One of the wonderful things about our dry transfers is that they are used for such a wide variety of projects. Our last two blogs have been about handmade crafted guitars and TV props, so it is with much pleasure to showcase a unique restoration project. This came to us via a five-star review and glowing email we received from Jonathan Briggs who has kindly shared the details below.
Tool Trunk from the 1930s
Jonathan shared this with us:
I am a professional graphic designer of thirty years, regularly liaising with other professional craftspeople and fabricators on behalf of my clients.
For this project, however, I was working on a personal family heirloom of my own – requiring a reliable supplier of a high-quality metallic matt gold dry transfer. I have used dry transfers hundreds of times in the past myself, but as this was a project very close to my heart, I wanted to make sure that the product was particularly high quality and that the supplier was going to come through with the goods. I found BEL Signs via a long chat with ChatGPT. They were shortlisted because they were reported to be specialists in their field and the reviews were excellent.
My grandfather was a master joiner and cabinetmaker. He had been doing so since leaving school in the 1930s before being enlisted in the Navy during the Second World War. His role in the Navy was as a joiner and woodworker. As with all skilled personnel on-board ship, he took his trunk with him, which contained his tools. That trunk sailed around the world with my grandfather, from Burma to Italy, and saw some of the most consequential days of the war.
After the war ended, he returned to the family business in Yorkshire, where he continued as a civilian joinery craftsman until he retired and eventually passed away in 2015. The trunk was then left in his shed, exposed to the elements, and still containing all of his tools – most of which had been through the war with him.
On the passing of his widow (my grandmother), I inherited the trunk and decided that it needed to be restored to his former 1930s glory. My goal was to restore the trunk as sympathetically as possible whilst not removing the character or signs of work-wear.
It was a huge undertaking which included completely removing and de-rusting all of the ironwork, removing rotten areas and replacing them, sanding, filling and repainting it before replacing all of the newly cleaned ironwork to it. I was very careful to use materials and methods as close to those employed in the 30s as possible, and the finishing detail of the trunk, after three months of work, was the name on the front side: “Briggs”. Only a very faint outline of the original lettering had survived, so I at least knew what the typeface should be, but I needed to find a supplier who was able to create a dry transfer for me.
Five-star review for our Rich Gold Dry Transfers
“The quote was given to me personally via email, payment was simple (via a card payment link) and then my transfer arrived by private courier in a matter of days! The quality was exceptional and looks perfect on the wooden trunk. I was also thoroughly impressed by the client care side of the operation. I initially contacted them asking about the compatibility of their metallic dry transfers with oil-based paint which had a 30% satin agent added – they sent me a whole envelope of samples to test with before I ordered through them – completely free of charge. Nothing was too much trouble for them.”
A5 Dry Transfers in Metallic Matt
Jonathan ordered an A5 sheet of Rich Gold transfers to replace the worn-out lettering on the trunk and kindly shared these photos of the projects. We think it looks brilliant, as does our team, who take great care in all our dry transfer orders.
Do you have a project you would like to share?
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