Thread: 18th century Japanese 'kuruma tansu" wheeled chest restoration

It looks to me you are restoring that in the workshop at Kazari, in Richmond. Do you work for them?

Originally Posted by DSEL74

It looks to me you are restoring that in the workshop at Kazari, in Richmond. Do you work for them?

GOOD EYE! i'm impressed I work for them on a casual basis, usually trading labour for furniture or other antiques, its really a mutual benefit sort of situation-they need more hands, i'd like more stuff

At long last, we're done! I finished waxing last night, so now all i need to do is bring it home. There's still extra work that could be done further down the track, like taking out the filler on the lowest slat on the inside and splicing in real wood in its place, but until i;ve got the right wood for it, thats on the back burner. I made certain though when i was disguising that particular section of filler that i used finishes that could be stripped off easily without leaving any real discolouration on the old wood underneath.

I'd also like to do the same to the eaten and rotten end of the top, but for the time being at least, the damage has been dug out and removed, and has been filled and coloured and generally hidden in the finish in leu of the right piece of wood to match the grain on that end of the top reasonably well...once i find it, i'll consider taking out the filler and putting in real wood, then colour matching it to the rest.

Even with those two slight downers, i'm still extremely happy with how its all turned out considering what it was like when i bought it and how hard it is to find another old one that hasn't been lightened at all from its original dark blackish smokey colour.

It comes home Thursday,...better clear a spot for it!

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As a recap, here's what it was like after i'd bought it, gotten wheels turned, chiselled a new axel for it and ground out the worst of the damage in the frame and rough cut new wood to fill the spaces...

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And here's what it looks like now! God knows how many hours later, with its original finish still completely there, albeit darkened a little here and there where wiping the filler and dust off had taken off some of the soot, with a new lock and key found for it, and fully waxed and polished on the entire outside as well as the shelf and floor on the inside (the interior walls wouldn't have been finished in the first place, so they'll be left the same now).
Now its just waiting to be brought back home tomorrow and squeezed into our house

I hope everyone who's taken the time to have a look through this thread has enjoyed seeing part of the process i followed
It may not be like for like in terms of materials, techniques and joints in some areas but wherever i could i tried to stay close to what was there originally, either with the same variety of wood or something with a similar grain, strength and obviously scale.
In any case, it'll be around for a very long time to come now, and dare i say hopefully its next owner will value it more like this than its previous owner did when it was missing its wheels and was half covered in dust and bird crap.

(note, the front in particular is glossier and deeper in colour than it appears in these photos, but its extremely hard to get a good shot of something glossy and reflective in a dusty warehouse with the light from a nice sunny day streaming in)

I've decided not to worry about the worn down area on the top edge of the top slat of the left door, simply because its very old damage and i think has enough history that it should be allowed to remain as a little scar of time, much like the array of other little dings.

...

I hope anyone reading this so far has been enjoying it and hasn't been too bored by it all

fudo: Hi from the Japanese Hand Tools forum. I'm a professional refinisher (not a restorer of anything of value -- for those pieces I recommend professional conservators), and I have to say you've done a great job.

About leaving some of the old damage and wear, I often suggest to clients -- thereby costing myself a higher-paying job -- that they leave certain bits of damage as part of a piece's life and history. So I totally agree with you about leaving those areas.

The method we teach our students-for the exterior woodwork would be using a black bees wax and natural turpintine,so as not to over-restore the original finish.Wax is applied with a cloth and revived with a clean one.

Originally Posted by AnselmFraser

The method we teach our students-for the exterior woodwork would be using a black bees wax and natural turpintine,so as not to over-restore the original finish.Wax is applied with a cloth and revived with a clean one.

I ended up using an almost black bees wax on it, though to my mind, the shellac layers were somewhat necessary to give me a foundation to recolour the sun bleached areas to match the rest of it without risking any serious staining to the original finish.
i've never stripped a shellac finish off of a lacquer one years later, but i have done it months later with no notable damage to the original lacquered finish...if it were simply raw wood blackened by soot though i definitely would have been a bit more careful.

as it is though, i fixed it up for my enjoyment and use rather than as more of a museum style 'display piece', so by and large i don't mind a few no no's being done to keep it solid ad to get it looking a bit like it should.

Though having said all that, i'm trying to follow slightly more correct conservation style methods to a greater extent with every little project i do

i do rather regret going down the path of using modern glues though, in spite of the fact that it would have been difficult in this case to use hide glue or in some areas to have used pegs and joinery simply because the old wood was rotten and probably wouldn't have held together well enough, if i was doing it again (at home and not under pressure to get it done reasonably quickly) i think i would have tried to have found other alternatives