The writing slope has loose and missing brass work and the top is badly scratched.
Some brass was cut and filed to size. Using an Old Womans Tooth (also known as a router plane) I rebated the groundwork to the thickness of the brass strip.
The brass is bent on the corners to the exact width of the top, glued and cramped in place.
Cramping the loose brasswork.
Some minor patches were fitted around the hinges
Restoring the interior
The secret drawer compartment was missing its cover which locks into place over the brass clip on the right hand side.
The cover should spring open when the right hand inkwell divider is lifted.
I made a new cover which pushes in over the brass clip and locks in place. The spring pushes it outwards when released. The stamp slide covers up the mechanism.
The lock was cleaned, oiled and key fitted.
The exterior of the writing slope was then meths stripped and re-polished, the inside touched in, cleaned and waxed.
The writing slope was then sanded clean ready for re-lining, which was done in a material as close a match to the original as possible.
The material was glued into place and cut to fit with a scalpel. Tabs were then fitted and wedged from the underside. The slope is tooled with a wheel that is heated up and rolled around the outside edge leaving a patterned imprint.
Tooling the edge
The bottom of the slope was then baized.
The finished article
