Sunday Update On Sunday

Finally a Sunday update posted on Sunday! As usual the holidays are making things a bit hectic, yet I have found time to make some progress on this antique steam trunk. I started sanding the wood and getting the rest of the canvas and paint removed from the steam trunk panels. It really is starting to look better already.

I put in about 3.5 hours this week sanding and that was only the front of the trunk. This week I'll post a tutorial on how I sanded the steam trunk panels. Unfortunately I ran into a bit of bad luck. It seems at one time this steam trunk was severely damaged. There is a crack going right across the front and some severe damage to the middle panel on the left hand side. I circled the damage in the pictures below. Whoever fixed the trunk panel originally used a very ugly black wood filler, I guess this explains the hideous pink paint. However, as I sand the panel it seems they used an excessive amount of wood filler and for the most part this isn't as bad as it seems. What to do about this is another question all together.

I'm going to keep sanding away at it and see if I can make this wood filler as inconspicuous as possible. Then maybe try and cover it with a dark stain. This will help keep the rustic look I'm trying for. If that doesn't work I may try to replace the panel or cover it with some kind of mural on just the center panel. I'm hoping the dark stain solution will work. Here are the pictures.

Most of the canvas and paint stripped from the steam trunk. Next step sand off the excess glue, canvas and left over paint from the steam trunk panels. 

After sanding with most of the paint and canvas completely removed.The purple circle highlights the damage to the center panel, most of the black is wood filler. The black line running between the two trunk straps is also filler. This poses a small problem.

So this coming week, time permitting ,  I am going to try and post a sanding tutorial, remove the inside trunk lining, and remove the damaged trunk handles from the sides of the steam trunk. I'll also try and get all the tutorials posted in the blog as I make progress.