JunkShopFiddler
Bronze Member
- Joined
- Feb 15, 2013
- Messages
- 1,053
- Reaction score
- 1,059
- Golden Thread
- 0
- Location
- SW Indiana
- Detector(s) used
- Garrett GTP 1350
- Primary Interest:
- Metal Detecting
- #1
Thread Owner
Hey all, my detector has been off for repairs so I finally got around to stripping and sanding an old church pew I got at an estate sale, it was covered with paint splatters and paint can rings as someone was using it for a workshop shelf. Can't decide whether or not to put a finish on it because it looks very rustic this way.
Being bored as all get out without my detector I thought I might tell the story of my username...Many years ago my wife came home from antique and junk shopping in Cadiz Kentucky in the Land Between the Lakes area. She came home with an old "casket style" wooden fiddle case. She said the man told her it was Civil War era and said it was 100 dollars, she talked him down to 75. She told me she bought it to plant flowers in but she couldn't get it open.
The latches were nickle plate but the plating was mostly gone and they were rusted shut, but you could see they were once very ornate nickle plate. So I forced them open and the latches just crumbled away. And inside the case was an old fiddle. Unbelievable! The strings and the bridge were broken but the body wasn't cracked and the neck and scroll were in good shape. I had lessons growing up and couldn't wait to play it, if it could be repaired.
Took it to a luthier in Louisville and he checked it out and said, "The good news is it's probably late 1800s, it's playable, and doesn't need a lot of work. Bad news is...it was a cheap American made mass produced instrument when it was new. He said if I ever sell it I should ask 300 dollars...Myself, I thought that was not bad for a 75 dollar junk shop flower pot...So I got back into fiddling, mostly old Hymns, Scots-Irish and American Civil War Tunes.
Hence my username...JunkShopFiddler...Misery loves company...Now everyone else is as bored as I am!
Being bored as all get out without my detector I thought I might tell the story of my username...Many years ago my wife came home from antique and junk shopping in Cadiz Kentucky in the Land Between the Lakes area. She came home with an old "casket style" wooden fiddle case. She said the man told her it was Civil War era and said it was 100 dollars, she talked him down to 75. She told me she bought it to plant flowers in but she couldn't get it open.
The latches were nickle plate but the plating was mostly gone and they were rusted shut, but you could see they were once very ornate nickle plate. So I forced them open and the latches just crumbled away. And inside the case was an old fiddle. Unbelievable! The strings and the bridge were broken but the body wasn't cracked and the neck and scroll were in good shape. I had lessons growing up and couldn't wait to play it, if it could be repaired.
Took it to a luthier in Louisville and he checked it out and said, "The good news is it's probably late 1800s, it's playable, and doesn't need a lot of work. Bad news is...it was a cheap American made mass produced instrument when it was new. He said if I ever sell it I should ask 300 dollars...Myself, I thought that was not bad for a 75 dollar junk shop flower pot...So I got back into fiddling, mostly old Hymns, Scots-Irish and American Civil War Tunes.
Hence my username...JunkShopFiddler...Misery loves company...Now everyone else is as bored as I am!
