11x38 - A bent brass key ring, a clockwork toy turkey & a signet ring

[bunniefuu]

In The Repair Shop today...

- What a handsome-looking turkey!

- ..tiny treasures requiring nerves of
steel...

- I'm very scared cos one punch out of
place will ruin this key ring.

- ..and the patience of a saint.

- It's always the tortoise wins the
race.

Good morning.
- Hello!

- First in the barn today, Neil
Mabberley from Stafford.

He's hoping silversmith Brenton West
can work his expertise

on a cherished family keepsake.

- Hi.
- Hello there.
- Hello there.
- Welcome.

What have you brought in for us?

- So, I've brought in a key ring that
my father made for me.

It doesn't seem much, it's not a huge
item,

but he engraved it for me himself.

- That's so sweet.

- My father's name was William, but
everyone called him Bill.

- When did he give it to you? How old
were you?
- Four or five years old.

My father had many roles. He put his
hand to everything.

But years ago, when he made this,

he'd taken up a temporary role in a
shoe repair shop,

so he did this on a break time.
- Oh, right.

- I think, basically, he just found an
old piece of brass

and thought it'd be a good idea to
engrave my name on to it.

- What does it say on it?

- We've got inscriptions on both sides
in his handwriting.

"Neil", obviously, for my name.

My nickname when I was growing up
which was "Mabbo".

And on the back, he wrote the words
"no fear".

He always tried to instil in us,

"Have no fear about being you and, you
know, just go for it."

And over the years, the engraving's
starting to wear away.

- You can just see a bit of it.
- Can I have a look?
- Of course, yes.

- There, if you catch it in the light,
you can just see it.

- Oh, it's nice. You can literally see
the little flick on the L.

- Believe it or not, his handwriting
sums up him,

if you know what I mean.

He was always capital letters,
whatever he wrote.
- Yeah.

- It just showed that he was...

You know, his writing was huge, he was
big and bold.

He had big hands, big feet.

He was, you know, fun and games and
play,

a larger-than-life character.

As soon as I look at that and that
handwriting,

it brings me back to his face, his
smile, his laugh.

He, um, was diagnosed with stomach
cancer.

- Oh.

- Um, 2018, he passed away and it's
been...

..a long time to try and put it behind
me.

- Yeah.

- And I think when he passed away,

one of the biggest regrets I had...

..was that life got in the way.

So...all the time that I'd be driving
home from work

and he'd try and call,

and I'd think, "I've had a busy day,
I'll ring you tomorrow."

- HE CLEARS THROAT

- I wish I'd answered all of them.

- That makes this key ring all the
more special.
- Yeah.

Whenever I look at that handwriting, I
can remember him.

And I can remember the way he was.

And I think, um, if I can preserve
this,

this'll give me something to look at,
something to remember.

He probably paid no attention to when
he was making that

and the effect that it has years
later.
- Yeah.

- Parents do that to us.
- Yeah.
- Hmm.
- Definitely.

- So, what are you hoping Brenton is
able to do?

- Well, if you notice on the end, it's
bent and damaged.

I looked at a number of places, trying
to see about repairing it,

and they said, "We'll polish it up for
you,

"but we will lose his handwriting.

"We'll just engrave it with the same
words."

- Oh...
- It's the handwriting I need.

- We're going to have to be really
careful.
- It's a special thing.

- Yeah, cos that's actually his touch,
isn't it?
- That's it.
- Yeah.

- I've just had a four-month-old baby
called Billy.
- Oh, congratulations.

- Named after my father, so when I get
old,

I'll hand it down to Billy.

- Thank you for trusting us with it. I
know it's a special thing to you.

- Brilliant. Thank you. Thanks.

- Bye-bye.

That engraving is so faint, isn't it?
- I've got to be so careful.

- Well, good luck.
- Thanks.
- You'll be all right.

- Neil's key ring appears to be just a
piece of brass,

but it's far more than that.

He said his dad's handwriting was the
most important thing

cos it's the tangible link to his dad.

Anybody could write this writing again
on here

with a different font.

That won't be his dad's writing.

Once you look at the complexity of
these letters

made up with fine little dots,

you realise how hard it is to actually
replicate that.

And that's going to be my most
difficult task.

I don't want to make any marks in the
wrong place

and I need to be so accurate or I'm
going to spoil this key ring.

So, I need to redo the engraving,

straighten the bent end.

I need to make some sort of device for
displaying it,

so Neil can see it on his desk or on
his mantelpiece

or wherever he wants to keep it,

and remove it to hold it if he wants
to,

but the first thing I've got to do is
to take this chain off,

so that I can work on the plate
without it being in the way.

- Next to arrive, sisters Lynn Timmons
and Gail Rorie

are hoping clockmaker Steve Fletcher
can revive a treasured toy.

- Hello.
- Hello.
- Hi there.

- There we go.
- What's inside this lovely box?

- It is a clockwork turkey.

- Well, this is a first, Steve.

- LAUGHTER

- It belongs to our mother, Helen.

This was a toy from her childhood.

- It was something that she really
treasured

and she would mention it quite a lot,

so we've always known about this
turkey.

- What a cool toy to have as a child!
- Yeah.
- Yeah.

- She had a love of animals, growing
up on a farm.

So, it was a dairy farm predominantly

in Northern Ireland, just outside
Downpatrick.

But apparently, at Christmas-time,
they kept turkeys

and it was extra money for them.

There's a few photos we have of them

sitting with a field of turkeys behind
them.

My mum, she'd always talked about this
turkey

as being one of these pride-and-joy
toys.

I think, sort of growing up, sort of
times could be quite tough,

sometimes a hand-to-mouth existence on
farms.

Any possession was quite treasured.

And when she sort of moved over to
Scotland, um...

she wasn't on a farm any more,

so it's a kind of direct link to her
rural roots as such.

It only recently came back into our
possession. We thought it lost.

My mum's 75th birthday,

I was looking for photos of Mum's
childhood...
- Yeah.

- ..so, um, my aunt sent over a big
box of photos

and in the box was the turkey.

- The turkey.

- She was really delighted when it
turned up.

She was really touched that it had
come all the way back from Ireland

and it gave her some joy.

- After how long?

- Oh, years.

Since the '70s, I would say.
- Really?
- Yeah.

A long time.
- That's great, isn't it?

- She turned 75 last March and then
she passed away in the October.

- I'm sorry to hear that.

- So, she didn't have long being
reunited with it,

but long enough, I suppose.

- Mm-hm.

- What's this supposed to do?

- Apparently, it used to be able to
walk

and as it walked, its tail would go up
and down.

- Is there a wind-up mechanism?
- Yeah, it's clockwork, yeah.

- Have you ever seen it working?

- No.
- Never.
- No.

We would love it to be able to walk
along with its tail fanning,

as it did when my mum played with it.

A wee key to make sure it can go
again.

- Lynn has two children, Logan and
Erin,

and I have a daughter, Imogen.

And it would be wonderful to see it
repaired,

to see it walking, to see the joy in
our children's faces.

And I think it would really keep

the memory of our mother alive as
well.

- Yeah. I so want to get inside and
see the mechanics

and just see what's wrong with it.

I hope that I can get it working as it
was working.

- That'd be great.
- It's in safe hands.

- Thank you so much.
- Thank you.
- We'll see you very soon.
- Goodbye.
- Bye.

- Bye-bye.
- Bye-bye now.

- What a handsome-looking turkey!

- RATTLING

- It sounds like there's a few loose
pieces in there, Steve.

- It does, but...

..I'm quite optimistic.

I absolutely love these toys.

They look quite simple things, but I
know they're not.

So, the first thing I'm going to do is
take it apart

and see just how much repair work I've
got to do to the mechanism.

I'm just going to really, really
carefully ease these tabs,

really, really gently,

so, hopefully, they're not going to
break off.

So, the first thing I can see is
there's a loose wheel

and that is what was rattling inside,

so I'm pretty sure that this wheel
goes just there.

And this is the wheel that actually
makes the tail go up and down

and fan out as well.

And the mainspring is actually broken.

I can see the end here that's broken
off.

When it's wound up, it holds all the
power

that actually drives the turkey along

and makes the tail go up and down,
etc.

Sometimes when a mainspring breaks,

the jolt can actually break teeth,

um, or bend teeth quite badly.

So, I'm going to try and find another
mainspring to go in there.

I'm just going to set to and take the
whole thing apart,

so I can clean it the best I can, get
the mechanism apart,

and then I can see what the problem is
inside.

- At his workbench,

Brenton is tackling the next part of
the key ring's repair,

straightening out the brass.

- I'm just going to put some tape on
my engineer's block

and this is a dead-flat, steel block.

And what the tape will do

is it will stop the brass getting
scratched,

but it'll also give a little bit of
give to the brass when I hit it.

I've got a soft-faced hammer.

And I need to hit the raised parts
down.

This brass is... actually quite
strong.

There's a tiny bit in that corner
still.

But that dent's come out of that quite
nicely.

It's as flat as it's going to be. It's
got some stories to tell.

These marks are part of its wear and
tear.

I've had a good think about how I'm
going to restore the engraving.

The way it was engraved was with an
oscillating engraver

which is, um, a sharp point vibrated
very quickly

with a little electric motor.

Now, if I got an oscillating engraver
and tried to follow,

it's like trying to sign a signature

over someone else's signature.

You can't do it the same.

So, what I'm going to do is punch
individual dents

in exactly the point where the dents
are in Neil's key ring.

It's a bit of a daunting task

because there's hundreds and hundreds
of little dents there,

so I'm going to have a practice on
some spare brass.

I hope this is going to work.

Goggles on because I can't see with
ordinary glasses.

And I've sharpened my punch to the
correct point.

And I'm just hitting the sort of
hardness I think I need to hit

to make that mark,

so that you can see the writing really
clearly,

but not distort this piece of metal.

I need to be able to be consistent

before I try following Bill's lines.

I've had a practice go.

And now is the time, I think, to have
a go on the real thing.

I'm very scared cos one punch out of
place will ruin this key ring.

I'm really going to have to
concentrate

and use Bill's adage, "no fear".

- The last visitor to arrive at the
barn

is Christine Price from Derbyshire

with a keepsake that is set to
challenge jeweller Richard Talman.

- Hi!

- Hello!
- Welcome to the barn.

What have you brought in? It looks
like a piece of jewellery.
- It is.

- Richard, this is one for you.

- THEY LAUGH

- Hello there.
- Hello.
- What do you have for us?

- It's a signet ring.
- OK.

- Is it? Goodness me!

- It belonged to my father, Philip.

My mother Ethel bought it for him for
their engagement

and then he had an accident at work.

He was a cabinet-maker

and he got his arm caught in one of
the machines...

- Oh, no.
- ..so the hospital had to cut the
ring off.

And it actually says, "Philip, love
Ethel."

And it's 1949.

- Do you know the story, how they
first met?
- I do, yes.

So, Dad started work at 15

and my mum actually joined the same
company,

and that's how they met.

They got engaged, they got married,

and a couple of years later, they had
my eldest brother Peter,

then my next brother David.

And then I came about nine years after
David,

and I was a mistake, apparently.

- Oh, don't!
- Seriously, seriously, I was a
mistake.

- You're the youngest child, then.
- I'm the youngest.

And Daddy's girl, of course.
- Of course.

- My mum and dad, they celebrated 71
years of marriage.

- 71 years.
- Fantastic.

- It was magical. Even, um, when they
were both...

Near the end, they both went into a
nursing home

and the ambulance came to pick them
up.

We followed in the car behind and when
we got there,

the ambulance lady came to me and she
said,

"Your mum and dad held hands the whole
way..."

- Aw!
- "..on the journey." And that's how
they were.

- Even after 71 years.
- 71 years.
- Amazing.

- So, you've got quite a few pieces
there. Can I have a look?
- Yes.

- When was this accident? Do you
remember?
- 1951.

- Really?
- So, it only lasted two years.

- We didn't know it existed.

Basically, what happened, my father
passed away last year

and my mum then passed away three
months later,

so then we were clearing out the
bungalow

and that's when I found this.

It was...it was meant to be

because my dad was PM, Philip Morse,

and it's inscribed on the front.

And it'll go to my elder brother,
Peter Morse.

And my brother Peter has recently been
diagnosed with Parkinson's.

- Oh, I'm sorry.

- So, he's had quite a rough time of
it, losing Mum and Dad,

and then to have this diagnosis,

so I just want to have a bit of a
get-together, a party,

and that's when we're going to present
it to him.
- That's so sweet.

- If I'm able to repair this,

we've got to make it to the correct
finger size...

- Yes.
- ..for your brother Peter.

- Yes, I can tell you that it's P.

And it just really wants to be brought
back to life.

- Yeah.
- It needs to be polished, look
shiny...

- Oh, you want it nice and shiny as
well?
- Please.

- Like it did when your dad first got
given it.

- Yeah.
- Christine, thank you so much. It's
been a pleasure meeting you.

- Thank you.
- See you later.
- Bye.

I've got a few pieces to work on
there, haven't I?

- Good luck.
- Thank you very much, Dom. I'm going
to need it.

I'm just taking a closer look at
Christine's dad's ring

and the first thing that really jumps
out to me

is just how gorgeous the engraving is
on the underside of the head.

And I'm going to have to make sure,
when I apply heat to this later,

that nothing fades on that

because it would be such a shame to
lose such beauty.

To get this ring back to how it was,
what I've got to do

is reconstruct the entire back portion
of the ring.

This is the part we call a shank

and this process is going to be called
half-shanking.

And it's where you just remove the
metal,

melt it down and replace the whole
back part.

So, I've got one of the pieces that's
been given

that is without a doubt the portion
that goes on the left-hand side.

Now, Christine did give me at the same
time this other piece,

but I can say with absolute confidence

that this would never have been part
of this original ring.

Um, two reasons for that.

One, the dimensions are slightly
wrong,

and two, there's actually a hallmark

on this side of the portion and also
on this side.

Now, it's against UK hallmark
regulations

to have two hallmarks in any one ring,

so I think I can safely say

that these two pieces are completely
different rings.

That being said, they were found in
the jewellery box,

so it's going to have meant something
to Christine's mother.

I think it will be very worthwhile

to use this in the repair of her dad's
signet ring.

And fortunately, they are definitely
nine-carat gold,

so because all of these pieces are the
same,

I'm going to be able to melt these
down

in order to create that half-shank,

but I am going to have to add just a
bit more

to ensure that I've got enough to make
this repair complete.

Now, in order to get the best repair
on this ring,

I'm going to need to have these two
sides here

with complete 90-degree flats,

so the first thing I'm going to need
to do

is just saw this little bit flat and
clean up both sides.

- I've got that fabric you was after.
- Perfect.
- Is that all right?

- Now that Steve has dismantled the
tin turkey,

he's keen to bring the shake back into
the tail feathers.

- I've cleaned this half of the turkey
up

and I'm quite pleased with the way
it's looking now.

The one thing that I am worried about
is the tail.

It does work to a degree, but it's
really quite tough

and I think that the mechanics are not
going to drive this at all

because it's so rough.

It's been played with so much that...

You can see it was a favourite toy.

I'm just going to try and clean it the
best I can

and the parts that actually rub on
each other,

I'm going to take off the little bits
of rust.

So, I'm using a microcrystalline wax

and as well as cleaning off all of the
dirt

and the rusty surface,

it also leaves a little layer on there

which will help lubricate it

to allow it to work really smoothly.

I'm using the point of the c*ck
stick as well,

just to get right into the corner
there

and actually it's cleaning up really
well.

When I first started repairing this
turkey,

I didn't think the mechanism was going
to be so worn.

The wheels are quite rough

and I've just started off

by putting a couple of the wheels that
run together

and seeing how smooth they actually
work and...

..it's actually binding up.

And it's to do with worn teeth.

This wheel...is really very, very
badly worn.

So, there's no way that the turkey
would work,

using these as they are now,

so I'll just see if I can reshape some
of the teeth.

I'm just going to use a scalpel

and gently scrape away the metal

to try and sculpt a better shape.

And once I've done this, I'll go on to
the next wheel

and make sure that works nice and
smoothly

through to the end of the mechanism.

And once I've done it all, I can put
the new mainspring in

and hopefully, the whole thing is
going to work beautifully smoothly.

- With the intricate work of engraving
complete...

- This looks really good. I followed
Bill's handwriting to the dot.

- ..Brenton's eye for detail continues
in the final stage of his repair.

- So, this is a brass polish I'm using

and immediately I can see it

shining this lovely piece of brass up.

And the polish is actually making the
writing stand out

which is what I hoped would happen.

This is going to be really good.

Yes, that's great, absolutely
fantastic.

When Neil sees his name and the family
motto on the back,

I'm hoping that he hands that motto
down to his son, little Billy,

and, er, he can tell him the stories
of his grandfather.

- With the brass key ring and his
dad's handwriting preserved,

Neil's back to collect the special
family treasure.

- Neil...
- Hello.

- Hello. Are you all right?
- Yeah.
- Welcome back.

How have you been?
- Excited, nervous.

Just cos it means so much to me, it's
such a great deal.

I think, especially the concerns over
the handwriting as well,

to be able to preserve that and
protect it going forward,

I'm really, um, you know, excitedly
nervous.

- Well, not for much longer.
- Yeah.

- I hope you like what we've done with
it.
- Yeah, brilliant.

- HE BREATHES DEEPLY

- Do you mind if I have a look?
- Absolutely.
- Wow!

I'm shaking.

Oh, wow!

It's so clear. You've been able to
capture it perfectly.

And the writing is so bold.

- It's still your dad's handwriting.
- Yeah.

Oh!
- What's going through your head?

- Um...

Just the person he was, I think.

Seeing the writing again,

obviously gives me an idea of that
big, bold character.

I can't believe it. It's absolutely
brilliant.

And the stand is just...

That's perfect. Thank you so much. I
can't thank you enough.

- It's a pleasure. I know what it
means to you.
- Yeah.

- Where are you going to put this now?

- Mantelpiece, to be honest, I think.
Fireplace, yes.

- You'll be looking at it every day.
You'll see it.

- I can't thank you enough. It means a
lot, a hell of a lot.

- I know it does.
- Yeah.
- I know it does.

- It almost feels like this is sort of
a culmination

of me being able to say...

Sorry.

..me being able to say goodbye to him,

but to remember him in the way that he
was.

- Yeah. I can't wait for you to get it
home,

get it on that mantelpiece.

- And enjoy it.
- Yes.

- Brilliant. Thank you ever so much.

I really appreciate it.
- Thank you.
- Bye-bye.
- Thank you. Bye-bye.

I get quite upset when I think about
the fact

that my father's not here with us any
more.

To be able to see his handwriting,

it's almost as if Brenton's given me a
part of my father back.

So, to be able to hand that to Billy
and explain to him

what his grandad was like,

it's amazing. I'm so pleased with it.

- Good morning, Will.
- Good morning, Chris.

- Goldsmith Richard Talman is coming
up with a plan

to make Christine's dad's signet ring
whole again.

- So, in order to make sure

that all of the metal that has been
supplied to me by Christine

is going back into the ring,

these pieces are melted up with some
more metal

to get the exact amount I want.

Now, the next part is to estimate just
how much metal I need to use

to make the half-shank.

So, I'm just going to take the head of
the ring

that we've got, put it on the scales

and that measures 3.1 grams,

so the back of the band is probably
going to be about half that weight,

so just to allow us a bit of extra,

I'm going to need two grams, I think,
to carry out this repair.

I'm now just placing on the pieces
that were given to me by Christine.



so I'm going to need to add the same
amount again

in order to get the rest of the
structure.

All the gold that I buy today is
recycled gold.

It's where people scrap all their old,
unused jewellery.

It gets refined, re-alloyed

and then gets sold back as fresh
bullion to use.

Now, in the interests of environmental
purposes,

what's better than recycling is
actually reusing.

I've got this old piece of a
nine-carat rose gold locket.

So, this is just a piece of excess
gold which is unwanted

and I'm going to cut a portion of this
off,

melt it back together with this ring,

then I'm going to make the rest of the
half-shank.

I'm guessing I'm going to need...
about this much.

It's really, really rewarding

to be able to take an old piece of
unwanted gold

which would just have been disposed of

and actually fashion it into something
new.

This is the part I'm most nervous
about.



So, I've got all of the pieces of gold
that Christine gave me,

plus my little added piece.

Now it's time to melt this down.

I'm now going to melt this down in a
ceramic crucible

and we're going to pour it into a
skillet.

This is going to allow me to get a
very small nugget of gold

which is then going to hopefully fit
perfectly into the rollers

and allow me to manipulate the shape I
want.

In order to get this pouring
correctly,

I need a very, very, very high
temperature,

so I'm going to be using oxy propane

with a very, very precise blue flame.

Very carefully...

..adjust the gas and the oxygen mix.

So, this oxygen and propane flame is
reaching temperatures

of almost 3,000 degrees,

so it's not going to take long

before all of these pieces of gold
ball up together.

So, I'm just going to take the flame
off,

put a little bit of borax on to it.

Borax is like an acid. It cleans the
gold.

It makes sure that when I pour that
into the skillet,

it's as clean as possible

which is going to prevent any cracks.

There's the freshly poured bit of
gold.

It's pretty black at the moment from
the oxidisation,

but as soon as I drop it into the
acid,

that will clean off all the
oxidisation

and the rest of the flux,

and that's going to be ready for me to
put through to the mills.

- INAUDIBLE CONVERSATION

- So, from the very small, square
nugget,

I've compressed this to the exact same
dimensions

as the ring is

at these points here and here.

So, the plan now is to make that metal
into a C-shape,

but first, I need to do a process,
what's called annealing

and that's whereby I heat this piece
of metal to a cherry temperature.

It relaxes all the molecules in the
metal

and it allows it to be malleable
enough for me to bend it.

OK.

And...into some water to cool it down.

And now that bends a lot more easy,

and that's going to enable me to get
the perfect curvature on it.

Christine has intended that, once this
ring is repaired,

to give it to her brother Peter.

It's really important, therefore,

that I make sure that this fits him
perfectly, so...

..I'm now just tapping this piece of
metal around a mandrel.

It's a matter of pulling the ring
tight

to the point whereby it's his finger
size

and just giving it a bit of a tap.

And there you go.

And once that's soldered, it'll be
just a case of filing it up

and making it look like a ring again.

I'm really looking forward to showing
this to Christine.

- On his bench, Steve's intricate work

to clean the mainspring of the
clockwork turkey

seems to have paid off.

- I managed to find a key from my
spares.

It's actually a key from an old toy,
as well,

which is quite nice,

and it fits lovely and snug.

I just need to pop on the other leg
now...

..and make sure I get the foot round
the right way.

Now that I've got the mechanism
working,

the feet are walking,

the tail feathers are going up and
down and spreading out correctly,

I just need to get the body on.

Once the body's on, I'm really hoping
it's going to walk properly

and do everything it's supposed to do.

I completely understand why Gail and
Lynn want their children

to experience playing with it,

and also they can then talk together
about Helen

and the times that she had on the farm

and it just keeps that memory alive.

- It looks nice and clean now, doesn't
it?
- Yeah, it is, yeah.

It's come up really well and the
paintwork is all original.

I haven't touched anything up at all.

- What, you've just cleaned it and
that's it?
- Yeah, yeah.
- Wow!

- Sisters Lynn and Gail have returned

in the hope their mum's cherished toy
is not only looking good,

but can walk the walk as well.

- There they are. Hello.
- Hello.
- Hello.

- How are you doing?
- Good, thanks. How are you?

- Very good.
- Good, thank you.
- So, how are you both feeling?

- Yeah, excited.
- Excited.

- To see what our mum would have
really been excited about

when she was younger.
- Aw, bless.

All right. Steve?

- Right...

- Oh!
- Oh, look at the little legs!

- GAIL AND LYNN LAUGH

- Oh, it's standing up. That's great.
- Aw!

- Oh, it definitely looks happier.

Very good.

- So, you're both looking at us,
thinking...

You want to know what it does, right?
- Yeah.
- OK.

Best do 'em the honours.

- Oh!
- Oh, look at its tail!

- GAIL AND LYNN LAUGH

- It's coming for me!

Oh, look! Oh, that's great.
- Aw!

That tail is amazing.

Isn't it?
- The tail's really...

I didn't think the tail would be as
animated as that, yeah.

That's great. Thank you very much.

- Wow! The colours are lovely, aren't
they?
- They are lovely, yeah.

- For a little kid, this must have
been quite amazing,

just seeing it like that, doing that!

- ALL LAUGH

- Aw! I can't believe you got it to
go.

- I think Steve's thinking the same
thing.

- LAUGHTER

STEVE:
- I'm so pleased that it works as an
old piece,

so I would say be very, very careful
with it.
- Yes.

- The grandchildren, are they going to
have a chance to play with it

or...supervised?

- Supervised, supervised. A
demonstration.

- That's what I like.
- Yes, a demonstration.
- A demonstration.

- A demonstration sounds really good.

- THEY LAUGH

- Yeah, a demonstration.

- But they can look at it.
- They can look at it from afar.

- And remember Granny, so it's good.

- It's yours now.
- Fabulous. Thank you.
- Thank you.

OK. Thank you so much.
- Thank you very much.

- No problem. You guys take care now.
- Bye-bye now.
- Bye-bye.

- It feels really good having the toy
turkey back.

It was really amazing to see it
walking across the table

and flapping its tail.

It's kind of almost being like a kid
again yourself, watching it back.

- It feels quite emotional, actually,
to have the turkey fixed.

For an item that she spoke about so
fondly from all of her childhood,

it's really lovely to see it.

It represents my mum growing up on the
farm

and just kind of a legacy to her.

And, yeah, just really nice memories
of our mum.

It's been lovely to do this together,
actually.

- Mum would be delighted.
- Yeah, really lovely.

- The restoration of Christine's
father's signet ring

is nearing completion

with the once broken piece now back in
wearable condition,

thanks to Richard's skilful efforts.

- I've just got the back part of the
shank attached to the head

of Christine's dad's ring

and sandpapered all the way round the
inside of the ring.

So, I'm really happy.

The half-shank just runs seamlessly
into the inside of the head.

Now I just need to finish filing the
back of the ring

and it's important that I just take
off enough metal,

so that we don't see the solder line.

But any more metal than that

and I'm going to start jeopardising
the pattern on the shoulders.

So, it's a very, very gradual process.

It's always the tortoise wins the
race.

It's really, really nice to see this
ring coming together again

as it symbolises a lifetime of love
between Christine's mum and dad.

And I think it's important to make
sure that it's repaired well enough

to be given to her brother

and just be a wonderful memory of that
love story

for many, many generations to come.

- When the signet ring was brought to
the barn,

it was in pieces and had sat in a
jewellery box for decades.

Now Christine has returned

in the hope this family keepsake is
complete

and can be gifted to her beloved
brother, Peter.

- Christine, hi.
- Hello.

- How have you been?
- Very well, thank you.
- Good.

- Excited.
- You're excited now?

- So excited to know that this ring
that I only ever saw in pieces

has been given a new lease of life

and it's going to be a real, strong
connection with my brother

when he wears it every day,

so that he's got my mum and dad with
him always.

- Well, you're not going to have to
imagine

what it looks like any longer.

Go on, Richard.

- Oh!

- SHE GASPS

- Oh, my God!

Oh, thank you!

Oh!

Thank you so much.

I didn't think I'd feel like this.
It's incredible.

I just feel like they're stood at the
side of me.

Thank you.

- You're welcome.

- Oh, it's amazing. It's absolutely
amazing.

And it felt so thin and delicate,

but it...it feels really sturdy and
strong.

- The other pieces of metal that you
left,

those have all been melted together
and they're back within the ring,

so every piece that you provided us...
- Yeah.

- ..is back with the...
- Because that's solid.

I never imagined this. I really
didn't.

- You can't take your eyes off it.
- I can't.

- Where is it taking you back to?

- I can see my mum and dad just
dancing together and...

They were very, very special and they
had an amazing life.

They gave us an amazing life.

I owe everything to my mum and dad for
what I am today.

- Yeah.

- Thank you.

- Well, I hope your brother enjoys it.
- Oh, gosh, I can't wait!

Thank you.
- Lovely to meet you, Christine.

- Bye-bye.
- Goodbye.

- I think seeing the ring in one
piece,

I can just feel the connection and the
love

that my mum and my dad shared for 71
years.

And the fact that I can give it to my
brother is going to be amazing.

- If you have a treasured possession
that has seen better days

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

And join us in The Repair Shop.