Any Ideas? restoring a travel trunk hinge

[mikebrg]

Hi,

My wife likes to collect old travel trunks and she has a couple that have seen better days. One has been repaired with no respect for the original craftsmanship (1920'ish steamer trunk) I will need to have a better look at it before I can ask for more help. The other is a trunk that used some sort of heavy cardboard / fibrous material as the hinge. Does anyone know of what or where I may be able to source such a product? A condition of her buying the trunks are that they are also functional which I am more than happy to help her with but we are not sure where to go with this one.

Thanks

[Master Splinter]

Heavy (1400 gsm, about 3mm thick) cardboard should be available from an offset printers or some craft stores - it's called strawboard. However (and knowing nothing about steamer trunks at all, just guessing) is there the possibility that it might be thick leather? That'd make more sense for a hinge.

[mikebrg]

Thanks Master Splinter I'll check with the printers. On this particular trunk it is card but we have tossed around the idea of using leather so that might be the way to go. thanks again!

[Xanthorrhoeas]

One of the most important thing for a hinge is that it is flexible and lasts. If this is not a hinge with a pin, but a piece of some flexible material, then most of the heavy cardboard that I have seen would be unsuitable. To make cardboard they usually pulp up paper or old cardboard then compress it. That results in a material that can have good stiffness, but little flexibility. As such, when bent it is likely to crack. Once upon a time some paper and heavier sheet materials were made from fabric, such as linen and cotton. Linen, being made from Flax, has especially long fibres. I suspect that you could make up your own hinge materials using layers of heavy linen saturated with a flexible adhesive and compressed between sheets covered in release plastic like freezer film. If you use the correct colour of linen and adhesive you could even match the colour that you are looking for.

Of course, the suggestion to use leather is also eminently sensible and easier.

Good luck

[mikebrg]

Thanks Xanthorrhoeas,

It's been very hard to try and identify the material and not being able to date the trunk or manufacturer adds to the issue but leather looks to be the best option. thanks again.

[soundman]

In the past the americans where big on using cloth and cotton in paper products ( remember they produced cotton in huge volumes with slave labour) which resulted in a pretty strong and flexible paper or cardboard.....good luck finding anything like it these days.

Remember too that a fell of a lot of lugage was and still is made cheap and may have only lasted a couple of journies.....remember too if it was a wartime piece......metal was in short supply for domestic use..so lots of dody things where done to make do.

You will be best to look at some alternative type of hinge something that may not be " correct" but credible for the piece.

cheers