I got the entry door on, and some propane stuff worked. Will get that all posted up soon. But today is a Finishing thing.
Any camper restoration really needs to include its gear. Camping stuff you know? Like my Dad's old Red Coleman single mantle gas lantern. I just HAVE to find someplace to store it and take along. Yeah, I could use the double mantle larger green one he gave me when I was a kid, but "Little Red" is too cool.
Then there was the flashlight I mentioned a few days ago, a 3 D Cell Mag-Light that can be used as a weapon too? When was the last time you wacked an intruder up side the head with a smart phone flashlight?
Other camp tools that are necessary, like camp knifes, which means both a folder and a non-folder. In addition, you just HAVE to have a shovel and an axe!
At the second hand store the other day, I came across another army shovel for $5! I used my Dad's army shovel as a kid, like the Tasmanian Devil might use his natural ability, to get weeds out of those various places in the yard Mom would assign me. I was so good at weed removal (compared to the sisters) that Mom took me off dish washing duty during summers.
That shovel got lost somewhere along the way, probably sold with one of my vehicles, because I was the only one who ever used the shovel, even up into my teens and maybe twenties.
Years later, when the kids turned 4 and 5, we sold our first canned-ham and bought back-packing gear with the proceeds. That's when I got my current army shovel (the one with the U.S. Army imprint below). Now I've got two.
The first shovel, and the axe have been living in the Willys Jeep.
In the past, DS used somebody's Wetterlings axe and fell in love with it. He bought two, one for me, and one for him. He got me this mid size "Outdoor" axe.
Now that I have a logical place for it and one shovel (in Lil' Queeny), I can get the other little hatchet I used to carry in the Jeep, along with the second shovel, back into the Jeep. Then you don't have to be transferring all the time.
I used WD-40 and steel wool to clean and lube things up, then sanded the shovel handles, and rubbed in some new tongue oil (boiled linseed oil), which if you don't use it - you should. Not only does it weather up your wooden handles, but it hardens somewhat, in the grooves and pits and around the splinters, turning the handles into smooth, stronger than original, good gripping tools!
Then I put some fresh edges on the shovels at the bench grinder, and on the axes with a file and stone. Then a knocked off the flesh tearing edges on the shovel, and stowed the stuff away.
