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  • Published on

    Video Blog #1 'Money For Old Metal'

    Boat Living Old Rope Video Blog Salvage Upcycling

    ... Or, How to Recycle Scrap into Cash ...

    After 5 years spent converting a 50 year old fishing trawler into a live aboard, there was a lot of scrap metal left over. So we hired a massive skip and set about recycling it. This is a film about how we did it and how much money we made from it. This is our first 'feature' film made for our new Video Blog about our life spent on boats, upcycling, playing with (very) old cars and exploring hidden corners of Cornwall. We had great fun making it. Hope you enjoy it too ...

    For interesting facts about what happens to scrap metal after you've traded it in ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrap

    Some Credits ...

    Licensed music uploaded from Artlist at https://artlist.io
    'Big White Ship' by James Forest
    'Enemy Toes' by Light Whales
    'Tough' by Rafael Rico

    Skip Hire from Simms Metal Management at http://www.simsmm.co.uk/Contact-Us/So...

    Tim's Delicious Pasty courtesy of Warrens of Torpoint

    Tim's Outfits by Hard Graft.com

    Teabags supplied by Lisa

    Ambient sounds of hammering, sanding and grinding courtesy of the inhabitants of The Boatyard ... Thanks for all the additional help lifting and carrying, guys!

    Ambient sound of The Wind supplied by The Cornish Weather.

    Filmed and edited entirely on an iPhone SE ... Some day we might even upgrade to some fancy new equipment ...
  • Published on

    Creating A Table from A Trawler Winch ...

    Salvage Upcycling
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    Creating the feet always seems to be the hardest part ... These look pretty good though

    Dismantling The Winch

    One of the essential requirements to being a good Upcycler is the ability to spot an object's 'potential', regardless of its current use, state of (dis)repair and, well, its size!
    I suppose I have a bit of a reputation in the boatyard for being the 'go-to' man when something needs removing and, as is often the case in these situations, if I can remove it, I get to keep it.
    So it was that I first encountered this particular treasure when my good friend, artist and fellow boat dweller John Maclean asked me for help in removing an-almost-but-not-quite working Thompson Barrel Winch which was welded to the stern of his houseboat, the retired trawler MV Olympic.
    All the old fishing gear had long since been removed so we could only assume that the winch had been used, or intended to be used, as an emergency back-up winch. Well, a good anchor winch it wasn't, but as far as John was concerned, a giant lump of in-the-way it was. To my eyes, it was treasure of the highest order, and so we set to removing it ...
    Well, this turned out to be considerably more difficult than I might have hoped due not least to the fact that the winch was insanely heavy, but being an Upcycler with a good eye and a large reserve of determined optimism, we persevered, removing the winch piece by weighty piece. One lengthy dismantling later I had a cup of tea and the winch in its many greasy parts.

    Creating The Table

    My initial intention was to keep some of the original gears in situ as part of the piece but on throughly cleaning the main frames and seeing the three holes with their bearings still in place, I decided to leave it bare. I'm sure the gears will come into their own in another project.
    The polished bearings where the gears used to be now make a nice feature in the 'table legs'
    I liked the existing patina so carefully removed just enough paint and prepared the rust surface before coating in a few layers of my special gloss varnish.
    It is always my intention to show the natural beauty of old surfaces. Here, the rust patina has been treated and varnished and is now looking good next to the brass and painted gold details of the fittings
    And so to the feet ...
    Well, feet were definitely needed as I didn't particularly want the table to be scratching somebody's nice floor (I seem to spend a lot of time making feet!) This took me a lot of pondering and more than the usual amount of tea, but eventually I came up with a great solution. Unfortunately for me it was also a very complicated and time consuming solution, but patience is a virtue and a whole lot of carving, cutting and angle-grinding later and I eventually had them fitting beautifully ... 
    The making of the (in)famous feet
    The worktop needed a lot of wood (they always seem to need more than you think) and it just so happened that I had two very long roof joists that I had kept after having helped demolish an old building in the yard (yes, that is something else I got to keep if I could remove it). These two joists I thoroughly treated against rot and woodworm. They were then biscuit jointed, glued and bolted all the way through with threaded bar - incidentally also salvaged from The Olympic (is nothing safe from the hands of this Upcycler!) - sanded and finished with a few coats of Danish Oil (same as the feet).
    From gnarly old roof joists to beautiful oiled worktop ... The evolution of salvaged wood
    For some finishing touches I used more threaded bar the length of the table between the feet inside the decorational copper tube, and another small piece where the winch's original brake was attached. Bearings were polished and old grease nipples painted gold to match.
    Overall, I was very happy with the final look of this table. By some happy coincidence, the size came out at 120x60 which is standard kitchen worktop height, so that was even better than I might have hoped for. And as with many of our pieces, the table has a wonderful history and wears that history still in the beautiful colours and textures of the finish. 
    The only downside, if you can call it that, is the weight. There can be no doubt as to the authenticity of its original function because Man, is this thing heavy! After completion at the workshop, I transported to our place at Crafthole ... That is to say, I and 3 other willing accomplices transported it to Crafthole on the back of the Old Rope Salvage truck. We eventually manoevered it into storage where it will undoubtedly remain now until sold, and for sale it is, in our Shop of Wonders, for £750.00 ... Please contact us to arrange a viewing.
    ​Delivery/Collection can be discussed!
  • Published on

    Tell Me A Story ...

    Upcycling
    'What would you sacrifice to sit in that comfy chair with perfect light for an afternoon in eternity, reading the perfect book, forever?'
    - Audrey Niffenegger, The Night Bookmobile 
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    Doing what I like to do best ... Reading in the garden. This rare vintage street lamp has been restored and remodelled into a reading/dreaming seat and will soon be available to buy. We think it is one of the most beautiful items we've created so far, and one evening at the end of autumn we took it down into the garden at the Crafthole Cottage and lit up the night with it ... Watch this space for the story of its journey from discarded street light to enchanted reading seat and details on how to purchase (if I can bear to let it go) ...
  • Published on

    A Light in The Dark ... Salvaged Tilley Heater Becomes A Magical Desk Lamp for Winter Nights ...

    Upcycling
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    A Light in The Dark ... This old paraffin heater is now casting a different kind of warm glow out into the night as an upcycled desk lamp ...

    The Boat Jumble

    For us, authentic salvaging, or upcycling, is about taking an object which has been given up on and truly discarded, recognising its hidden potential and coaxing it back to life as something new and beautiful. There is something quite deeply satisfying in this process. The 'before' and 'after' photos, the knowledge that you have given something old, ugly, abandoned, a new purpose ... Not that we want to get all deep and metaphorical about it, but everything deserves a second chance, after all ...
    Therefore, we're generally reluctant to visit auctions or to purchase items which are already perfectly good as they are, simply to make them 'prettier', so when I was invited to a boat jumble by fellow boat dweller, Geoff Seago, I was in two minds, worried that I'd end up spending money on 'stuff' that I didn't really need. Still, thinking 'what's not to enjoy about a good boat jumble?', I tagged along anyway. (Geoff, incidentally, has spent several years working on the magnificent conversion of his ship Diction into a houseboat and has kept a great blog recording the process at mvdiction.co.uk.)
    As it happened, it was Geoff who spent all the money. I parted with a total of £12.50 on a pile of plunder which took the two of us two trips each to carry back to the car and fill the ample boot. I'm not sure exactly how much Geoff spent, but his one small carrier bag and the look on his face assured me that I had had a very good day.

    The Tilley Heater / Lamp

    Two of my purchases from that bountiful day, a couple of extremely dirty, dusty old paraffin heaters, came from a very interesting French gentleman who I enjoyed spending time chatting with. One of these heaters has given me all sorts of problems with its lacquer coatings and fittings. I've lost track of all the times it's been finished and then unfinished! That one, however, is a story for another time.
    This old Tilley here is a delicate combination of polished brass parts and sympathetic restoration, my aim here being to create an electric light that looks like it was originally made that way. All the brass fittings have been restored, whilst the 'reflector' has been polished to an incredible shine which reflects the light of the bulb in a really interesting and unique way. This is also due to the polished stainless steel mesh basket - (which used to be the sea water strainer from a boat engine!) - which acts as a shade for the bulb and creates an incredible pattern on the reflector, even when the light is switched off. And the base, which retains the patina of its years, has been buffed to a sparkling shine.
    Admittedly, I never expected this old paraffin heater to come to much, but after all the hard work restoring and converting it into a lamp, we think it's one of our favourite pieces and has that perfect combination of old meets new.
    If you're interested in purchasing this lamp, be assured that it has been fitted with all new electrics, including a complimentary gold flex, a new plug, and a bayonet bulb fitting with on/off switch, and it is currently available to buy from our store on Etsy for £220.00. 

    -Tim
  • Published on

    Creature of The Deep ...

    Upcycling
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    Creature of The Deep ...

    The Find

    It's no secret that I do, on occasion, enjoy a good scrounge in the odd skip or two. It might even be fair to say that I have a bit of a reputation for it. Lisa likes to joke that I'm a Womble (not entirely sure which one) whilst Lisa's Dad, less endearingly, calls me Steptoe. Still, you'd be amazed at what people throw away. Take this strange looking object, for instance ...
    Image description

    ​
    ​I came across the white aluminium shell of this initially unidentifiable     something whilst tipping around in  a skip which had recently been littered up by generous donor 'Nick-the-Tug'.
    Thanks, Nick.
    It was clearly missing some parts so, whilst trying to figure out what it may once have been, I continued to rummage and one by one the missing pieces began to turn up until eventually, the all-important domed front window appeared and I realised that what I had in front of me was some sort of underwater submarine camera. Not exactly your everyday skip find.
    I was feeling pretty smug with my discovery but it took some time before I eventually figured out what I was going to do with it next.
    After studying it from every angle, leaving it unattended and sneaking the odd sideways glance, dismantling it into various parts and staring at it over a cup of tea, I decided that it was probably going to become the oddest lamp that I had ever attempted to make.

    The Build

    The main body was coated in some white paint that really didn't want to be removed and it had a horrible silicone feel to it. Neither were part of my vision for the lamp so I had to spend many hours of paint scraping and wire brush work to return it to the bare aluminium. Some further sanding and a trip to the buffing wheel eventually revealed the shine I wanted. The front window also needed some work to remove some of its worst scratches. The main body came apart into two pieces: The top half I discarded (at least for this project) and the bottom half I retained. I then went in search of the other parts I would need ...
    One big problem was the gaping hole at the rear of the lamp from a missing part, so I searched all over the place with tape measure in hand, not really knowing what I was actually looking for, when one of those rare moments happened: Exactly the right thing, precisely the right size, presented itself at just the right moment, cunningly disguised as an old car speaker. More cleaning, the countersinking of fastening bolts and a paint job later and I had solved the problem of the missing piece.
    So, just the details: Curtain pole bracket, brass pipe fittings, copper pipe, rubber grommets and feet, a load of stainless steel screws and M6 bolts and, oh,  lots and lots more polishing ... There is always more polishing ...
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    An old car speaker (above) would solve the problem of 'The Missing Piece'.

    Post Polished Shininess (right).
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    All that was left now was to choose the electrics. These needed to be all new to comply with regulations. After some discussion, Lisa and I decided on a really pretty twisted brown flex which matched the wood base and the copper pipe, and a black switch and plug.
    For the light itself, we had originally thought of using a full frequency SAD (seasonal affective disorder) bulb, so the lamp could be positioned on your desk for feel good vibes on those winter days, but for the purposes of photographing (and because it looked so nice) we settled on a  vintage globe bulb.

    The end result is a repurposed submersible camera, turned upside down and re-imagined as one very strange and unique desk lamp. We think it looks a little like a sea pig, a creature from the deep and certainly something which will be a talking point in its new home. 

    - ​Tim
    The 'Sea Pig' lamp is currently available to purchase from our Etsy Store for £295.00.
  • Published on

    A Salvaged V8 Inlet Manifold now enjoying A Quieter Life ...

    Salvage Upcycling
    Picture

    The former V8 inlet has been given an unusual revival as an architectural lamp

    Years ago, I had a friend who used to work on some pretty powerful cars, modifying them into insanely powerful cars. Now, I wouldn't like anyone to think that I have a habit of hanging around garages in my spare time but this friend of mine would often have some interesting parts lying around ... okay, they were mostly in the bin! (I guess I started the salvaging habit early as the  exhausts on the pick-up truck were made using the stainless steel from a Mercedes SL55 he was upgrading ...)
    One of the pieces I picked out of his bin was this aluminium inlet manifold from a V8 engine that was being treated to a supercharger. Designed to vary the length of the inlet tract changing the engine's torque curve (sorry, getting technical) I thought it looked like an interesting piece. I've always tried to look at things as purely architectural, noticing the design and the shape over and beyond a thing's intended purpose. It is this way of 'seeing' something which helps me to recognise if it is worth salvaging. With this particular piece, I felt that it was simply a beautiful architectural thing which deserved a second chance.
    As is often the case, however, I kept the piece for a long time before deciding to turn it into a lamp. (A lot of the things I find become lamps and I sometimes wonder if it's a case of 'when your pottery goes wrong, you get another ashtray'). Just the thing on its own seemed enough, but after much cleaning and polishing I decided that a lamp it would become, so I fitted it with all new electrics, an energy saving CFL bulb and some complementary brown cotton twist flex with black inline switch and a black plug. Finally, I made a mount for it from a beautiful piece of hardwood which I waxed and polished and fitted with rubber feet ...
    So. there you have it. One V8 Inlet Lamp. It may not have the sounds anymore, but it sure looks good.

    Tim
    The lamp is currently available to purchase from the Old Rope Salvage Store for the bargain price of £220.00.