Department
Tools
The right wax, brass wire brush, the maker's catalogue as research tool, the bench that pays for itself.
The Bone Folder and the Paper Conservator's Hand
A small tongue of polished bone, shaped like a flattened spoon, is the most-used object on the bench of a paper conservator working in a Glasgow studio.
The Bench That Pays for Itself: One Restorer's Twenty-Year Investment
A custom-built oak bench in a Vermont workshop took six months to build and has lasted twenty-three years. The owner has worked out, roughly, how much it has earned per square inch.
The Jeweller's Loupe and the Restorer's Eye
A ten-times loupe and forty years of looking through one: a Sheffield silversmith on the small lens that has shaped his trade.
The Cabinet Scraper's Quiet Edge: A Tool Older Than Sandpaper
Before sandpaper was a household item, a small rectangle of hardened steel did most of the smoothing in a furniture workshop. It still does, in the workshops that know how to sharpen one.
A French Polisher's Bench: What's on It and Why
In a basement workshop in Edinburgh, a polisher with forty-one years at the work keeps a bench whose contents have changed less than three times in her career.
The Auction-House Catalogue as a Research Tool
A run of Christie's spring decorative-arts catalogues from 1962 to 2024 sits on a shelf in Amsterdam. The pages, more than the prices, are what one collector consults.
A Brass Wire Brush for Delicate Metal: The Quietest Tool on the Bench
On a workbench in Sheffield, a brass-bristled brush the size of a toothbrush sits beside a cup of cold tea. It costs three pounds and does work no other tool can do.
The Right Wax for the Right Wood: Ten Finishes Tested Over Eighteen Months
A restorer in upstate New York spent a year and a half applying ten different waxes to offcuts of walnut, oak, and mahogany. The results were not what the catalogues promised.