The Old cabinet

I have to admit that sometimes the reason I pick up pieces are completely silly and then they wind up being way too much work.  That is the story with this piece.  I wanted the cabinet because it had hand carved handles and I just KNEW there was a treasure hidden under the paint.  I was right....under 4 layers of paint!

It took a long time to get all the paint stripped off and to be honest there are still little flecks of paint in the wood.  Once I got the paint stipped away, I had to take the thing completely apart and start rebuilding it.  Sigh...it was a long process.  

I had to put the top back together, build a new back, new from leg piece and shelf.   In the process of pulling things apart I discovered old square nails.  For those of you who are not familiar with those, they used to hand make nails by cutting the metal and hammering them into a square nail.  they look very much like horseshoe nails except smaller.  Manufacturing of the square nail ended around 1860 but many remained in circulation until the very early 1900's.  I actually reattached the top with new horseshoe nails!  It is finally complete.  It will never look brand new; it has nail holes, cracks and flecks of paint...but it is finally original....beautiful....Black Walnut.  Hard to find that anymore!