Posted 9 years ago
AliceandCl…
(31 items)
This is a shoe shine kit that I was gifted. From what I was told, there was a time when high school shop classes had boys make these as projects. The family belief is that their grandfather may have made it in the 1940's. I would love to know more if anyone thinks this is correct information. It looks better made than any high school student I know today would make, so I'm doubtful of that myth.
I would venture to agree with the story you tell behind this. I would say either in shop class or home made. My reason for my opinion is because it is to crude to be a commercial item. By that I mean look at the shoe rest and the board directly under it. Both show vertical saw marks. If this was commercially made those marks would have been sanded out so they didn't show. When I took shop 60 years ago they gave us different prints for items we could make. None of the items required a large amount of wood because of budget. This is a basic item with very minimal amount of wood required.
Thank you @fhrjr2! That makes this a really interesting piece for me then. And I think the student did a super job. What a nice project for high school. So much better than the ash trays we made in the 60's in art class.