As a craftsman I have a natural love of good tools.
My workshop is full of useful, weird and wonderful equipment for metal and wood work, leather work, carving and silverwork, all crafts that I have learned in the course of making the artefacts that I use in my living history work.
It is perhaps not much of a surprise then that I have brought that love of craft and making to Steampunk as well.
On my living history events I have lots of period tool boxes so lately I have been looking for something suitable for carrying a variety of tools with me to Steampunk events in a more Victorian/ Edwardian style.
There cannot be many such tool lovers that have not hankered for a good engineers tool chest so finding a nice example on my local boot sale was a great find for me. To be fair, it was covered in stickers and needed a bit of TLC but the potential was there.
The stickers came off with a combination of lighter fluid and a cabinet scraper. The crusty varnish was taken down with sandpaper and out came the furniture restorers wax to give a better sheen to the wood without losing too much of the character.
I want it to be portable for use at the Steam Tent Co-operative camps where we intend to do some craft workshops, so a couple of antique brass handles were mounted on the sides for carrying. It also needed a key making for the front cabinet lock and a new escutcheon for the same which I made from a spare bit of brass plate I had lying around in the workshop.
That was the outside sorted. Inside next.
The drawers were lined with green vinyl flock imitating the felt baize more traditionally used. It was OK but looked a bit worn and tatty in places. I could have replaced it with similar material but decided to order some self adhesive backed felt instead. Much better.
The drawer handles were plastic which resembled Bakelite but did not really float my boat so I ordered some nice little turned oak knobs like ones I had used before on another project, to replace them with.
All it needed now was a set of labels for the drawers.
Another online search brought up some nice "antiqued" label card holders that were a good size for the drawers. They arrived with matching coloured screws but sadly they were cross heads.
Although they date back to the 30s I wanted something a bit more timeless so with a quick root through my hardware drawer I found some tiny brass slot headed screws just the right size. A dab with Liver of Sulphur tarnished them down to the right sort of tone to blend in an on they went.
The label cards them selves were produced on the computer in CorelDraw, printed on cream stock paper and then attacked with a wet tea bag to give them some "age" as well.
Now I have a proper home for some of the nicer "old school" tools in my workshop and a portable chest which will add to the display in my tent at Steampunk encampments. Result.
My workshop is full of useful, weird and wonderful equipment for metal and wood work, leather work, carving and silverwork, all crafts that I have learned in the course of making the artefacts that I use in my living history work.
It is perhaps not much of a surprise then that I have brought that love of craft and making to Steampunk as well.
On my living history events I have lots of period tool boxes so lately I have been looking for something suitable for carrying a variety of tools with me to Steampunk events in a more Victorian/ Edwardian style.
There cannot be many such tool lovers that have not hankered for a good engineers tool chest so finding a nice example on my local boot sale was a great find for me. To be fair, it was covered in stickers and needed a bit of TLC but the potential was there.
The stickers came off with a combination of lighter fluid and a cabinet scraper. The crusty varnish was taken down with sandpaper and out came the furniture restorers wax to give a better sheen to the wood without losing too much of the character.
I want it to be portable for use at the Steam Tent Co-operative camps where we intend to do some craft workshops, so a couple of antique brass handles were mounted on the sides for carrying. It also needed a key making for the front cabinet lock and a new escutcheon for the same which I made from a spare bit of brass plate I had lying around in the workshop.
That was the outside sorted. Inside next.
The drawers were lined with green vinyl flock imitating the felt baize more traditionally used. It was OK but looked a bit worn and tatty in places. I could have replaced it with similar material but decided to order some self adhesive backed felt instead. Much better.
The drawer handles were plastic which resembled Bakelite but did not really float my boat so I ordered some nice little turned oak knobs like ones I had used before on another project, to replace them with.
All it needed now was a set of labels for the drawers.
Another online search brought up some nice "antiqued" label card holders that were a good size for the drawers. They arrived with matching coloured screws but sadly they were cross heads.
Although they date back to the 30s I wanted something a bit more timeless so with a quick root through my hardware drawer I found some tiny brass slot headed screws just the right size. A dab with Liver of Sulphur tarnished them down to the right sort of tone to blend in an on they went.
The label cards them selves were produced on the computer in CorelDraw, printed on cream stock paper and then attacked with a wet tea bag to give them some "age" as well.
Now I have a proper home for some of the nicer "old school" tools in my workshop and a portable chest which will add to the display in my tent at Steampunk encampments. Result.
Last edited:
