Olek Restoration – Furniture, Millwork, Ornamental Metal

It is common for antiques from Europe or Asia to have had powder post beetles.  Although they are supposed to be dispatched by methylene bromide fumigation  upon arrival in our ports, sometimes they survive.    It is unusual for powder post beetles  to live many years after arrival in the US.    We heat our houses so much, and air condition, that it is too dry for them.

The way you can tell you have an active infestation is that whitish powder will come out of the holes, every week.  You will see little piles of sawdust beneath the light colored, active holes.  Dark holes mean there is nothing active in the those holes.  A hole can conceal a 7′ long tunnel.  The beetles live in a single hole their entire 7 year life, then make one hole when they are mature and ready to mate and lay their own eggs in other pieces.

If you need to get furniture fumigated, there is typically  a minimum charge of about $800-1100, which would cover quite a few pieces, or just one.     Another alternative to methylene bromide is carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide takes 1 month to kill powder post beetle eggs, compared to methylene bromide’s few days.   Carbon dioxide is harmless in low concentrations, fatal to humans at 6 – 15%, and to powder post beetle dormant eggs at 60%.   Formerly just used for the occasional antique house, Carbon dioxide  has become more popular with the resurgence  of bedbugs, and is an effective, non-toxic and green alternative to methylene bromide.  Licensed fumigators don’t release methylene bromide, but there is a potential for its escape.

Email or call us with your powder post beetle infestation needs, and we will be happy to help rid you of the destructive pests.

Olek’s Metal Working Business is Growing, and we are looking to hire  Machinists. Work in our Loft in  the old Ballantine Brewery  in the Ironbound section of Newark, NJ :

Seeking top notch old school machinist- a metalsmith, familiar with industrial machinery, and electrical, pneumatic, and hydraulic systems. Fabricate to shop and architectural drawings. Design, set up, and tool for production, and custom fabricate. Shop maintenance, and restoration of historic ornamental and architectural metal work.

Skills should include operation of lathe, milling, slitting and surface grinding machines, pressing with hydraulic, OBI and finger brake presses. . Tool and die design, jig set ups for production, and machinery operation. Welding TIG, MIG, brazing and soldering. Casting in sand or lost wax. Blacksmith and pneumatic hammer forging. Knowledge of metallurgy, tempering and annealing good. We also do patination, electroplating, abrasive media blasting, and finishing.

Our company was founded in 1950. We are moving progressively into higher proportion of custom fabrication and restoration of architectural metalwork, including doors, windows, and hardware for historic buildings like Grand Central Station. Product development for manufacturing on larger scale is in the works. Our base is woodworking and furniture restoration We have an extraordinary team of metalworkers that have a lot to be proud of. See our work online at http://oleklejbzon.com/architectural-metal-restoration.htm

Applicants should be motivated to learn and expand your capabilities. Be part of growing enterprise with 60 year history, moving into new businesses. Must be a self-starter, finding ways to get things done, and able to imagine and find better ways to work. Organize your work, train and direct other assistants and production workers in the metalworking section of shop. We speak various languages, including Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, Spanish, Chinese. Full time job, year round. Please apply by resume to the email address: peter@olekrestoration.com

Yelp has been widely accused of manipulating filter results to libel   profiled businesses.   Yelp filter libels businesses.  Yelp hides behind the Filter results, using the “secretive” Yelp Filter to libel businesses.  Why does the Yelp Filter  selectively display  negative results? If you believe Yelp, it is to remove false reviews.  This is a lie. There is no clarity or candor to be found here.  In the guise of protecting the public from false reviews, Yelp thinks it  has legal immunity under the Community Decency Act  § 230(c)(1) to libel any profiled company. Yelp characterizes their filter as mere Editorial discretion.

Olek Lejbzon & Co. Reviews

The reality is, that Yelp needs to ruin the reputation of profiled businesses to make money. When it  ruins the reputation of reviewed businesses Yelp   sells advertising to other businesses advertising in Yelp on the Profile page of the damaged business.  Yelp  sells advertising by libeling profiled businesses,  so readers click on  links   to  other profiled advertisers.  This is what makes  Yelp  profitable. That is what the evil Yelp is all about. 

Until now, the debate has been focused on whether Yelp is “extorting” businesses to advertise, by taking  good Yelp reviews using the “Filter” into off-page filtered results, leaving predominantly poor reviews.  But the real issue is whether Yelp uses the  Yelp filter to libel  businesses deliberately to sell advertising to other companies.  If a review is good and the Yelp visitor reading the review clicks through to the reviewed company, Yelp makes nothing.  Yelp is motivated financially to libel reviewed companies, to have readers select an advertiser on the profile page instead.  Is motivation to libel  built into the Yelp business profitability model?

There is another law that may find Yelp without immunity to ruin the reputations of profiled businesses.  The securities litigation industry is ordinarily  vigilant against Rule 10b-5 violations, or a “fraud upon the market”.  Inflating profits by libel may be found to fall under this cause of action.  The 10b-5 statute only requires proof by preponderance of the evidence.  This is a much easier standard for litigators to win than criminal statutes requirnig proof beyond a reasonable doubt.  That is why class action lawyers prosecute such claims widely.  How long will it take for a class action to be filed and  to determine the legality of the Yelp “filter”? Such litigation may determine the dread Yelp Filter  to be nothing more than a widespread fraud upon the public of businesses Yelp profiles, and the investors buying shares in Yelp.

Does the  Yelp filter  libel business? Is Yelp defrauding investors by libeling businesses?  What is your opinion?

Is my vintage Eames Chair Real?

 Common Reproductions, and the Vitra Lounge Chair also Licensed by Charles & Ray Eames to manufacture and sell in Europe

Have you ever looked at and wondered if a vintage  Eames chair is real?   After the Eames Lounge chair appeared in stores in the late 1950’s, competitors began to copy the chair’s design features, with similar chairs produced primarily by Plycraft and Selig. Knock-offs  are easily distinguished from the Eames Lounge Chair by Herman Miller, but not so easily from the multitudes of knock-offs produced in China today.

Vitra also produces an Eames-licensed Lounge Chair in Europe, which sells for approximately three times the cost of the Herman Miller licensee Lounge Chair. The Vitra base design is different from Herman Miller’s, see below:

Herman Miller Eames Chair Bases are unique among vintage reproductions:

Note the lack of a stem, the chair spider meets the base, with a concealed bushing between

Selig Reproductions of Eames Lounge Chairs

The Selig reproduction of the Eames Lounge Chair, from the 1960’s. No shock mounts, uses bolts through the outer shells and directly into the 1/16″ thinner steel arms. Thicker shells than the Eames Herman Miller. Different base, with typical office swivel chair spider mechanism. Shown without cushions, to make differences more apparent. This chair has a single welting around the arm cushions, the Herman Miller Chair two lines of welting, top and bottom.

Vintage Selig reproduction has flared aluminum five star lounge base, similar four star ottoman base

Back of this later Segal reproduction on R. looks most similar of the reproductions to the Herman Miller, even has neoprene shocks below the polished aluminum struts connecting upper & lower back

Late Vintage Segal Base (above)

A later variant of the Segal base, more similar to the five star legs of the Herman Miller Base, with different conical swivel glides, and a notable stem not present in the Herman Miller chair. Some are marked “Midwood Manufacturing” on the round plate beneath the central post. Leg cross section also differs from Herman Miller. Note DF-9263 28″ marking in casting.

Early Segal Reproduction Chair Base with Base Mfr. nametag

The Plycraft Eames lounge Chair, from the 1960’s. No shock mounts, uses bolts through the outer shell, and straps from the lower shell to both sides of the seat shell, and a third strap at the center of the back lower shell to the seat shell. A cheaper imitation than the Segal. Tubular chromed base, and back supports, not cast brushed and painted aluminum like the Herman Miller, Vitra, and Segal chairs. No welting on arms.

Vitra Lounge Chair, the Charles & Ray Eames-licensed European manufacturer of their Lounge chair. Note the different base than the Herman Miller chair.

Is your Eames chair real? Send us photos and we will help to distinguish real chairs from fake.

After emigrating from Europe after World War II, Olek Lejbzon settled in the U.S. where he founded his own firm, in 1950. From that day until the present the firm has proudly carried on a family tradition of the finest European craftsmanship passed down by two generations of Polish cabinetmakers. Today, a former partner of Mr. Lejbzon and now full owner of Olek Lejbzon & Co., Peter Triestman manages the company’s European craftsmen.

Over the past four decades, Olek Lejbzon and Co.’s refusal to cut corners and commitment to superior craftsmanship has earned it a loyal following from antique collectors and dealers to Fortune 1000 companies, foreign embassies, religious institutions, universities and schools, restaurants, museums, and private residences.
The company’s areas of expertise include the maintenance, repair, and conservation of antiques as well as architectural fabrication and preservation; the conservation of antique objets d’art; decorative painting and gilding; upholstery using the materials and styles originally employed; stone, marble and metal repair and restoration. Specialties include marquetry (wood, ivory, brass and tortoise shell), carving, gilding, hand turning, caning, antique paint conservation, faux graining, and fine French polishing. Fabrication work includes custom wood or metal doors and windows, wood millwork paneling, cabinetry, and moldings.

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!