Knob and tube wiring - detail
With the 12V lights wired, I finished the knob and tube system along the side wall. I had to splice the cord wires together near the front of the barn. I used masking tape then painted it black. Those four splices required an unusually high amount of curse words to fall into place.
Much of this exposed work would have been done with cleats instead of knobs, but I like the look of the knobs and perhaps the builder just used whatever he had the most of in the old barn.
I led the wires down the wall to a key switch (made from a bell push from Sussex Crafts and a wood disc). To age all of this madness, I scraped some chalk pastel dust into a bowl and then dusted it onto the cord. It toned down the true black of the cord material. I used some grey and brown paint mixed with Americana Staining Medium to dirty the knobs and tubes.
This whole setup is damn scary, so it's a good thing it's just for show.
A lot of this was guesswork since much of the knob and tube wiring examples I found are modern inspection photos of improper splicing with modern wiring. But, I think I managed to capture the essence of it, no?
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