11x32 - An anatomy book, a fragile diamond ring & a railwayman's hat

[bunniefuu]

In the repair shop today...

..paper power...

- So, this Japanese tissue is
exceptionally strong.

Rather like me.

I'm short, but I've got immense
tensile strength.

- ..and hot-headed hatting.

- Traditionally, with a cap like this,
you apply steam

and that creates that bow and taper.

- Today's first visitor is Justine
Loveday.

She's brought a cherished yet perished
piece

for the Midas touch of jeweller
Richard Talman.

- Hello there.
- Hi.

- Welcome to the barn.
- Thank you.

- No big box or bag or big bit of
furniture.

What did you bring in?
- A tiny little box

with the most beautiful ring I've ever
seen.

- Oh, look at that!

I'll say yes. Thank you.

That is such... Oh, my gosh.

- Yes, it was my mother's ring.

She had it bought for her for her 18th
birthday.

Growing up every time she put it on,

I just thought it was the most
beautiful thing I'd ever seen.

So I said to her, "Please, can you
keep it as my future engagement ring?"

So five years ago, my husband, now,
took me to Venice.

He got down on one knee and proposed.

I was just gobsmacked that he'd got
the ring and kind of had it resized.

And it was my mum's ring.

- Lovely.

What's your mum's name?
- Rebecca.

She sadly is no longer with us.
- Oh, no.

- She went through a long cancer
diagnosis and kind of treatment.

Yeah.

- I'm sorry.
- Thank you.

She got to walk me down the aisle
and...

..and it was a very special day having
her there.

We got married in the July and she
passed away in the October, so...

- So the ring is incredibly important
then.
- It is.

- So what exactly is wrong with it?

- The diamond in the middle wobbles
around.

And obviously where it's been so loved
and well worn,

the band is really thin and it's no
longer a ring shape anymore.

- May I have a look, Justine?
- Yeah, of course.

- That band is really thin.
- I know.

- Oh, yes, indeed.

- What kind of metal is that?

- Feels like platinum.

Very traditional ring. Beautiful.

- So why have you decided to have this
fixed now?

- The plan is to be able to wear it
again.

Because obviously it got damaged and
is basically unwearable

because if I wear it, that diamond
will eventually come out.
- Fall out.
- Yes.

- So if Richard can fix this for you,
do you think it will feel

like your mum's with you?
- 100%. Yeah.

I feel so naked and lost without it.

If I think of my mum, I'll go to kind
of feel the ring

and it's not there and that obviously
makes my heart just drop.

So having it on my finger,

just will feel like my mum's with me
at all times.

- That's really nice.
- Yeah.

- Thank you so much for coming down.

It's been lovely to hear about your
wonderful ring

and your wonderful mum as well.

Thanks a lot.
- Thank you so much.

Bye!
- Cheers. Bye-bye.
- Take care, Justine.

Well, I have seen many rings in need
of a repair,

but this time it really is hanging in
by the skin of its teeth.

And it's worn away badly at the back
here.

I'm going to need to replace the back
portion of this ring.

This is called half-shanking.

But more importantly, I need to
address the claws.

They should be holding in the stone
from this side.

One of them has gone completely.

First thing I'm going to do

is give this ring a little clean in
the ultrasonic,

then I can turn my attention to the
claws.

- Chris, do you mind coming over?

- Of course.

- I've got something you're going to
like.
- Surprises.

- Ramesh Bhatt and his daughter Kavita
have travelled from London

with a rare treasure that's set to
beguile bibliophile Chris Shore.

- Hi. Welcome.
- Hi. Thank you.

- What a beautiful old book.

Who does it belong to?

- Well, I inherited it from my
godmother, Margot.

- What is it?

I mean, I love the size. That's what
I've...

- This is a very old book on human
anatomy

with drawings of a...a dissected body,
really. And body parts.

Fully annotated in pencil.
- Wow! Nice.
- Yeah.

- Goodness me. Oh, I see. It's all...
- CHRIS GASPS

It was published 250 years ago.

- Oh, wow.

How come you've got it?

- I'm a GP.
- Oh, wow.

- As am I.

- Oh, two doctors!
- Yeah.
- Really? I've got a knee problem.

- Well, you can look up here.

- Yeah, exactly.

So all these marks, the pencil marks.

Do you know who made them?

- No, we don't.

We'd dearly love to know.

- It's doctor's writing, you can't
understand it.

- Yeah, that's so true.

- We've heard that before, yeah.

- I knew somebody would come to that.

- Yeah, so, how did this book come
into your possession?

It's a really old book.

- Well, I was born and brought up in
Uganda,

and things were not particularly
stable in Uganda.

My father had the foresight to say,
you know,

"I don't think you've got a future
here."

My dad said, "The best place for you
to go for further education is UK."

I was quite young when I came. 17, 18.

The plan was to go back, but

literally in the year that I went to
medical school,

the doors shut behind us in Uganda.

- And your family, did they get out?

- Yeah. My dad, sadly, got thrown out
of Uganda.

Yeah, he had to leave in a hurry, so I
couldn't go back.

It was highly dangerous.
- Yeah.

- Well, it must have been a scary and
difficult decision, though,

to just up sticks and come to a
completely different country

where you didn't know anybody.

- It was a bit difficult at first
because, you know,

having come from a foreign country.

But, you know, I got to know a few
people.

And my best friend in the end was
Roger.

And he was very helpful, very
supportive, very friendly.

And Roger said to me, "Come around for
a meal."

I met Roger's mum, Margot.

And when she found out that I didn't
have my family here,

she immediately said, "Right from
today onwards, this is your home

"and I'm your...I'm your mummy number
two."

And she never defaulted on that and
she became my godmother.

- So she's like this pivotal person.
- Yes.

- Do you think without her, your life
would be quite different now?

- Very different. Very different.
Yeah. Yeah.

That's why it means so much.

- Yeah, I can see.
- Yeah.

- Did Margot have very many nice
books?

- So Margot was a thespian, you know,
she...

She loved reading. She loved books.

And one of the inspiration I have is
her always talking

about books and how important it was
to read.
- Yes.

- Kavita, what does this book mean to
you?

- Well, I mean, I think for us as a
family, it means a huge amount.

The fact that it came into my dad's
possession from Margot.

I got to know Margot a little bit when
I was younger.

And the fact that it came from that
part of the family,

it would just be great for all of us
to see it restored.

The spine is...
- Literally come off completely.
- Exactly.

There's a few loose pages at the back
here.

So it would just be great to see it
restored.

- It'll enhance the connections,
various connections.

- I'm pleased to say it's in the right
place.
- Yeah.

- Leave it with us. Thank you so much.
- Thank you.

- Lovely meeting you both.
- Yeah, you too. Thank you so much.

Bye.
- Bye-bye.
- Bye.

- What an amazing story and what an
amazing book.

It obviously has huge emotional
significance to them.

And it needs to be repaired

so that it reflects and sort of
complements the huge

affection that they have for Margot.

There's a long list I've got to do to
this patient.

The main damage has gone to the
binding.

I've got to mend the pages, take the
cloth out, sort the boards,

reattach them, cover them, put a new
spine on,

and then finally tool it.

There's a mountain to climb.

But to start with, I need to remove
this cloth

so I can start mending the corners.

I will be able to save this bit of
cloth.

I think it just gives the history of
the book.

- Diamond geezer Richard is leaving no
stone unturned as he strives

to secure the wobbly gem on the
engagement ring.

- I'm going to have to fix the new
claw on

in a slightly different way to normal.

Usually we'd use gas solder on gold or
silver.

But because platinum melts at almost
double the temperature,

like nearly 1,800 degrees,

it would completely burn the diamonds.

So for that, I'm going to have to use
a laser welder,

which is going to localise the repair
and give no risk

whatsoever to the diamonds by heat.

The process of welding a piece of
metal together

is very, very different to solder.

Solder will actually flood through
like water

in between the area and the gap,

whereas we can't do that in the laser
weld.

What I've got to do is start from the
bottom and then backfill it.

So I do that by taking some very, very
fine pieces of platinum,

and I'm laying that on the edge,
firing the laser beam

and it's building it up in layers.

We are using the absolute tiniest
amounts to do this.

The laser beam is so, so fine.

It's about 0.2mm.

The microscope is about 20 times.

So, to me, the claw looks like a
scaffold bar

that I'm welding on to the side.

Absolutely incredible.

It's just like having a bionic set of
eyes.

Wish I could work like this all the
time.

So now I've just laser-retipped all of
the claws.

There is one that's obviously very
odd, and that's the one

that I built up from the thicker wire.

So at the moment I've got a very
heavy-weight round bar

serving as the claw.

So I need to file that back

until it's like a tiny, tiny little
ball to match the size

of all of the others.

Part of the obvious pleasure of
repairing and restoring any piece

of jewellery is that more often than
not, it's always got such

a wonderful sentiment attached to it.

But the good thing about working on a
diamond is there's pretty much

nothing that can damage it.

The hardness of this steel on this
file is considerably

less than the hardness of the diamond.

So if anything, I've got to be careful
not to hit the diamond

with my file because it blunts my
file.

So now I've got the claws all to the
correct size,

shape and structure,

I need to turn my attention to the
back part of the band here.

It's worn away, so it's very, very
thin.

I'm keen to remove all of the
offending part here

by cutting it with a saw frame.

And then I'm going to take a new fresh
piece of platinum,

which is exactly the same grade as the
rest of the ring,

and I'm going to solder that in.

Platinum is an absolutely beautiful
material to work with.

It's a harder-wearing metal, but it is
actually quite malleable.

It's actually quite soft in relation
to some of the other metals.

Yeah, it's my favourite metal

to work with by a long way.

Now...

..I need to take this piece of
platinum and I need to mill

this to exactly the same dimensions as
the rest of the band

and then put it in.

So now I've just got to solder this
new piece of platinum

into the back of the ring.

As soon as I get this sharp blue flame
on the solder join,

it's going to heat up to almost like a
bright white.

And it's at that point the solder will
melt

and I've immediately got to pull the
flame off.

If I leave that flame on there for
even half a second longer,

the rest of the ring will melt.

That's one side gone...

..and there's the other.

That's the risky part over.

That soldered perfectly.

So now it's just time to clean that
up.

And it's one step closer to being back
on Justine's finger.

- Next, Harriet Buck from Scarborough
is hoping for a "hat trick",

courtesy of Jayesh Vaghela.

- Hi. Welcome to the barn. How's it
going?

- I'm good, thanks. You?
- Good. I'm Dom. Nice to meet you.

What have you brought in?

- I've brought my grandad's railway
hat.

- Wow.

- Was that his career or...?
- Yes. So, he was on the railway as a
job.

- How long did he work on the
railways?

- All his life.

So, he was born in 1932 and started
off as an apprentice.

Did work on the tracks, signals,

and then became the station master at
Scarborough Station.

And then when he retired, early '90s,
he volunteered

on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway,

which is where this hat's from.

- So what is that?

- North Yorkshire Moors Railway is now
a huge tourist attraction

where you can go on and have afternoon
tea

or just ride as a passenger

between Pickering and then several
stops in the North Yorkshire Moors.

One of the stations is Goathland,

which is also known as Hogsmeade in
the Harry Potter films.

- Harry Potter.
- Yes.
- What, it's THE station?

- The station, yeah.

He was the fireman.

So he was the one that put the coal
into the fire

to make the steam to make the train
go.

- So he worked on a proper steam
train.

- Proper team train, yeah.

- With the proper hat.

- THEY LAUGH

- Yeah.
- A career of trains and locomotives.
- Loved trains.

In his house he'd have pictures of
trains.

He also had like a radio receiver.

So he'd be able to pick up snippets

of what was happening on the railway
lines.

- Even whilst he's at home?
- Even whilst he was at home.

Yeah.
- That's passion, definitely.
- Absolutely.

And then when he passed,

his ashes were scattered on the North
Yorkshire Moors Railway.

- Oh, bless.
- What was Grandad's name?

- My grandad's name was Eric, but he
was known as Grandad Train.

- Grandad train.
- Grandad Train, yeah.
- Makes sense.

- We used to say to my dad, "Can we go
see Grandad Train?"

We'd go see him at Scarborough
Station, we'd sit in his office.

But he'd also let me and my sister
blow the whistle

to make the train go, to signal it was
ready to go.

- I love it.
- He'd always pick us up,

we'd wave the flag, blow the whistle.
- How exciting.

- Yeah, but we never did it loud
enough,

so he always had to do it again.

- How old were you at this point?

- About five or six.
- Oh, brilliant.

- Yeah, on my way down here catching
the train,

I stood in the very spot that I used
to stand with him

to blow the whistle.

- Wow.
- From that same station?
- Yeah. Nice moment.

- With his hat.

- With his hat, yeah.

And now I've got children who love
trains.

It'd be lovely to carry that story on
and reignite those memories.

- Yeah.
- It's just...my childhood.

- It looks terrific.
- Yeah.

He did have to rip the back

to fit it on his head.

- HARRIET LAUGHS

- Oh, you're kidding!

- How far would you like Jayesh to go
with the repairs?

- Um, I definitely want it cleaned up.
- OK.

- I'd love it just to look like a hat
again.

It's a bit floppy, a bit flat.

- When you used to see your grandad
wearing it, structurally, how was it?

- You definitely would be able to see
that bit.
- OK.
- Yeah.

- So you can see the badges,
obviously.
- Yeah.

- Well, I'm so glad that you've still
got his hat, because it really does

symbolise a lifetime of passion,
doesn't it?
- It does.

If I think of my grandad, I think of
the trains.
- Aw.

Thank you. Well, leave it with us.
It's been a pleasure meeting you.

- Thank you very much.
- Thank you.
- See you soon.
- Take care. Bye-bye.

In terms of a peaked cap, I have
worked on a few,

but never, ever on a railway hat.

There's a lot I need to do.

There's a bond structure missing from
the cap.

So what I'm going to do is reintroduce
that

and make the cap stand proud.

On this part of the hat,

this has been deliberately done,

which is a cut to make the hat bigger.

As I want to retain this, I'm going to
tidy this up to prevent

further damage, to prolong the life of
the hat.

The very challenging thing is to make
it clean as possible.

There has been a growth of mould and
fungus.

Equally, there is a deposit of coal
everywhere.

If I commence the cleaning, what I'm
going to do is remove

all the loose trimmings, the badges
and the band here.

This is going to be slightly tricky
because the leather has gone

really dry and it's crispy.

So any sort of unnecessary pressure
will damage the leather.

And that's the last thing I want to
do.

So here we go.

Here we go. It's coming away.

And...magic.

- On Chris's bench,

life-saving surgery on the antique
anatomy book is underway.

- So, I've removed all the original
cloth sides

and removed the last bit of the
original leather.

The style of the binding is called a
half leather.

So you've got leather corners, leather
spine, and this is cloth.

This is an original cloth side.

And I want to save as much as
practically possible.

And that's just about all there.

It's only the corners and the odd edge
that need some attention.

You can see where it's been bumped.

And to tackle that, I'm just going to
introduce some paste

and then I'm going to wrap it with
some Japanese tissue.

I'm using paste so it makes it more
malleable.

I'm using my fingers to squash it into
sort of a general shape.

And with the excess, I can then smooth
it over.

So, this Japanese tissue is
exceptionally strong.

Rather like me -

I'm short, but I've got immense
tensile strength.

And this is what the Japanese tissue
is like.

And so what it's doing is it's going
to dry and contract

and make this go nice and hard.

So I just need to work my way around
both boards

and then cover it in some leather.

While the leather corners and
everything on the boards are drying,

I'm turning my attention to the paper.

And it is ironic that when I was
discussing my knee problem

with Ramesh and Kavita that the
page...

I mean, what are the chances?

The one page that has got a tear is
the knee page.

But the tear really hasn't affected
the illustration at all,

which is good.

So I'm using some heat-sensitive
Japanese tissue.

This is a sort of heated spatula

and that reacts with the Japanese
tissue, which is heat-activated.

And that makes it stick.

So that's tacked into place.

That all feels like it's married up
and smooth.

And I'm almost at the point of joining
on the boards

to the book, and that's an exciting
bit.

I'm at last at the point of joining
the boards back on.

And this is the hemp that's then going
to attach the boards

to the book itself.

So, these holes correspond and I've
made a little dip

I've cut out of the board.

So that little mound is going to get
knocked back down

and that's going to seal the hemp in
the board.

And you can see it's basically almost
like tying a type

of shoelace in that you go in there...

..and then back through that hole.

There, it's peeking out.

So you can see the board is good and
proper.

So that's sealing the hole down again.

And so then sandwiches the hemp.

This technique of lacing on boards and
sewn-on hemp is centuries old.

So the binder who bound this book used
the same techniques

that I am using now, two centuries
later.

So all now I need to do is put a new
spine on it.

- With the diamond ring now repaired
and secured enough to wear,

Richard can focus on bringing the
bling back.

- So I've now got to spend a little
bit of time filing

up the back before a couple of grades
of polish

to make sure that this gets a mirrored
finish.

We're just removing the most minuscule
pieces

with each file stroke, checking it
each time.

Make sure that it blends in perfectly.

Now, I'm just going to go over the
final stages

of sandpaper here.

I'm sandpapering in the opposite
direction to the direction I filed.

And this is always important as it
ensures the grain

of the metal is perfect.

And once I get this ring perfectly
polished,

it'll be ready to hand back over to
Justine.

It is a great honour and a privilege
for me to be able to be entrusted

to doing this very, very special ring
for her.

- You ready, Rich?

- I'm ready.

- This ring holds cherished memories
of both a much missed mother

and a romantic proposal.

- Perfect.

- Desperate to wear the precious piece
once again, Justine.

- Hello.
- Hello.
- How you doing?
- Good, thank you.
- All right.

- Welcome back.
- Thanks.

Wow. Excited to be back.

- Are you? And what are you hoping
for?

- Just for it to be restored back to
how it was.

Yeah, when my husband proposed and
when my mum gifted it to me.
- Yeah.

Rich.
- Yes.
- Want to do the honours?
- I'd love to.

- JUSTINE GASPS

- Oh, my God.

Wow. Oh, my God.

Can I pick it up?
- Of course you can, it's yours!

- I'm literally shaking.

- Oh, bless you. I can see that.

- So beautiful. Look how clean it is
as well.

Thank you. Oh, my goodness.

Those claws as well. They're so
sturdy, aren't they?

No wobbly diamond anymore!
- No wobbly diamond.

- Oh, wow.

And that band as well.

Oh, wow. And it fits perfectly!

Oh, look at that.

It's been so long without it, like,
it's just...

I've not felt complete.

Oh, my goodness.

Thank you so much.

- But this is more than just an
engagement ring, really, isn't it?

- It is. Lots of memories, yeah, of my
mum.

Literally just looks how it did when
my mum used to wear it.

This was probably how it looked when
she was gifted it.
- Yeah.

- It was such a well loved ring and
well worn.

I think she'd just be so impressed.

I honestly can't stop looking at it.

It's like a brand-new ring.

It's even more beautiful than it was.

- It's been a great pleasure. I know
how much it meant to you.

- Thank you for bringing it in.
- Thank you.
- Bye-bye.
- Bye.

Looking at it on my finger,

I just instantly see my mum's
beautiful face

and just feels like I've just got her
back with me again.

It's nice to know that she'll be with
me wherever I go.

- It's full steam ahead on Jayesh's
repair

of the soot-ridden railwayman's hat.

- There are quite a few materials used
in the cap.

One is cotton, which is the side of
it.

The peak is muslin with shellac, which
gives it the structure,

and the outer covering is polymer
synthetic covering,

and the sweatband is leather.

And considering all those different
surfaces, at some point

I will have to introduce sort of a wet
liquid surface clean.

So the first approach that I am doing
here is dry cleaning.

It will help lift the dirt.

The toothbrush is working very
effectively.

And what I've done is I've trimmed the
bristles.

The shorter bristles become slightly
more abrasive,

and it sort of lifts the dirt out with
little effort.

So, my next plan is to introduce a wet
clean.

And that doesn't mean I'm going to be
putting this cap into the water.

The approach is I've got mild, soapy
solution and I'm going to work

the top surface to a point where I get
this surface clean.

A peaked cap like this normally should
be standing proud, like so.

In order for me to raise the crown, I
am going to introduce

a bonding structure which will go
inside the cap

and it sits in the middle, behind the
sweatband.

So, the bottom is straight and gives
me that sturdy base

and the top is rounded in perfect
harmony with the curves of the cap.

I have inherited my father's cap,
which he wore at his wedding.

And it brings back so many memories
just by handling it.

So I can completely understand how
Harriet feels

about this railway hat which her
grandfather wore.

Now that the shape is ready, I'm going
to place it inside the cap,

directly behind the sweatband,
perfectly in the centre.

There we are.

The shape of the bonding structure is
spot-on.

The cap will be sitting proud the way
I envisaged.

I am going to turn my attention to the
slit

done by Harriet's grandfather.

That made the cap bigger.

My hatter's instinct tells me to
literally...

..get my sewing machine out, repair
this and conceal it completely.

That is not intention.

So what I'm going to do is stitch the
cut edge onto the backing fabric

so it's fully secure, still visible
where the slit is

to keep the character of the cap.

So here I'm doing a straight stitch,
but also doing a backlog.

So just in case, if the thread
snapped,

the whole thread won't come away.

It's got a bit more stitching to do,

to tidy up as much as I can,

and then I'm going to steam the cap
and shape it.

- The book of vintage vivisections has
been rebound,

preserving its unique contents for
posterity.

All that remains is one last cosmetic
procedure.

- So, I'm at the point of gold tooling
the spine.

The only reference I've got is what
Ramesh luckily has saved

and it was in the book, and that tells
me that it was tooled on the

spine, and the author, which I know is
Lizars.

So I have marked out all the lettering
on these paper plates.

I'm going to tool through that with
some hot tools,

and that will give me a blind
impression on this leather.

So, these are brass tools and the heat
gets transferred

onto the leather, leaving sort of an
impression

of where the gold has to go.

I think it does suit the book.

And all the edges of the book are red.

I thought carry the theme through, red
label.

I'm really pleased. It feels like it's
all coming together so...

..what a book to hand back to Ramesh
and Kavita

to remember Margot by.

And I know how much it all means to
them.

And it's so important that the
memories of Margot is kept alive.

And what an item to have to remember
her by.

- As a 17-year-old living alone in a
new country,

future Dr Ramesh was welcomed into a
warm and generous family,

Roger and his mum, Margot.

The book is a precious reminder of all
they did for him.

And he's returned with daughter
Kavita, who also became a doctor.

- Hello.
- Hi.
- Come on in. Come on.

How are you both doing?

- Very well, thank you.

- Excited.

- And hopefully you've done something
to it to make it usable.
- Yes.

My diagnosis, it needed serious
operation. It did.

- He's been waiting all week to say
that.

- He's absolutely right.

I mean, you know, it was in such a
delicate state, really.

Very, very fragile.
- Yeah.

- So are you both ready?

- Yes, we are.

- Yeah. Yeah, definitely.

- Go on, Chris. Do the honours.

- Oh, my gosh.
- Wow!

- That's...

I almost don't recognise it. That's
unbelievable.

- Oh, that's brilliant.

- That's really beautiful.

Look at the spine.
- You maintained the period look.
Fantastic.

- Gosh.
- That's amazing.
- Yeah. Thank you so much.

Wow.

I'm nervous to open it, but because
that's kind

of the feeling that we're so used to.

Wow.

See, that is...
- Lizars, there.
- I don't know how you did that.

Wow.
- Fantastic. Absolutely incredible.
- Yes.

Gosh, yeah.

- Such a handsome book.
- Thank you so much.

- And I hope it's an amazing tribute
for Margot.

- Absolutely.
- Oh, yeah.

- So now you see the book in its
current condition,

what does it mean to you guys?

- My family were thrown out of Uganda
and it was quite precipitous.

So people who talk about, you know,

"This has been in the loft for years,"
and whatever,

we have, in that sense, an empty loft

because all our possessions just never
came with us.

So this is... Symbolically, this
provides a degree of continuity

with my second mum so I can pass on to
Kavita something that I never

got from my parents for those reasons.

You've restored a very important
object in our lives, really.

You know, you'll be remembered like...

- Oh, definitely.
- ..like all the other people
surrounding this book, really.

- It's a real honour. I love that
thought.
- I know you do.

You're made up, didn't you?
- Yeah.
- Oh, bless you.

- Thank you.
- Well, it's yours now. It's yours to
take home.

- Weight of responsibility.

- It's all right. Don't worry.

- Thank you. Take care. Bye-bye.

- You take care now.
- Bye-bye.

- Oh, it feels wonderful and quite
emotional and it's just...

All the memories come flooding back
about the family, really.

- I just think of all the people that
have had it before us.

We're really looking forward to
showing it to Roger especially.

And I think that book deserves to be
shared, not sort of sit

on the bookshelf at home, really.

- Hatter Jayesh is feeling the heat as
he reshapes the railwayman's cap.

- Traditionally with a cap like this,
you apply steam

and then it goes on the block

and you press the sides both left and
right,

and that creates that bow and taper.

So when the wearer wears the cap,

it looks much more flattering.

And it's hugging, fit with the head.

You see, I'm holding it there.

As it cools down, it'll give me that
shape I'm looking for.

So there we are.

The structure is back in place.

And I think the cap looks clean.

I just hope that Harriet likes it.

- Having spent a lifetime working on
the railways,

this cap was the signature look of
Harriet's much-loved grandfather.

And he passed his passion for trains
onto her and her children.

- There she is. Hello.
- Hello.
- Hello.

- You all right?
- Yes, thanks. Nice to see you again.

- Nice to see you, too.

- I'm excited.
- Are you?
- Really excited.

- And what are you hoping he's done?

- Just to make it look like a hat.

It was a bit floppy last time.

When I used to go see my grandad, you
could see the badges.

So, just what it used to look like
when my grandad wore it.

- You ready?
- Yeah. I think so.

- Jayesh, do the honours.

- Shall we?
- Yeah.
- Here we are.

- Oh, wow.

Oh, my goodness.

Oh, you even cleaned up that little
badge.

- Yes.

- Oh, my goodness. That's incredible.

I didn't know what to expect, but it
wasn't that.

And that's...that surpasses
everything.

So thank you.
- Thank you.
- Thank you very much.
- It's an honour.

- Is that how you remember it?
- Yeah, that is.
- That is.

- That is.
- Phew! OK.

- That's amazing.

I can't wait to show the family now.
- Aw.

- Wow.

I didn't even know that that was that
shiny.

- There was a tremendous layer of the
soot and that gradually came off.

- Thank you.

- Perfect.
- Look at that!
- Looks proper.
- Yeah.

- It really is standing proud,
definitely. Looks great.

- I can't believe it's the same hat.

I do love that we've kept that,
though. Yeah.

Yeah.

Big brains in our family.
- There you go.
- Big heads.
- Yeah.

What journeys is it going to go on
now? Where's it going?

- We'll go on the North Yorkshire
Moors Railway this summer.

And we'll take it with us.

Give a nod to Grandad.

That's where his ashes are scattered.
- Fantastic.

- Lovely. Thank you. Honestly, thank
you so much.

- The honour is mine. Thank you.
- Thank you.

- You take care now.
- Thanks. Bye.
- Bye-bye.
- Thank you. Bye-bye.

- It feels amazing to have my
grandad's hat back.

I think my grandad would be really
pleased that I'd got

the hat repaired. He'd be really
proud.

We're going to show the family, keep
it on display.

We'll get a little hat stand and keep
the memories alive.

- If you have a treasured possession
that's seen better days

and you think the team can help,
please get in touch at...

And join us in the Repair Shop.