# Any idea where to buy cedar chest parts?



## BinghamtonEd (Nov 30, 2011)

So I received a cedar chest that my father-in-law would like me to repair/refinish for my sister-in-law. It is 100% cedar and I would estimate it's age to be about 50 years, I can tell that at least twice during its life new coats of shellac have been applied over the old ones. Also, my sister-in-law's tubby friend sat on it and broke the top in half, along with some of the molding around the top, and pieces are missing. When the top broke, the old, ugly and tarnished decorative metal strapping broke in half. Due to the fact that it had been sloppily re-shellaced, pieces were missing and it was broken, I deemed any monetary value of this chest a moot point and proceeded with stripping it.

So far I have removed all of the hardware and metal strapping, stripped and sanded it. The bottom is ready for new finish and I will soon go fetch some cedar to make a new top, and moldings to go around the top. My plan is to finish with a couple coats of Danish Oil and a couple coats of water-based poly for protection.

My problem is that the decorative metal strapping is damaged, dull, nicked, and looks like junk. I've looked around online and can't seem to find a replacement for it. Any suggestions? I've done some metal fabrication in the past on bikes, so I could make my own, but out of what? I would want it to look nice and finished. Or if their is a source for this sort of thing online, that would be even better. Any ideas?

Here is a picture of what the strapping somewhat looks like (this is not the chest). Major difference is I don't know what metal mine is, it has no brass/copper hue of any sort, it is just dull, gray, and flimsy.









 
Link to picture.


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## Bluepine38 (Dec 14, 2009)

I looks like metal banding that someone drilled holes in and put on the chest, there could be a commercial
source for it, but I have never seen one. You could just make a decorative strip from cedar to cover the 
holes since you are refinishing the chest anyway.


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## bondogaposis (Dec 18, 2011)

You're right the metal strapping does look like junk. It looks to be rusted steel, if it were my chest I would leave it off entirely.


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## BinghamtonEd (Nov 30, 2011)

The only reason I wanted to replace it is that the wood has slightly faded over the last 50 or so years, moreso on the areas that were no banded…I may sand down a tad more to see if I can eliminate the difference. Of not, Bluepine has a good idea there.


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