Lining a silver chest with velvet.
Sharon Angel
suggestions as to how to line it with velvet. If you have done this before
or know how to do it any help would be much appreciated.
Patrick Burke
Sharon,
If the chest is for real silver or silver plate, your friend might
want to reconsider the velvet part. There is a fabric made which
is designed for silver chests which is supposed to inhibit tarnish.
Don't know if it works or not, I personally haven't had to worry
about tarnish on silver much (I spend too much on tools to afford
silver), but since a guy I know put it into the chest he was building,
I have noticed it in every silver chest I have seen. Where to get
this fabric is another question, I don't remember where that guy
got his. A good fabric store is an obvious first choice, then
maybe someplace like Garrett-Wade.
Sorry, no first-hand suggestions about how to install it, other than
notch the corners and hide the seams. Boxes lined in fabric usually have
pieces of cardboard or thin plywood (1/8") around which the fabric is
wrapped and then adhered on the reverse side. The whole piece is then
inserted into the box. The guy who made the silver chest, by the way,
was one of the best cabinetmakers I have ever seen, but installing
that fabric drove him nuts. Best of luck.
Patrick Burke
Social Sciences Computing
The University of Chicago
Esther Heller
In article <DDsB6...@freenet.carleton.ca>, aq...@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Sharon Angel) writes:
>A friend of mine who is making a wooden chest for silver is looking for
>suggestions as to how to line it with velvet. If you have done this before
>or know how to do it any help would be much appreciated.
The usual liner isn't velvet, but a special tarnish-resistant cloth. The
most common brand is "Pacific silvercloth", generally tucked away on a shelf
of the home dec department of fabric stores. At least one of the big
woodworking catalogs (Woodworker's supply?) carries a premade insert if you
don't mind designing the chest around the size.
Esther Heller e...@raster.kodak.com Of course my opinions are my own!
Interested in: Statistics, software QA, sewing, organic gardening, Hardanger,
knitting, thread crochet, classical music, scratch cooking, woodworking...
The 20th century version of the Proverbs 31 woman.
Kurt Perkins
the chest is for a silver setting, i.e. tableware,
and not that the chest itself is silver.
Doug White
aq...@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Sharon Angel) wrote:
<A friend of mine who is making a wooden chest for silver is looking for
<suggestions as to how to line it with velvet. If you have done this
before
<or know how to do it any help would be much appreciated.
Rather than using velvet, they might want to track down 'silver cloth'.
This is a dark brown flannel that is impregnated with something that is
supposed to keep silver from tarnishing. I bought a bunch of it a number
of years ago from a mail order outfit, but I haven't a clue where to look
for more. I'm nor even sure exactly what it's supposed to do, but it's
specifically designed for making bags for fine silver articles.
Doug White
ernf...@indirect.com
>Rather than using velvet, they might want to track down 'silver cloth'.
>This is a dark brown flannel that is impregnated with something that is
>supposed to keep silver from tarnishing. I bought a bunch of it a number
>of years ago from a mail order outfit, but I haven't a clue where to look
>for more. I'm nor even sure exactly what it's supposed to do, but it's
>specifically designed for making bags for fine silver articles.
>
>Doug White
My wife bought a bunch of it from Nancy's Notions
333 Beichl Avenue
PO box 683
Beaver dam, WI 53916-0683
(1-800-833-0690)
We lined a silver box (box for silver) with it and she made a bunch of bags. It
seems to work.
Ernie Fisch
Eric Hamilton
|>
|> In article <DDsB6...@freenet.carleton.ca>, aq...@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Sharon Angel) writes:
|> >A friend of mine who is making a wooden chest for silver is looking for
|> >suggestions as to how to line it with velvet. If you have done this before
|> >or know how to do it any help would be much appreciated.
|>
|> most common brand is "Pacific silvercloth", generally tucked away on a shelf
|> of the home dec department of fabric stores. At least one of the big
|> woodworking catalogs (Woodworker's supply?) carries a premade insert if you
|> don't mind designing the chest around the size.
|>
course, Woodworker's Supply has recently added it). But Esther is spot
on in her suggestion to get to a fabric store and ask for the
Pacific Silvercloth - in fact, I recall that she (and others, most of whom I
have failed to thank, and am now) gave me the same advice
two months or so back when I was making a silverware chest as a wedding
present for my brother.
A yard of Pacific Silvercloth will cost less than $15, and it's enough
for a fairly substantial chest. I did my lining by buying a yard
of 1/8" cork and another yard of cheap plastic laminate (the white stuff you
would laminate onto particle board for a router table top) at the local Home
depot. Too line a surface: Cut a piece of plastic a tad larger than the
surface you want to line, then glue a matching piece of cork to it with
contact cement. That gives you a very resilient, flexible, but tough sheet.
Trim it to exact size (sharp scissors or razor blade). The cork side will
face out. Cut a piece of silvercloth to cover the face, with the edges
tucked around back. If you feel like messing with a sewing machine,
forming neat pocket corners might be nice, but it' not necessary.
Use contact cement, on the back (plastic laminate) face only, to secure
the silvercloth. Now you have a tough, flexible, resilient sheet faced
with silvercloth and exactly the right size for the surface you're
trying to line. Use contact cement to fasten it in place.
Most modern commercial boxes also wrap the little rack-like affairs
which hold the silverware in silvercloth. I expect that this is because
they're ashamed of the underlying material. I avoided the problem of
neatly covering them by making them from my last few scraps of
rosewood instead, so they don't have to be covered.
--
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Eric Hamilton
Data General Corporation hami...@dg-rtp.rtp.dg.com
62 Alexander Drive ...!mcnc!rti!xyzzy!hamilton
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709, USA
Butcher of fine hardwoods and easy bridge hands
DPGoldberg
Here are a few of the things I've discovered.
Silver tarnishes by exposure to air (oxygen). Pacific cloth retards that
process either by releasing gas into the box or by absorbing the
tarnishing gases from the air, I'm not sure which but is doesn't matter.
The key things in making the chest as tarnish proof as possible air are to
make it reasonably air tight so that air trapped inside can be "treated"
by the cloth, line as much of the inside surface of the chest with Pacific
cloth to maximize its effectiveness, and to make sure that any surface in
contact with the silver is covered by the cloth, including the little
finger racks.
When lining my box I discovered a product at the fabric store that is
designed for securing fabric together without sewing. It's basically
tissue thin sheets of hot melt glue that can be adhered with an iron. It
works great for gluing fabric to fabric or fabric to wood and is less
messy than liquid adhesives. I used a piece of 1/8" thick luann as the
base for the inserts and applied the Pacific Cloth using the hot melt
sheeting and wrapping it around to the back of the board. My "fingers"
were made from walnut and only the edged in contact with the silver
covered with cloth. For these I cut narrow strips of the cloth and
"hemmed" it with the hot melt and an iron. The strips were then adhered to
the walnut blocks, again using the hot melt, and the block attached to the
base board with screws attached through the back side. The entire assembly
was then glued to the bottom of the chest.
To line the sides cut strips of 1/8" luann to fit (allowing for the added
thickness that the cloth will add). Make the strips about 3/16" to 1/4"
higher than the inside of the box. This will created a raised fabric
covered lip that will seal the box and help to make it airtight. Cover the
luann strips with Pacific Cloth as before and glue in place.
The inside of the lid should also be lined and knife support blocks added
if needed.
Sooner or later the cloth lining will lose its ability to prevent tarnish
and will need to be replaced but it should last for years, especially if
the box is reasonably airtight.
Dave Goldberg
John_North
ago I had a two drawer chest with an insert in the top of one of the
drawers. I cut fingerblocks to keep the silverware neatly racked up
and lined the whole issue, ( blocks, sides, bottom and a flap to pull
over the contents of each drawer) with Pacific cloth. I
think I used carpenter's yellow glue (Titebond), but I'm sure there's
better stuff around today.
The point is it was easy, fast and is still keeping the silverware
more or less tarnish-free today.