Fort Shelby Crystal Ballroom

[PlymouthRes]

We do. It's called the Randolph Trade School.

That is one place that I know of. I was in their building the other day and they have done extensive work on re-"pulling" the palster crown mouldings and they do a great job! The art of making the "pulls" is becoming more and more obscure every day, but there are a lot of people like Randolph [[and our own Historic Fort Wayne Coalition) that do this type of stuff all the time. I recently cast several rosettes and ceiling medallions and they are very easy to do if you have the right material and a bit of patience.

The twist with the Coalition is that you have to come down and volunteer to get the training! Our workdays are on our website [[next is September 18, 9am to 5pm). We are refurbishing the rear stairs and front porch railings and lattice of the 1870's Commandants House that day and if that isn't convenient for you, check when the other dates are and I will be glad to give you a tour of what we do if you would like. I am the Lead Preservation Carpenter there and we try to share our experience with all of our members, most of it in a less formal environment.

I also do restoration work at the Detroit Historical Museum, the last of which was cleaning and refurbishing the 1893 hearse made by the Cunningham Coach Company of Rochester, New York. Obviously, there is very little done in the way of refurbishing a museum item that old, but that is where you learn the techniques that were used in the old methodology and you can figure out how to replicate that by educating yourself and application of that education [[practise, practise, practise!) from there.

For instance, we have taught historic window restoration classes at Fort Wayne for a couple of years. We teach people how to rehab original 9 over 9 windows starting with the basics. We have offered more advanced classes recently and the windows we have used have required extensive rail and stile rebuilding aas well as muntion replacement and glazing. Masterblaster, Zimm and girlfriend, Mikie and Crystal and hubby are just a few of the forumers that have taken and participated in the classes before, and they did a knockout job on what they were able to pick up!

Most of the work is done with basic handtools, as I have began to assemble quite a few antique tools that are specific to those tasks, and make our own sheet metal forms "pullers" for the plaster.

We are also going to start classes soon on historic reproduction work for things like stairs and other wooden projects as well, again building with hand tools although I have a fully stocked "modern" woodshop at my disposal. Somehow, it just doesn't "feel" old when you replicate hand made things with electric power tools, so I try to research the old world methodology, apply it, then teach it to others so that we can stay in the theme of things so to speak.

There are also other entities that do that kind of work all over. You just have to check around, and you will find a few quite readily.

I believe Metaldoctor teaches old world style metalworking as well so you could probably PM him here and ask. He is very good at what he does, and if he does not teach it, I'm sure he knows someone who does.

I believe that the MPHN offers some various classes sometimes as well.

Also, out of state, there is the school that I have attended and learned from the most, the North Bennett Street School in Boston, Mass. They have an awesome, but intensive and expensive series of courses that will definately teach you the old world ways, if you take the time and have some cash. Otherwise, there is always the Fort, as we do a wide variety of restoration there. You are welcome to come down on a workday or PM me anytime and I will try to set something up for you.

Hope this helps. Let us at the Coalition know if we can be of assistance.

PlymouthRes

[PlymouthRes]

By the way, don't expect to start on the major projects right away, especially if you don't even know the basics of carpentry or haven't done a LOT of reading on the subject you want to get involved in. I have had people come down to volunteer and get frustrated because they were taking so long to get to the "meat" of what they wanted to learn. It doesn't happen overnight, and you should expect to do very little to nothing for the first YEAR you are involved with any place like the Fort.

A good example are people that expect me to put razor sharp planes, chisles and other carving tools into their hands without using a few basic techniques on a smaller scale first, then moving up from there. You only get to move up if you show proficiency with the small steps first.

It's taken me thirty years of "apprenticeship" to get to this place, and you can't expect anyone competent to just turn over 160 year old items to someone who hasn't taken the time to at least do a little studying on the techniques they are interested in or to have educated themselves in proper tool usage and terminology. A good primer is Fine Woodworking or The old House Journal for antique restoration techniques and that is just a start.

These types of things take time, which means a LOT of sweat equity before even attempting to do the actual work.

I have seen people DESTROY a window sash of that age in just two or three mistrokes of the tool, and that was just stripping and re-glazing one!

In the case of plaster work, though, the curve should be a bit less lenghty, but you still should study-up on molds [[male and female, mold draw, proper mold release agents, plaster mixs and the techniques used to combine them, etc.) before you even endeavor to attempt to do the actual work.

PlymouthRes