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Show -. ........ V . ..." f . V", ' :;:.. A- j v.- IT TOOK FIGURING Patrick Graff Promoted In Air Force Patrick W. Graff, whose wife, Kristine, is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Sanford S. Walker of 1040 E. Arlington Way, Bountiful, has been promoted to first lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force. LT. GRAFF, a missile maintenance officer, is assigned as-signed at Whiteman AFB, Mo., with a. unit of the Strategic Air Command. The lieutenant is a 1968 high school graduate. He received a B.A. and an M.A. degree from BYU. He received his commission in 1975 through the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps program. Floyd Nielsen of Layton has spent six months building a one-horse sleigh similar to the one he took courting in 1915-16. By ROSELVN KIRK LAYTON - Floyd Nielsen, 2171 West Gentile, Layton, began in November to build a one-horse sleigh. The sleigh was finished in time to enter it in some July parades, but Mr. Nielsen is having trouble trou-ble finding a horse to pull the sleigh, which is now mounted on a wheeled cart for summer transportation. MR. NIELSEN said the building project began when Elias Dawson, 235 West Gentile, Gen-tile, began to talk about having someone build a sleigh patterned after an original owned by a man in Kaysville. A relative brought the two men together. After the first contact, about Thanksgiving, Mr. Nielsen decided he'd attempt to build the sleigh. "I have put all my energy into building," build-ing," he said. He was a building supervisor super-visor for the LDS Church for ten years, supervising the building of churches in Illinois, Tennessee, Salt Lake City, Nottingham, Not-tingham, England, Manchester, England, North Ogden and Milton. THE BUILDING of the sleigh was just another building project which required a lot of care. The antique sleigh was brought from Kaysville and placed in the corner of the garage where Mr. Nielsen has his workshop. "I've just been fooling along with it. When I got something figured out, I'd do it. "The sleigh is authoritative as far as I'm able to say." Mr. Nielsen said he remembered going courting in 1915-16 in a similar type of vehicle. The wood for the sleigh came from ash trees, except for some plywood which was used for the body. According to Mr. Nielsen, Mr. Dawson obtained the ash wood from some trees in his neighbor's yard. When the that curved section. Mr. Nielson sanded the dash to give it shape. He worked on the sleigh most of the winter since he had a stove to provide heat in the garage-workshop. MR. NIELSEN began in the building trade in 1938, working in the Plain City-Warren City-Warren area in Weber County where he began-on the construction site of an LDS Church. "I've used all my energy to build. I can't really say when I began and I haven't quit." He moved lo Layton three years ago. Now that the sleigh is finished, he spent the weekend roofing an antique granary and was working on rebuilding some antique an-tique chairs during the interview on Monday. THE LEGS for one set of chairs were missing so Mr. Nielsen said he'd have to make those. His project in making the sleigh "got around by word of mouth," he said. People who he didn't know would strike up conversations with him saying, '1 hear you've made a sleigh." According to Mr. Nielsen, when winter . comes, Mr. Dawson hopes to pull the sleigh with a small gray Arabian horse. But since that horse wasn't broken to harness the plan to put the sleigh in the July parades didn't materialize. MR. NIELSEN said he will take the sleigh to Tremonton in August and enter it in the Wheat Days parade since he knows a gentle horse that is available. He also built and painted the shafts where the horse is harnessed. He said that Mr. Dawson would come down to pass and inspect on the work that had been done. "It took more time thinking and figuring than to do the job," he said. trees were cut, he took the wood to Salt Lake City and had it sawed in inch slabs. MR. NIELSEN said he looked at the old sleigh and made the patterns for each part of the construction as he went along. The red and black sleigh is "nothing like the original. I just got the idea for it from the other." According to Mr. Nielsen, he was "allowed in free rein" in making the ; sleigh. He decided on the black and red color with chrome trim. When it came time for the red upholstery, he took the sleigh to Abion, Idaho where Lillian Nielsen, Niel-sen, his son's wife, helped him. The sleigh is also fully carpeted. THE ORNAMENTAL chrome on the front, back and sides of the sleigh was designed by a chrome specialty firm in Salt Lake City. He took the sleigh in a truck to have the design made. Mr. Neil-sen Neil-sen said he would have preferred dove wings instead of circules in the chrome design, but didn't have the expertise or equipment to work with the chrome himself. him-self. The runner shoes of the sled had to be put on cold. He tied the steel to the runner, drilled holes, put in the bolts and started bending. Since steel cannot be heated uniformly, it kinks unless the work is handled in this way, he said. Other metal parts of the sleigh were molded with a torch while Mr. Nielsen used a piece of railroad steel for the anvil. HIGH GLOSS Tnterior paints finished the product which had been shaped ar,d sanded. The body is made from plywood which is bent two ways to give it shape. The dash was constructed in pieces, with each piece being fitted and dowled to fit |