05x36 - Beloved Banjo

[bunniefuu]

Welcome to the Repair Shop, where
precious but faded treasures...

It's a bit of a sorry state.

..are restored to
their former glory.

Only another 40 parts to go.

Furniture restorer Jay Blades...

Now, that... It's good, isn't it?

So nice that we can be part of that
history, to just keep things going.

..and a dream team of expert
craftspeople...

Tiny piece.
Oh, amazing! That's the edge!

You really start to see the thought
that went into making it.

..come together
to work their magic...

Welcome to the 21st century!

Yes!

..employing heritage craft skills
passed down the generations...

It's my duty to make sure that this
all goes back in working order.

..preserving
irreplaceable heirlooms.

We're all going to go now!

Here we go!

BICYCLE BELL RINGS

The team will restore the items...

SHE GASPS

..the memories...

Very good!

..and unlock
the stories that they hold.

SHE GASPS
It's touched my heart. It's amazing!

In the Repair Shop today,

Suzie injects new life into a pair
of vintage roller-skates.

You can actually see it's
travelling through the wood.

That's where all these chambers

that these little pesky woodworms
have made.

And Will's dish of the day is
an antique salad bowl that's

a tricky fix...

It needs to be a perfect circle
because of this lovely metal ring,

and if that wood is out at all,
that won't fit properly.

..that Brenton takes a shine to.

The bottle has a clever chemical
with silver in it,

so the silver becomes
part of the brass.

But first at the Barn is
Kipper Tranter from North Yorkshire

with a treasured item
that needs Julyan Wallis'

quarter century of stringed
instrument experience.

Hello. Hello.
How you doing? Good, thanks.

Yourself? I'm very good.
Better for seeing you.

You are? Kipper.
All right, Kipper. I'm Jay.

Hi, Jay, pleased to meet you.

I'm Jules. Hi, Jules. Kipper.
So, what have we got in here, then?

This is my old banjo.
Can we get it out? Yeah.

Sure, sure, yeah. I'll let you do
that. Do the honours. The honours...

So, an old Jedson from the
late '30s, I'm guessing.

And remarkable aesthetic
condition for its age.

This is like 80-odd years old.
Yeah. So, tell us about this.

How have you got this?

This was given to me by the family
of an old friend of mine, Ted.

Ted Knapton. Ted Knapton. Yeah.

And you're smiling
when you say that. And laughing now!

Must have good memories of Ted.
Absolutely, yeah.

The guy was a one-off.

When I came out the Merchant Navy,
I had some issues adjusting to

life ashore and Ted kind of took me
under his wing.

So, Ted was kind
of like your mentor, then? Yeah.

He meant the world to me.

He put me on the straight
and narrow, used to take me aside

and a little word in the right
earhole and...

Nod to the wise, as he used to say.
Yeah, we all need a Ted, don't we?

Yeah. So, did he teach you how
to play the banjo, then?

He showed me,
yeah, the first few chords,

and then I obviously learned a few
more from that, but it was that...

Ted initially... He sparked the
interest into the banjos. Yeah. OK.

Learning a new instrument,
it just refocused what I was doing

and straightened me out, completely.

Yeah.
How come you've got this now, then?

Well, Ted was a plumber
and he handled a lot of asbestos

and in later life, he developed
mesothelioma, which is

a disease of the lungs
caused by asbestos.

And after Ted passed away,
I went round to see his wife

and his son and daughter and they
said, "We want you to have this.

"It's what Ted would have wanted you
to have." Beautiful.

And this is what you got.
This is it, yeah.

I'm sorry. I'm going!
It's all right. Don't be silly, man.

You feel so much love for him,

you know, it's...Ted.

A little bit of Ted with me,
you know. Yeah, yeah.

And every time you play it,
you can't not pick it up

and not play it
and not think of him. Yeah.

It means a great, great deal.
So, what's actually wrong with it?

The... It sounds...

HE PLUCKS STRINGS

Sounds like it plays.

One of the main things
we've found is obviously,

there should be some
sort of a bracket thing here

and someone's put a three inch
screw in to hold the neck on.

Oh! That would do!
Yeah.

But when you're playing
down the neck, it tends to go

out of tune, you know, and I want
to retain the character of it.

So, why now? Why do you want
to get it repaired now?

Because I want to pass it on
to a friend's son,

who's making his way in music.

He's just been accepted to
a conservatoire at Birmingham,

so immensely proud of him.

His dad, Mike,
was a great mate of Ted's as well

and I couldn't think of anybody more
worthy to pass it on to.

That's nice. Well, Kipper, thank
you for bringing this in. Thank you.

Pleasure to meet you.
Thanks very much. And you.

You take care now. See you later.

Ted's banjo really needs to be
played. It's a beautiful instrument.

Learning to play the banjo,

it made me feel more complete again.

It just makes me
think of Ted all the time

and the influence he had on me.

Wow! That's a story, isn't it?

Yeah, it's a real,
real...deep story actually.

What you got to do to this banjo,
then?

This neck looks like
it's all right to me,

but I'm not trained in banjos.
It looks good. Yeah.

But if you flip it over,

we need a proper neck brace
that goes in there.

And the other issue is the frets
are pitted through playing,

so wear and tear... OK.

Going to have a great clean-up,
put the new strings on.

Tell you what, let's get it over to
your area

and if there's anything
you need, just let me know, yeah?

Fantastic, Jay.
No problem. There we go.

I've worked on many a banjo.
Banjos, it's such a bespoke sound.

You know when you hear a banjo. It's
not a guitar, it's not a mandolin.

They just have their own resonance
and their own unique sound.

So I'm taking the strings off
to gain access to the frets.

Any fretted instrument requires
the frets to be completely

uniform in height cos any
discrepancies will lead to

a buzz and no fretted instrument
player wants a buzz.

They want a clear tone.

So looking at these, a lot
of the wear is in the first seven,

eight, nine frets and up the top
here, towards the dusty end,

as we call it,
there's not a lot of wear,

but because they are higher,
in relation to these lower frets,

they all have to be
taken down to the lowest wear mark.

OK, so I have some masking tape
here, which is going to

go on the fretboard,
which will protect the wood.

OK, so I'm all masked up now
and this will now enable me

to put my blue marker
pen on the top of the frets

and when I put the file
over the top,

any little blue spots
that are left are the lowest spots

and we've got to take all of the
frets down to that lowest wear mark.

So there's just a couple
of little wear marks just

here on the fourth fret
and the rest...

Just a couple of spots up
here at the end.

It looks a really simple technique,
but fretting itself,

I think, is one of the hardest
things on any instrument.

Whether that's where the term
"to fret" comes from, I don't know.

The Barn's next arrival is
Julia Emmett from Berkshire.

She's inherited some footwear with
a moving history, but it needs

the skills of leatherwork
specialist Suzie Fletcher.

Hi. Hi. I'm Suzie, nice to meet you.
Hi, Suzie. I'm Julia.

So, what have you brought in
for me today?

Well, I've brought my dad's
roller-skates in. Oh, wow!

They're looking a bit
sorry for themselves, I'm afraid.

I have never seen roller-skates
like this before. How old are they?

He used them in the mid-'30s,
but I'm fairly sure,

cos they were quite poor, that he
would have got these second-hand,

so I think they could well be
older than that.

They're looking a bit...

Well, I don't want to use the word,
really, but tatty. Tired.

Tired, sorry! Tired.

So, what was your father's name?
Dennis. Dennis.

He lived around the West Ham area,
Forest Gate.

How did he get
involved in roller-skating?

Well, Forest Gate had quite
a well-known skating rink.

It was known as, I think,
England's premier skating rink.

Oh, is that right? Yeah. Oh, OK.

He must have been pretty good
because he had the club kit... OK.

..and he also won a silver tea set.
Really? Yeah, for skating.

So my understanding of my dad's
childhood and his youth

was that it was actually very tough,
not much joy in it at all. OK.

He was quite close to his dad
and unfortunately, his dad died

when he was 14... Oh, my word! ..as
a result of a motorcycle crash.

And also, the toughness of the East
End and growing up in that era...

Mm. I just... Sorry.

Um...

It's just that these
represent one of the few

moments of joy that he had, really.

You were close to your dad? Yeah, I
was. Yeah. He was in the RAF. OK.

So stationed up in Blackpool. Did he
continue to skate during that time?

Yes. He went along to the local
ice rink in Blackpool

and that's where my mum
and dad got together and... Really?

..started dancing,
ice dancing together, yeah.

These really were
the reason I'm here!

You know, these skates led on
to ice skating, led on to him

meeting my mum... Yeah.
..and without that meeting... Yeah.

..my brother
and I wouldn't have been here.

So, what exactly is wrong with them?
What would you like me to do?

The wheels, I think,
on both still work... Yeah.

..but I don't know
if this is wear damage or

if it's just rotting damage.
OK. Yeah.

But my fear is that they're just
going to deteriorate, really,

so if in some way they could be
given a future, in terms

of more years to come, and that the
story can carry on down the line...

Yeah. ..that would be lovely,
really.

Well, Julia, thank you
so much for bringing them

in and sharing your story.

It's going to be wonderful
working on them

and we'll be in touch when they're
ready for you. OK, lovely.

Thanks very much, Suzie. All right.
Thank you.

Thanks for doing that.
Take care. Bye. Bye-bye.

In their current condition,
they look sad and I feel sad

when I look at them because I can
see time taking its toll on them

and I don't know how much longer
they can fight back.

With Suzie's help,

I'm hoping they'll be able to fight
back for many years to come.

The leather, you can see, we've
got some big old holes here

and that would have been caused
by the fact that the inside seam

that's joining the two
pieces of leather together had come

apart at some point in its life
and Julia's father continued

using them and it was already weak
and so that leather just...

The fibres broke down.

The other thing that I've noticed
is that the woodworm have been

having a field
day on the wheels here.

So really need to do something
about stabilising this wood,

so it doesn't end up
disintegrating down the road.

I think the first thing I need to
do is try to get these skates off

and they are mounted on this
metal plate here,

so I'm hoping it's straightforward,

but I've never done this before,
so a little bit nervous.

So what I have to do is get this
screwdriver in place...

This is where it gets really
awkward.

I need like three
pairs of hands to do this.

And then, continue taking it off.

So I've got everything on the plate
loosened up and there you have it.

Wow! Look at that!

So, we've got 9R, so they're
size 9 and the right boot.

That's pretty cool.

Yeah, I'm really pleased with that.
So now I've got the one boot apart,

I need to do exactly
the same to the other boot.

Julyan's making
progress on the banjo.

Having filed the frets
to an even height,

he now needs to ensure each one is
perfectly rounded,

so when the string is pressed
against it, the tone is pure.

We start with one
fret on the side first.

And I'm reading the blue marker pen

and you see where you need to
take more off.

So that's one side,

and now the other side with
the opposite side of the file.

And I'm just reading the top of the
fret to see a little thin blue line

right down the middle and I'm just
going to roll that little chap in.

And now, I've got the thin blue line
right down the top and I can just

round the edges
of the fret on each side

and now I'm going to repeat
the procedure to all of the frets.

With all 22 frets in tip-top
condition, Julyan can

turn to the troubling join
between the banjo's neck and body.

So this screw is essentially holding
the neck into its position.

This is not something you would
normally do.

This is like an ad hoc thing,
someone's done to make do,

probably in a rush just to get it
playable.

It's going to come loose in years
to come.

You know, the banjo just will
not be playable.

It needs a proper brace.

While the neck and body are apart,

Julyan uses the opportunity to
dismantle the instrument even

more and clean off decades'
worth of grime.

So I'm using a burnishing cream
with a microfibre cloth,

not too vigorous. Circular motions
or figure of eights.

Burnishing cream's fantastic stuff.

It's used for anything that's
wooden, old, lacquered.

Essentially, it will
take off the haze, the blooms, all

like the little misty marks and dirt
that's accumulated over the years.

And there, that has come up
an absolute treat. Fantastico!

OK, so that's the...

All the hardware put back on
and I'm really happy with the way

that one's gone.

The neck's now going to be
attached to the body.

The importance of these

repairs for the longevity of the
instrument are just imperative.

I mean, without them, it would have
been falling apart in years to come.

That's nice and snug
and now I can put in the end bolt.

Tighten it up.

So now I'm going to
put in the neck brace

and its job...is to set
the neck rigid.

You can just hear it
creaking as well.

WOOD CREAKS

That's a real nice tight join
there at the back.

Let's hope that Ted's legacy
will live on for at least

another 80 years.

All that's left to do now is to put
the strings on and do a test set up.

David Worssom has travelled to the
Barn from Penarth in South Wales,

bringing something that's clocked up
a far bigger mileage,

leaving it in need of antique
restorer Will Kirk's expertise.

Hello. All right? How are we doing?

I'm Jay. I'm David. All right,
David? I'm Will. Hiya, Will. Hi.

Nice to meet you. OK.
So, what have we got in the box?

We've got a salad bowl. A salad
bowl? Yeah. OK, let's have a look.

Oh, my word!

Oh, a wooden salad bowl.
That's a fancy salad bowl!

It is, isn't it? It is a bit!
So tell us about it then, David.

Right, this was presented
to my grandfather in 1899.

1899? 1899. And it actually has...

..a little plaque there.

So it says, "Company Sergeant
Major Worssom..." Right.

"..from the Company of RE."
RE? Royal Engineers. OK.

From Guernsey,
he went to the Boer w*r,

he was over there for the duration
of that. Right, OK.

Came back and retired from the Army
from over 30 years.

So, what did your grandfather
do to get such a...

It's quite elaborate, isn't it?
Yeah, it's a glamorous salad bowl!

Yeah, what did he do, then?

I don't know why it was presented
or anything like that.

Maybe they liked him,
I don't know! I have no idea.

Maybe, Jay, you could give me
a salad bowl one day!

You want a salad...?
Don't give him any ideas!

OK, and then it was handed down
to your father after. Yeah.

What did your father do with it?
Did he use it? Not for salad.

It was on a chest of drawers,
which belonged to my grandfather.

When he came in from work, he'd
come in, take his jacket off, keys,

change, cigarette lighter... Oh!
So I remember the sound of the...

The sound. Yeah. Of it going in.
I always knew when my dad was home,

so I either got out of the house
if I was in trouble, or...

LAUGHTER

Oh, wow!

So how has it got broken like this,
then?

We went to Australia in 1950,
my parents were Ten Pound Poms.

Ten Pound Pom?

Ten Pound Poms. They only had to pay
£10 to travel to Australia.

The Australian government was
subsidising the rest of the fare.

So they paid £10 each to go
and emigrate to Australia? Yeah. OK.

So the bowl came to me in 1972.

I had it, the same, I had it on
the chest of drawers in my house

and then in 2010...

Yeah. ..the bowl
and the chest came back to the UK.

And I noticed this piece
had fallen off it.

It had just come apart and over
time, bits have started falling off.

I've never heard of such
a well-travelled salad bowl

in my life!

You can see where the glue has
failed over time. Yeah.

And this moving from different
countries and everything else,

the wood's going to shrink,
the glue's going to dry out, so...

Was all of this like polished up
bright? It was nice and shiny.

Right. But over the years, you can
see where it's been polished...

Yeah. ..and the silver's gone.
The silver plating's come down.

Yeah. The salad servers are still
quite bright. Yeah. Right.

So, what does the bowl
symbolise to you?

Well, this is something

that connects me
with my grandfather, you know.

I've got a few of his things.
I've got his campaign medals. Right.

And I think because of the family
history of it, I think

it's well worth preserving. Yeah.

So if Will was able to
repair this...

Mm. ..and restore it,
where are you going to put it?

It's going back on the chest
of drawers in a room in the house.

Yeah. Just like Dad...
Just like it was, yeah. OK.

And I would like to hand it on to
my children, you know, once...

..once I don't need it any more.

And, yeah, I'd like it
to stay in the family.

David, thank you for bringing it in.
My pleasure.

Thank you for coming down. Thanks,
Will. Thank you. And good luck!

Thank you. No problem.
You take care. See you soon.

I'm feeling a little anxious
about leaving the salad bowl behind

because it does mean a lot to me.

And it has been with me
for most of my life, so...

The condition of it now is...

Well, it's a bit upsetting really
because of the history of it

and it will be great when hopefully
it's all back together again.

Well, David's salad bowl
is falling to pieces

right in front of my very eyes.

The only thing that was actually
keeping this intact is this

silver fretwork going
round the side.

The main part of this job is I need

to stick all
this wood back together.

It needs to be a perfect circle

because this lovely metal ring needs
to sit nice and circular on the top.

And then, even more so, the actual
bowl that sits in the middle won't

be able to go back in place, so that
needs to be stuck back together.

Once it's dried, I can then give it
a nice wax and finally,

the metalwork. I think I might have
a word with Brenton and see

if Brenton could polish this up.

But, yeah, first things first,
I need to get this metalwork off.

Across the Barn,
Suzie's successfully removed

the metalwork from her project,
the vintage roller-skates.

Now she can start getting
the leather spick and span.

So I'm just going to start cleaning
the uppers of the boots

and the uppers is the top
part of your shoe or your boot.

Uppers and soles and heels,
and you...

..you think about the terms that we
use, like, you know, somebody's not

doing very well financially,

you may have heard the term "they're
down on their uppers" and what that

means is that they actually couldn't
afford to get their heels redone,

so they've actually worn the heels
right down to their uppers.

Once the metalwork's
had a clean-up too,

Suzie can address the woodworm
holes in the wheels.

The first stage is to inject them
with wood hardener.

You can actually see as it's
travelling through the wood, that's

where all these chambers that these
little pesky woodworms have made.

The second stage is filling
the holes with melted wax.

I've found some old, old beeswax
that dries incredibly hard,

but getting it really
liquid like this,

it trickles down into the holes

and plugs up the void that's been
left by the little woodworms

doing their business and then that
helps to strengthen the wheel.

Because it's a similar
colour to the wood,

you almost wouldn't know there
were ever any holes there.

With the woodworm treated,
Suzie can focus on her speciality -

repairing the leather.

There's one area that needs
a lot of attention,

and it is this back seam here
cos see over the years where

the inner seam came apart,

it allowed all of this area
to really crease up and that

broke the fibres of the leather,
so I've got all of this to repair.

The best way to do this is
to put a patch over this,

so I've made a template,
using the other boot

and transferred it to the leather
I'm going to be using here.

All I need to do now is
to cut around it.

So now I've got that cut out,
I just need to prick

mark around it, ready for me
to start sewing onto the boot.

Originally, the boots were
sewn on a sewing machine

and it's incredibly fine stitches,
but very, very well-made boots.

I'm really impressed. So this
has been a pure pleasure to work on.

At Julyan's workbench, the 1930s
banjo is almost ready to fill

the air with the distinctive
sound of bluegrass once again.

But not before it has a shiny
new set of steel strings.

So this is the drone string.

It will be ringing along in tune
with the rest of the strings,

so they'll be playing the main sort
of melody on the four strings and

the fifth string is one they don't
really press on the fret so much.

They actually just leave it ringing
open, so it sort of drones on.

OK, so that's all the strings on.

Just about to tune it up
and we can hand it back to Kipper.

I can't wait to see his face.

HE TIGHTENS STRING AND PLUCKS

For Kipper, the banjo is a memento
of his dear friend and mentor,

Ted, and he's hoping that one day,
the musically gifted

son of another of Ted's friends
will treasure it just as he has.

Today, I've come along to collect my
banjo and I've brought Euan with me.

I have not played it before.

I remember a couple
of New Year's Eves ago that

I was told all about it.

So I'm really looking forward
to get to try it out.

The banjo was barely playable
and there was a big screw holding

the neck to the pot, which I'm
sure wasn't regulation build!

The banjo,
it's been a big part of my life.

I'm looking forward to
hearing Euan play it.

Hey! Here he is.

Hi. How are we doing, Kipper?
Are you all right? Great, thanks.

Who have you got? This is Euan.
All right, mate? Nice to meet you.

How are you doing?
Nice to meet you, Euan.

Nice to meet you, too.
You look proper happy.

I am, yeah. I am so excited!

And, Euan, you play the banjo, then?

Yeah, I've been playing
since I was ten, so ten years now.

Shall we show them?
I think we better had, mate, yeah.

Look at them smiles!
Got to show them something.

Yeah, yeah. We are, yeah.

I'll let you do the honours.
Yeah, OK. Thanks, Jay.

Oh, wow! Wow!
Cor blimey! That's amazing!

Look at that shine!
I can't wait to have a go!

Why don't you have a go?
I haven't heard you play.

They're quite painful at first...

HE PLAYS TUNE

I'm the wrong shape for banjos.

LAUGHTER

HE PLAYS TUNE

Yee-hoo!

Absolutely superb!

Listen to that ring.
Yeah. That is nice.

So that stain up there, is that
because your thumb's always there?

That's your thumb, yeah. And that's
what Ted used to play as well. Yeah.

So there's a little bit
of Ted in there. Exactly.

There's floods of memories going
through my mind.

Bluegrass festivals, muddy fields,
wet tents...

And Ted. Ted laughing.

Just laughs.
Loads of laughs.

Absolute great days. Excellent.
What do you think?

You ready to play, then?
Yeah, definitely.

HE PLAYS TUNE

Yeah!

THEY APPLAUD

Good man!

That's excellent!

It's great to play, though.
It's a really nice sound.

It's just an absolute pleasure
to hear it

played by someone as good
as yourself.

Thank you. I don't think we should
wait for me to drop off me twig.

I think you should take it away
with you now, mate.

Off to uni. Oh, bless!
Well done! Thank you very much.

Good on you. There we are, then.

Let's let you get on your way.

Yeah. Ted's bit of foam.

I think he took
that off the back of the settee

and his wife Dee said,
"What's happened to this settee?"

"I've just cut a bit of foam out!"
And it's just like... That's Ted!

Thank you. Thank YOU.

And thank you, sir!
All right? Brilliant!

It's yours now, lad.

Enjoy. I will do. Cheers. Take care.
Bye, guys. See you. Bye-bye.

Bless 'em. He was made up.
Well done, man!

That was lovely.
Thank you very much.

Well done.
It was...a pleasure to do.

It's absolutely superb! It looks
a million dollars, it really does.

You can tell instantly
when you play a good banjo.

It just sustains the notes,
it's bright, clear.

It just feels completely different
to play and, yeah,

it just makes a great sound and...
Yeah. He did well.

Ted is in that banjo and when I pick
it up, I just remember him

instantly, all the times
we had together, all the laughs,

sat in his back garden
on a summer's day.

It just means so much and I know
for a fact he'll be sat up there,

looking down on us now.

Won't he?

Work to restore the antique
salad bowl is under way,

with silversmith Brenton West
lending his expertise,

plus elbow grease and polish,
to revive the silver-plated parts.

Under no circumstances should
you polish silver-plated stuff

with brass polish
because it's far too aggressive

and you end up with things that
look like that, that's the problem.

You'll end up with half silver,
half brass.

Going to get these shiny

and then I'm going to use
a silver-plating solution.

Nearby, Will's devised a plan

for dealing with the fragmented
wooden parts.

I think it should be easier for me

to glue this back in
sort of two sections.

One being glueing the base
back together,

so I've got one nice platform,

and then the second section will
be to glue the sides back on.

I need to make sure that the two
surfaces I'm sticking back together

are completely clean from any old
glue to ensure a really nice,

strong bond
when I glue this back together.

So I have a bit of wood here with
some sandpaper glued on to the top.

That's nice and flat

and that means that
I can then simply

peel off the residue of the
old glue and sand it like that

and that means that that surface
will stay nice and flat now,

so when everything's
glued back together,

everything should
marry up perfectly.

OK, so that is now nice and shiny

and I'm going to apply
the silver-plating solution.

The bottle has a clever chemical
with silver in it

and it makes silver actually
adhere to the plate,

so the silver becomes
part of the brass.

So all I've got to do is polish up
these other five parts

and I can give them back to Will.

That looks like a bit
of a jigsaw puzzle.

Yes. I've got your re-silvered...
Look at that! ..polished bits. Ooh!

You can see all the detail now.

You can actually see what it says.
See the engraving.

Once I've glued this together,
wax it up, and that goes on there...

That's going to look great.
..it's going to look fantastic.

I can't wait to see it. Lovely.
Well, thanks for your help, mate.

OK, no problem. Cheers.

Will now needs to reassemble
the bowl

so the silver can be attached to it.

Glueing the base is the easy part.

That all seems to fit. Now, I need
to start sticking the sides back on.

You can see here
there's this white residue

and that is from the cleaning
solution that would have been

used to clean up the silver band
that goes round the outside.

I can kind of use that
to my advantage before I clean

it off because if I can find two
pieces of wood that go together, and

you can see that the residue
matches up, that will

then show that they are meant
to be together.

That looks
and feels like a really good match.

So, I'll number the bits of wood,
so I know what goes where.

And then I can to do the same thing

and work my way around
until everything fits nice and snug.

That all seems to fit really nicely.

I'm going to take it all apart now,
get some glue in there,

put it to one side
and leave it to dry.

And there goes the final piece.

I'll put some tape round the edges,
put it to one side to dry.

Suzie has reached the final stages
of repairing the leather

on the 1930s roller-skates,
which brought fun into a tough life.

Really happy with how this is all
coming together.

I think, once this is in place,

it's going to be pretty hard to see
that it was ever damaged.

So that's the sewing done.

All I need to do now
is tidy up the boots

and they're going to be ready to
be mounted back on to the skates.

The wheels of the skates were
riddled with woodworm

and the leather badly damaged.

Now Julia's back at the Barn,
hoping Suzie managed to roll back

the years on what were her late
father's pride and joy.

You could see just utter happiness
on his face, like a teenager

should have, you know, just out
there having fun with his friends.

I'm starting to get an image of him
racing round the rink already!

And I'm hoping that's what
the skates will look like,

ready for action.

Stop it! Hi.
Hi, Julia. Hello.

Hello. Great to see you again.
I'm Dom. Lovely to see you, Julia.

How are you?
Er, I'm good. I'm excited.

A bit giggly excited!

LAUGHTER

So, shall we let you see them?

Yes, please!
Come on, let's do it. OK. Yeah.

Oh, goodness!

I'll just have a look...

Amazing! These are amazing!

Sorry. No, you're OK.

As I touch them,
I can kind of feel him. Aw!

I can just imagine my dad racing
down to the roller-skating rink

in Forest Gate to be
with his skating mates.

There were very few times when I saw
him really 100% joyful and happy.

Aw...

And to have this part of his life
back through the skating boots,

it's just wonderful for me.

Was this...? Was it the right one
that had the big hole in it?

Perfect! Absolutely perfect!

And you can see the sort
of stitching down here now... Yes.

..which I couldn't see before. Yeah.
It's amazing. Yeah.

He would be absolutely thrilled to
see them like this. He really would.

So, what's the plan now?
What are you going to do with them?

I'm going to hang on to them!
They're going to be yours for a bit.

I'm going to hang on to them
for a little bit, yeah,

and then they'll go to my nephew
and then for his son.

Brilliant. Thank you so much, Suzie.
I can't thank you enough.

Thank you, Julia.

It's been really fun working
on something that not only is

so well made, but the meaning behind
these boots, it's just incredible.

I just can't stop smiling.
Yours to take home now.

Thank you very much. Enjoy them.

I will! Take care. See you. Bye-bye.
Bye. Thank you so much.

Aw, that was nice.
Well done, Suze. Oh! Really good.

The roller-skates,

the beautiful, beautiful
roller-skates will eventually

pass on to my great-nephew Teddy.

He's just five at the moment,

so I will hang on to them
for a little while.

I am a little bit tempted to see
if I can put one on my foot.

Whether I actually try the skating
or not is a different matter!

But I might!

At Will's workbench, the elaborate
salad bowl is starting to

look more like it
did in its heyday in 1899.

It's nice and smooth.

There are no big gaps between the
pieces of wood, which is great.

So I'm going to put on a really thin
coat of shellac polish

to the surface

and that will help enhance the grain
and add some extra protection.

Lovely.

The polish has really brought
out the grain in the oak.

And the silver just gives it
a bit more class.

It looks really nice.

Final thing I need to do is
to put the bowl back in.

Hopefully, it fits.

Fits like a glove!

The bowl was presented to David's
grandfather and later used

every day by his father before its
global travels took their toll.

Now, David has returned.

How are we doing, David?

You all right? Hi, Jay.
OK? How are you?

Hi, Will. Nice to have you back.
Very good. Nice to see you both.

So, how are you feeling about this?
Er... Excited. Yeah? Yes, I am.

What are you hoping to see, then?

I'm hoping to see a salad
bowl in one piece!

Cos when you brought it in,
it was... Quite a few pieces.

It was falling apart, wasn't it?

Yeah,
it was falling apart as we spoke.

Well, it's not your average salad
bowl, I'll you that for sure. Mm.

Are you going to show him?
Yeah? Yeah. Are you ready to see?

Yes, I am. OK.

Oh, wow!

That is amazing. That really is.

Gosh! It just looks
like the bowl in the photograph.

Oh... No, that is good.
I'm really pleased. Pleased?

Very, very pleased!
You can touch it. Yeah, yeah.

Oh, I'm shaking here!

Oh!
Bless you! That is wonderful! Yeah.

So where does that take you back,
then?

Takes me back to
when my father came in from work

and to bring back the memories,
there's only one thing I need to do.

What's that? Jay, you got any
spare change in your pocket?

Jay? Spare change?!

You must be joking! I've always got
spare change! Here you go.

How much do you want?
A few bits and pieces.

You want a few bits and pieces.
Yeah, there we are. So, this is it.

COINS RATTLE

Oh, that's the sound.

That was the sound I heard.

I heard that regularly.
I knew he was home.

It's quite nice to see
the memories coming back. Yeah.

And to see change
and your keys in there as well.

Thank you very much.

So, what we'll do, David,
we'll get it all boxed up for you

and you can take it home.

That's terrific.
Is that all right? Yes.

Top.

And that's back over to you.
Oh, thank you very much! OK.

Thank you very much. Bye for now.
Bye-bye. Bye-bye.

Well done, you, man!
That was a nice one.

Will has done a wonderful job.
I couldn't be happier.

Putting the keys and the coins in
and the sound it made really

reminded me of my father.
It was just a reassuring sound.

Join us next time, as the Barn's
experts...

Oh, that's great now!

That's working beautifully.

..restore family treasures...

Oh, my God! It's beautiful!

..in the Repair Shop.