Tips, Tips and More Tips from December 2010

If you want to use your old sled, yet keep it in the best possible condition as a collectible, coat it with liquid furniture wax, then buff it. A few days later, coat it with paste furniture wax. Even the metal can be waxed after you remove any rust—and the waxing should make the sled slide even faster.

Try cleaning celluloid with a paste of vinegar and flour. Rub, rinse, dry.

Antique rugs sometimes get dry rot in the cotton backing. It’s an airborne fungus that lives on fibers. The rug will have weak, brittle fibers.