forge.

Meet our newest addition; the coal forge. Now technically, I shouldn't be posting this here, but I just couldn't help it.  It's really my husbands toy; I've never forged anything in my life, (though I'm hoping to learn now...) but it's such a neat thing, and it's a part of my family history.  

Since we moved in October, my husband has been talking about the forge.  It was sitting among my grandpa's clutter, that my grandma just adores, might I add, and I'm sure it was just calling out to him "please, please, take me home!" A couple of weeks ago he finally got his wish.  We now have added to the rest of our creative endeavors a Champion Blower & Forge Co. Model # 400 coal forge. It's pretty old... what I'm assuming are the patent dates read "April 15, 1902 and July 30, 1901." I believe it was probably my great-grandfathers, if not my great-great-grandfathers. Neat, right?!  But despite it's age, it still works like a dream.  When he really got it cranking, I got some pretty great pictures of the sparks flying.  So far, he's been experimenting with flattening a railroad spike, to get the feel of things, and hammering on an old piece of i-beam.  If you've got an anvil just lying around, or know someone who does, we'd be happy to take it off their hands! 

sit.

New project: Chairs!

If you remember, a while back, I posted about the two part-er table project.  Step one was the napkin rings, while step two was fixing up the set of 4 chairs that goes with the table.  I'm finally getting around to the second part.

Since there are 4 chairs, all in different stages of being, we'll separate them.  A and B used to be finished, until the puppy decided to teethe all over B's legs. So, A gets a few touch-ups and B gets all kinds of sanding, and a few more touch-ups.  C is half-way there.  Once upon a time, when I was home from school, I decided that I wanted four chairs in my efficiency apartment rather than just two.  So I dragged C down from the attic, and sanded away.  Then I got tired and abandoned it. Now C just looks like a molted green and yellow mess. And D.  D is officially in "before" state. So there's your comparison...

So far, A and B are touched up, re-glued and happy, and after a long afternoon of work, C only needs one or two more coats of fresh paint.  D is re-glued and slightly stripped.  D needs some help. 

Hopefully this will be just a two-update process.  We'll see!

stain.

After forever, the desk is finally finished! Thank goodness, because I really don't get anything done with my computer set up in the living room; I'm ready to move back to my kitchen corner! 

All that's lacking now is the hardware, which I'll add in the morning when the top coat has completely dried.  After all of the hard work, I'm really proud of myself.  For anyone out there who has qualms about re-finishing furniture, don't worry! It's really not as scary as I thought it would be, though you should be ready to put in a lot of hours with some sand paper if the finish is in bad shape.  The staining went very smoothly, I used a rag to rub the stain into the wood and just let it dry.  For the varnish, I used a foam brush (grand total of 96 cents at home depot) and made very long strokes. 

I think, in review, that the color was a good choice, even though it still doesn't match much of our furniture.  It was a cleaner version of the original color, and it stays true to the natural wood, which I believe is pecan.  I can't wait to get my hands on the other pieces in the set someday so that I can clean them up too! What a great bedroom set it will make!