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Military Firearm Restoration Corner

Carriage And Sleigh


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We have a couple antique/estate booths, and probably need another. My wife works them a lot since she quit her job. Not much money in it really, but it keeps us out of the bingo parlors. Yesterday at the auction I bought an antique carriage and sleigh. I'm pretty excited about them, especially the carriage. It needs to be re-painted and reupholstered with leather, but the sleigh needs a lot of work. Add that to all the other projects and furniture, and I'm busy for the rest of my expected life. I get asked what I'll do with them? My wife can pull the carriage, since it's light, but if she gets tired our dogs can help! Or I can hook them up to the riding mower. I know, a sleigh in SC. Either I can take it north, sell it on Ebay, or someone will want a Christmas display. Carriage was $950, and sleigh was $150. Makes me want to get a horse! The carriage was made in Moline, IL, and the sleigh supposedly was built in NY.

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Yard art for Christmas time on the sleigh, certainly. We could use one here about 3 days a year on average. Cool, though.


The carriage upholstery work will take a bit. I just redid my seat on my bike. It's not difficult, just tedious and time consuming. From your pic, I would guestimate you would need about 2 cows worth of leather, or ballpark, about $500 worth.

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I taught myself. You just take apart the old stuff, pay close attention to how everything was done, use the old stuff as a pattern, cut out new, put it back together the same way it came apart. I've done my Truck, Esprit (RIP), the seat on the chopper in the background above, and the FLHT. Mom gave me her mother's hand crank Singer and about 5 minutes of instructions on how it works and that was about it.

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Man from what I can see, that sleigh was a steal @ $150! Most of the cheap ones are wicker and damaged. Tough replacing pieces of wicker in the middle of a sleigh. :wacko: Yours looks like wood though. Thin wood like old crates or drawer bottoms was made from maybe. Popular I bet. I'm envious.

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  • 2 weeks later...

The plywood on the sleigh has to be replaced, and it won't be simple since it's curved. The original plywood is kerf-cut and puttied, apparently. I could either try bendable plywood, which I'd have to special order, or kerf-cut it and coat the kerfs with something. I may try reproducing one piece of iron trim, but I can only get close on it. Sometimes I wish I had an anvil with all the hardies, I think they are called. I wish the shafts were still there. Hard to guess what it will be worth restored, without the shafts.

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