Unfortunately the weather here in Ohio did not cooperate and I had to give it to her partially finished.

The weather has finally broke a little and I was able to get it done this week. Missy is very happy with it and it is going in our private collection.

Be sure to click on the pictures for a bigger view:

Thanks for looking,

—– Brandon

Argh! There be Pirates…

Argh! There be Pirates…

Jan 17

Here’s a great example of a figural Pirate nutcracker.

Picked him up on Ebay. He had some condition issues (chipped lip, chipped handle, and various dings in the face). Looks like he was dropped or the family dog got to it and carried it around in its mouth a little.

I originally bought this one to fix up and sell, but the wife fell in love with it after it was done so looks like he’s going in our collection. Oh darn! 🙂

I really do like how this one came out. The darker stain really makes this a better piece.

See the before and after photos below:

Before

 

After

 

Stay tuned, more great pieces to come!

—– Brandon

 

Grinning Man

Grinning Man

Oct 26

Here’s a great example of a screw type nutcracker.

This one had no handle and had been applied to a piece of furniture or something. The hole for the screw had been plugged and dowels and screw holes were in the feet and body.

So after some time spent at the carving bench and some time spent on ye ol’ mini lathe, this guy is back to his original glory as a nutcracker.

 

I really enjoy bringing a piece back to its original form and glory.

 

 

—– Brandon