OK, again I will number the posts just to make it easy to follow along. Sometimes a post may be an hours worth of work, and others may be all day.
In this first photo you can see that I have removed 2 slats from the bottom. The one towards the back of the trunk was rotten from being in water for an extended time. So I will take the middle one and move it to the back. I will then make one for the middle, which no one will see. Remember that there was a wheel missing. So I removed the other rear wheel and put 2 matching wheels on the rear. This will keep the trunk level. And the replacement wheels are close enough that no one will know except me.
In this picture you can see where I have started removing the paper from the inside. For now I am going to stain it inside. For a later project I may put fabric on the inside. Not really sure of where this trunk will go yet.
Again, I use very warm soapy water. I soak a rag and then soak the paper with the rag. I also keep warm soapy water in a spray bottle to keep it wet where I am working. This paper is very thin and over a hundred years old. It really doesn’t take much persuasion to make it come off. Just some gentle pushing of a putty knife. Try to be careful not to dig into the wood.
I also removed the end caps that held the straps. You can see that in the next 2 pictures.
I really like this trunk. It is very large and has some nice detail. The outside was already started. But someone did not do a good job. Remember to get close to the hardware when cutting the canvas. Try to get the razor knife a little under the metal, so that you will not see any canvas when you are finished. It makes for a neater job.
I can also tell you that theses trunks always look better before you start working on them! LOL. It looks like this one may have seen some termites. Lucky for me most of the damage will be hidden. I do have some holes that I may fill with wood putty.