Cogold Rust

I remember standing over a piece of heavy structural steel back in ’84, watching a junior apprentice try to blast through a thick layer of oxidation with a cheap, high-speed grinder. He was sweating, cursing, and wasting half his discs Continue reading Removing Scale From Hot Metal→

I remember standing in the doorway of a Victorian fixer-upper back in ’88, the air thick with the smell of wet rot and decades of stagnant dust. I looked at the sagging floorboards and the rusted ironwork, and I knew Continue reading Stop Rushing the Restoration: Why Most People Fail at the Process of Rehabilitating Abandoned Historic Homes→

I remember sitting at my workbench last autumn, staring at a moth-eaten wool waistcoat that had been passed down through three generations. Most folks would tell you that cleaning and preserving historical textile artifacts requires some high-priced, specialized chemical solution Continue reading Stop Treating History Like Disposable Junk: the Slow, Disciplined Art of Cleaning and Preserving Historical Textile Artifacts.→

I remember sitting in my workshop last autumn, staring at a cracked landscape that had been passed down through a neighbor’s family for three generations. The smell of old linseed oil and dust was thick in the air, and I Continue reading Stop Treating History Like a Disposable Commodity: the Patient, Honest Techniques for Repairing Damaged Antique Oil Paintings That Actually Last.→