{"id":2920,"date":"2026-09-22T23:29:21","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T23:29:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelosttrail.com\/?p=2920"},"modified":"2026-09-23T02:25:22","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T02:25:22","slug":"a-little-box-of","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelosttrail.com\/?p=2920","title":{"rendered":"A little Box of…"},"content":{"rendered":"
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So…I got carried away on eBay one day and bought this box that was in wretched need. How in need I was to learn but it wasn’t all a happy learning experience. Suffice to say that this box-o-mine was in desperate straits beyond just the cosmetics. Under the finish was some damaged wood, a large amount of mechanical oil saturation and some repairs that just weren’t. After stripping it down, it became more obvious that the lid had been ripped off at one point and the oil saturation was through-and-through in some places.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following the strip-age, repairs were made to the wood-works, and then decisions were made on reconstruction. Since Gerstner made this one of mahogany, I wanted to exploit that. Sadly, not everything was intact. For example, most of the drawers had oil damage to the poplar sides and backs. I didn’t want to re-make them and lose the original writing on the backs but to make the drawers presentable required a facelift of some kind. So, I lined the sides and backs with flame maple veneer and put in black velvet bottoms. The front edge of the case bottom was also the recipient of some wood surgery and got a new piece of mahogany; doesn’t quite match the sides but close enough.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The top had some hefty divots in it and the leather handle was shot so I cut out the center plywood and replaced it with a single piece of solid mahogany. After filling the hinge mounting holes and leveling, the inside was left with the wood showing (instead of felt) so we can see the grain. I used Chicago screws instead of rivets to make that work. The bottom was done in black velvet like the drawers. I used brass chest pulls on the sides which will disgust Gerstner die-hards if the Chicago screws wasn’t enough. I suppose I’ll be punished in the next life for this but not until then. Finally, the entire box was sanded out to 220 and given a coat of tung oil split to bring out the grain.<\/p>\n\n\n

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A week or so later when the tung oil had dried, the case was sanded out to 320 in between three coats of tung oil varnish. The drawer faces were given six coats and sanded out to 600 as was the insides of the lid and top. The felt in the front lid has been soaked through in places with some type of black oil and I elected to just cut out a few layers of the inside plywood and replace it with an inlay of flame maple. This too got the six coats with sanding up to 600 so it’s veeerrrrrry smooth.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Then came the top. I went back and forth on this until I just got carried away with seeing what could be done. At the end it got 12 coats of tung oil varnish, sanded in between to 1000 and then final wet sanded to 2000. The depth on the top has an amazing tiger eye pop that I hope to replicate again someday. Still, it took many days of work to hand rub this out evenly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then…I decided to use my wizzakeen camera to make a video of said box. I know little about how the video functions work, zip about making videos, and even less about how to edit them so the last few days have been painful. but…here it is…Gerstner box porn. National Geographic and The New Yankee Workshop have nothing to fear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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