The gun project just got a reprieve from being mothballed for a while, thanks to a genuine 25pdr spares box via Rob Nixon in the UK. Thanks Rob....again!
She's a little rough in general, but I look forward to the challenge of restoring it to match my tool box. So far, all the screws have come out successfully, BUT in some locations screws appear to have been replaced by flat broad headed nails!?!?
It's because of these nails, that I was forced to distort the lid hinges to remove them. Now they are exposed, I can get a pincer on them for removal. If possible, they will be replaced by screws identical to the majority of fixings. Perhaps they were there from manufacture but I hate them! The webbing handles have been redone at some stage, as the metal strips holding them on look very amateurish indeed. The screws for those are not a match for the others on the box either. I will probably try to improve on the appearance, by fashioning another set of fixings with more appropriate looking screws.
Can't say I fathom why so many coats of paint have been applied, nor why someone went to the extraordinary lengths or puttying over majority of the screw heads. In my mind they would be better seen as a feature, and part of the detail.
I have heaps of the same canvas used on the tool box, and when I first made the deal to buy this box, I hunted down the guy who made me the custom sized, vegetable tanned, leather strip to secure the canvas cover to edges of the lid. It actually arrived a couple of days before the box got here (which was today).
Metal parts will be sandblasted then blued. Timber will be sanded mechanically after a liberal costing of paint stripper to most of the wood. I can see I'll be using a few wipes of wood filler, while trying my hardest to retain detail of the timber jointing.