Rocking Horse Restoration

[Slater Family]

Greetings to the group,

This may be a little off topic but I haven't found another relevant group to post this type of request.

I am looking to find someone in the South East Queensland area carry out a restoration of an old timber rocking horse. I am located in the eastern suburbs of Brisbane Australia.

It was one of my favourite things as a child ( I am now 36 y/o) which was handed down to me through a number of generations. I have also handed down to other younger family cousins etc and have now got him back for my young son to enjoy, however he is looking a little worse for wear.

I have Googled for an hour or so and have found someone in New South Wales (Approx 1300km from us) who can carry out the job or supply parts etc required but would prefer a local enthusiast who would be happy to undertake such a job.

The horse body and floor stand / frame is in complete and in good condition with only a few loose joints which need attention, but all accessories ie: mane, bridle, bit, blanket, stirrups and saddle are all now missing. I would love to have the horse restored with all accessories.

I can forward photographs anyone interested.

The website in NSW indicates cost for a restoration to be about AU$600 (Which I guess would not include accessories like saddle etc) and I am more than happy to negotiate a cost around this amount.

Please reply directly by email as I do not always have access to newsgroups.

Thanks in advance

Gary Slater Brisbane (QLD) Australia.

GKARS at bigpond dot net dot ayeyou (correct grammar and spelling as appropriate!)

[Andy Dingley]

Unless you find a rocking horse specialist (who is probably rarer than other rocking horse products) you might find it easier to have two people work on it - one who is a furniture maker and one who is a leatherworker or saddler. I know I just contract all my leatherwork out to a saddler (my glasswork is outsourced too) - there's no sense in tooling up two different workshops for the tiny amount of leatherwork I do.

There are also plenty of "build your own rocking horse" books around that will describe the obscure techniques involved, such as tail or mane making, or traditional painting styles.

[Slater Family]

Hi Andy, and thanks for your response.

I understand your point about finding two different trades, I am in the metalworking business myself and contract out a lot of work for similar reasons.

Thanks for the hint about tracking down furniture restorer, That may narrow down my search a little.

The leatherworking issue can be easily resolved as the guy in NSW is able to provide the leatherwork and mane / tail by mail order from dimensions I can provide.. I am happy to have them supply those types of parts (In hope that they do get correctly made) but I am not willing (at this present time anyway) to send the whole horse to them for restoration as I would like to exhaust all the local options first!

Where are you from Andy? (just on the off chance you may know someone local I can start with?)

Regards,

Gary.

[Andy Dingley]

Bristol, South West UK.

Not far from the rocking horse making centre of England, as far as I can see. Whenever I'm at a craft fair there always seem to be rocking horse makers from the Cotswolds.

[Andy Dingley]

Try looking in alt.binaries.pictures.woodworking One of the uk.d-i-y ers has just posted a couple of restoration pics.