1950s Cradle Refurbish

We are expecting number two in October, and have learned our lesson with regard to buying expensive baby stuff that is only used for a VERY short period of time. This time around we are trying to be better about spending our money; hence this project.

This craddle was bought by my grandmother in the 1950s in the Corpus Christi, TX area. It was used for all 6 of my aunts and uncles before being retired to my aunt for storage. The cradle was pretty much forgotten about after that, and none of my generation used it. For the last 30 years it had been stored in an open air barn in the Austin, TX region. When I asked my aunt for it, she thought they had thrown it away many years ago, but after looking through the barn she was able to find it.

The piece is solid wood (of what species I am not positive, but it does have a very tight grain stucture), and assembled with threaded bolts using T-Nuts and threaded inserts. The only plywood piece was the bottom where the baby lays, and that had rotted away many years ago. The hardware was brass plated steel, which had tarnished pretty badly over the last 50 years. I wanted to preserve a little of the historical value, so I only cleaned the hardware and polished what I could. I priced new hardware, but after thinking about it I felt new hardware withdrew from the “aged” feel.

I sanded until I couldn’t sand anymore, and then I came back the next day to sand some more. I went through a lot of sandpaper, but it was well worth it. The final stain choice was MinWax “English Chestnut” with two coats of Gloss spray-on poly. I am not worried about Samantha chewing on the cradle, b/c as soon as she can move on her own, the cradle can no longer be used. My hope is that we can store it until someone else in the family needs it, and they won’t have nearly the work in it that I did.

The cradle swings freely via the non-threaded eye-bolts on the sides that are hung from two decoritive hooks on the exterior frame. Pretty simple, but very effective. Hope ya’ll like it, and if you have any questions let me know.

-- Derrek L.