Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Confederate Tongue

Well, having just restored a wreath, it is more than appropriate that I post a restoration of a tongue portion to a two-piece buckle.  This is a marriage of two buckles to make one.  The loop, or keeper portion and the tongue were recovered in different soil types so a color match had to be performed to make this look right.  This involved going redder with the loop after it was attached.

I'm often asked how long these take to complete.  As you can imagine, it varies.  This marriage took about three hours.  The remaining tab of brass on the keeper was ground down to make a tab insert, much like a biscuit used in woodworking.  After cutting off the remaining keeper from the tongue, I drilled out a corresponding recess into which the other keeper could be inserted, glued and matched. This takes time.