Duisky
Member
- Messages
- 42
- Location
- Scotland
I completed this sleigh last year. Given it’s the festive season, I thought it might be apt to post it just now. Might be of interest as it’s certainly something different. It’s mainly constructed from timber, however there was a decent amount of metalworking and welding too.
Long story short my mum bought a circa 1800’s sleigh sight unseen at an auction. It had no history, so she had taken it to the Antiques roadshow to see if they could find anything out- it featured on Sunday past on the Christmas special.
She bought it to restore, but when she actually received it, she realised that it was ‘too good’ to mess with, so decided to make a replica instead. It’s only original once, and I wouldn’t like to dissemble it and make a poor job of restoring/not finishing it. You could say it’s a genuine barn find complete with dust. Further, to restore it, only the ironmongery would be retained, so 90% of the sleigh would be new; in my mind it wasn’t much more effort to just make a new one. We decided on a festive theme so she could potentially hire it out as a Christmas prop in future.
The original sleigh.
Inner structure of sleigh roughly constructed from 3/4 ply. Original was a hardwood frame clad in veneer. I used ply to take advantage of modern materials and expedite the construction process, obviously as this is a replica created in likeliness I didn’t have to be too true to the original construction methods.
Green ash was used to construct the front external framework. This was steamed in a ply box to form the curve. The aluminium strap was necessary to prevent the grain from splitting out.
3mm ply was bonded to the sides of the sleigh to form the sweeping curves. The transition between the ply and ash framing was then covered by aluminium pin beading. The front shroud was aluminium (rolled on a friends roller) and is made out of 3 parts and capped with a bit of ash.
The exposed sides were treated with polyester resin and filled where necessary. The drivers seat was fabricated and loosely fitted in position. The seat incorporated half round steel which solidifies the front of the sleigh.
The undercarriage was made from various section (round, half round, bar and flat) and was shaped by a cheap 300mm sheet metal roller from eBay. The roller was used to the point of destruction but got the job done. The various parts were welded and bolted together to form the assembly. Its lighter than I would’ve liked but will unlikely to ever be pulled by a horse- I think it will simply be a prop forevermore.
The body was professionally painted in 2k paint- this was the only part that was outsourced. Red was chosen to give the sleigh Christmas value- I would’ve preferred to keep to the original colour scheme however. Dad would still like to restore the old one to original spec. He can do that himself!
The interior was trimmed with red velvet and leather side skirts as per the original. The edge of the material was gilded with brass half round - a pig to work with- to finish the sleigh off and provide a bit of decadence. I added a couple of brass handrails to brighten the sleigh further, and infilled the coach line with gold paint.
The pair were taken to a car show earlier in the year and only came out of storage last week. Mum is Christmas daft so it’s now sitting on her drive with a 5ft Santa!
Long story short my mum bought a circa 1800’s sleigh sight unseen at an auction. It had no history, so she had taken it to the Antiques roadshow to see if they could find anything out- it featured on Sunday past on the Christmas special.
She bought it to restore, but when she actually received it, she realised that it was ‘too good’ to mess with, so decided to make a replica instead. It’s only original once, and I wouldn’t like to dissemble it and make a poor job of restoring/not finishing it. You could say it’s a genuine barn find complete with dust. Further, to restore it, only the ironmongery would be retained, so 90% of the sleigh would be new; in my mind it wasn’t much more effort to just make a new one. We decided on a festive theme so she could potentially hire it out as a Christmas prop in future.
The original sleigh.
Inner structure of sleigh roughly constructed from 3/4 ply. Original was a hardwood frame clad in veneer. I used ply to take advantage of modern materials and expedite the construction process, obviously as this is a replica created in likeliness I didn’t have to be too true to the original construction methods.
Green ash was used to construct the front external framework. This was steamed in a ply box to form the curve. The aluminium strap was necessary to prevent the grain from splitting out.
3mm ply was bonded to the sides of the sleigh to form the sweeping curves. The transition between the ply and ash framing was then covered by aluminium pin beading. The front shroud was aluminium (rolled on a friends roller) and is made out of 3 parts and capped with a bit of ash.
The exposed sides were treated with polyester resin and filled where necessary. The drivers seat was fabricated and loosely fitted in position. The seat incorporated half round steel which solidifies the front of the sleigh.
The undercarriage was made from various section (round, half round, bar and flat) and was shaped by a cheap 300mm sheet metal roller from eBay. The roller was used to the point of destruction but got the job done. The various parts were welded and bolted together to form the assembly. Its lighter than I would’ve liked but will unlikely to ever be pulled by a horse- I think it will simply be a prop forevermore.
The body was professionally painted in 2k paint- this was the only part that was outsourced. Red was chosen to give the sleigh Christmas value- I would’ve preferred to keep to the original colour scheme however. Dad would still like to restore the old one to original spec. He can do that himself!
The interior was trimmed with red velvet and leather side skirts as per the original. The edge of the material was gilded with brass half round - a pig to work with- to finish the sleigh off and provide a bit of decadence. I added a couple of brass handrails to brighten the sleigh further, and infilled the coach line with gold paint.
The pair were taken to a car show earlier in the year and only came out of storage last week. Mum is Christmas daft so it’s now sitting on her drive with a 5ft Santa!
