Black Coating Over Painted Wood

I got detoured. Which is what I'm about to do with this post.

My fair city just donated one of our pieces to the local community college for inclusion in the military section of their huge rose garden. It depicts Ernest McFarland - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia talking with a young soldier about to go off to war.

We delivered it on Thursday.

I did fill the largest cracks in Fragments of Support, but not "photo worthy" in my opinion.

Lyn, I'm just curious about this...

How did your touch up and repair efforts pan out? Have the midnight shoppers stopped liberating the brass/bronze letters from your fair city statuaries?

Well.........................................

I got sidetracked with another statue relocation, requested by a City Council person, and now I'm involved in moving all 30 statues to make way for light rail construction on Main Street through our fair downtown, beginning very soon and lasting for two years. I'll finish the re-furb when it cools off.

The crack heads have discovered that there is more money in stealing brass backflow valves and the above ground copper plumbing than in brass letters.

I help an absentee property owner who has had to replace 3 valves at about $800.00 each, and one of them twice. They cut the locks off the cages with bolt cutters this time, so we've welded lock cages onto the valve cages and he wants me to have them alarmed and tied into his security system also.

His warehouse is the one which had a mile of wire stolen out of it last year. That cost him $30,000.00 to replace.

(I don't mind helping him out, he comes bearing tequila every time he's in town)

I'll report as soon as I can motivate myself to get back on it.

Thanks for asking.

Thanks for the update.

Sounds as if priority shifts are common (and aggravating) for you. Sorry about that, but that seems to be the way it goes sometimes. Best of luck, we're all hoping for a successful rework on the art pieces.

You would think that recyclers might alert the authority figures when someone tries to scrap something that appears to be new and has some apparent value... especially if the newpapers and television news are covering the thefts.

Doorman

I thought the US has quite stringent laws on the provenance of copper/scrap metal items; I seem to recall an earlier discussion on CR4. Perhaps it is a State thing rather than a Federal thing (and not in your state)?

The UK is starting to look at bringing in such laws to reduce copper/lead thefts here. Things like no cash sales, must leave identification details at scrap merchant, police/trading standards to check scrap merhants' records.

Thanks for requesting an update Doorman, I wandered in for just that reason

It differs, depending on location. It's an epidemic problem here in Arizona.

Tweakers will do anything for money. I know from personal experience. We're raising my stepdaughter's 3 boys because of it.

I still have good intentions to refinish the piece that is the subject here, but have been rather busy elsewhere.