Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Two-Piece CS Cavalry Buckle Restoration

Here's a challenge. From a broken CS tongue and broken CS wreath, create one buckle that looks to be the original as-dug item. The pictures tell the sequence for this work. What is not included is the color matching techniques and the methods used to simulate ground action and oxidation. The CS disc and the keeper to be joined are period relics but did not come together. The keeper to be married to the wreath is from a reproduction. So we have three Civil War period relic pieces and one repro piece put together to make one complete relic.




Brass is filed away using a dremel then hand filed for exactness in order to install a bridge. In this repair it will be a brass shim.



A shim is fabricated from brass and placed in the notch created in the filing in the previous step. It is glued in place and brass filings are used to fill the voids while creating "ground" texture at the same time. It is filed flush with the surrounding surfaces.



The wreath's keeper is made from a reproduction buckle but has to be filed to the same dimensions as the tongue's keeper. Additionally, a section is cut away so that it can be married with the existing bar still part of the wreath. Shims are made and inserted into notches to provide strength.



To match the two pieces I have opted to go with the coloration of the CS tongue and use various powders and fixatives to get the wreath to match the tongue.







In the final steps, I tweak the hi-points with earth tones and the recesses with lighter "sand tones" to get some variation and contrast so that the relic has depth and doesn't appear flat all the while attempting to keep the relic looking fairly original to how it looked prior to my work.



If this buckle interests you it is for sale at this time. However, as part of the sale, the purchaser must sign agreement that any future movement (sale) of this item must be accompanied with full disclosure of the repairs performed including these pictures which I will include with the relic.