Peter Radin had scarlet fever in the 1920s. Sickness would never stop him again.

        Today he is 92, blind and still working. Every morning, a cab arrives at his Covington apartment and takes him to the L.M. Castner Co. in Cincinnati.

The sense of touch is all Peter Radin needs to perform a perfect sanding on a handmade frame. (Gary Landers photo) | ZOOM |

        Once inside, Mr. Radin taps his cane on the floor and follows a rope to his work station. There he spends the day sanding beautiful picture frames by hand.

        He doesn't need to see the wood. He knows it by touch. The touch keeps him alive.

        “I think retirement is horrible,” he says. “I live in a retirement home. I'm the only person who works, and (the others) feel so bad, what they're missing.”

        What he would miss is the extraordinary rhythm of this workshop, where employees still use molds and methods from the 1800s.

        The Castner Co. produces custom frames for pictures and mirrors. Founded in 1882, it was purchased in the '40s by Mr. Radin and several partners. The company still sells a line of frames he designed 50 years ago.

        They are works of art, these frames, and a well-kept secret in Cincinnati. The company has only a few local clients, says Mr. Radin's daughter, Carol. Most of its sales are to high-end photographers and artists.

Each intricate detail reveals itself to Peter Radin's sensitive hands. | ZOOM |

        Ms. Radin joined the company 14 years ago. She manages the business and explores the company's attic, which is filled with antique frames.

        “I fell in love with this whole world,” she says.

        And no wonder: It is a world bathed in history and dust-filtered light, which falls gently on old machines and practiced hands.

IF YOU GO

• What: Sale of about 500 old frames from attic of L.M. Castner Co.     • Where: 2145 W. Central Parkway, Mohawk.     • When: 7-9:30 p.m. today; 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday.

        In one corner, an antique stove produces steam over an open fire. Clayton Gulley, a 50-year employee, places putty inside the stove to keep it soft. Then he presses the putty into decorative molds.

        Angie Neumeister makes the frames, which are passed along for sanding once the decoration is attached. Sharon Miller covers each frame with Italian gold leaf. Etta Mae Brown applies the finish.

        Ms. Brown has worked here for 35 years. She remembers Mr. Radin at his peak, when he turned out frames at a furious pace. Even today, unfinished pieces are stacked around work stations, reminding everyone to keep busy.

        “If he wasn't here ... Oh my goodness. We would know something happened,” Ms. Brown says.

A guide rope leads Peter Radin, 92, to his work station at the company he bought in the 1940s. | ZOOM |

        Her employer eats raw garlic for good health and wears tennis shoes caked with wood shavings and putty.

        He remembers everything, including a childhood divided between Cincinnati and Europe. His parents were Serbian immigrants who sent him back to the homeland at age 3, which was “right after Columbus' journey,” he jokes.

        In what was then Austria-Hungary, Mr. Radin worked in family vineyards. Back in Cincinnati 10 years later, he cleaned hats, shined shoes, sold newspapers.

        Over the last 30 years, glaucoma gradually took his sight, but even blindness hasn't stopped him. Today he has two responsibilities, he says: Sanding and teaching what he knows.

        “My mind works around the clock. I can remember so many things in life,” he says. “Many of these things, they'll be gone if I don't pass them over.”

        And so he works. As much as the art of frame-making, that will be his legacy.

       Karen Samples can be reached at 859-578-5584 or ksamples@enquirer.com.

Absentee voting growing by thousands
City's population down 9.2% in '90s
Shift to suburbs takes off
Hundreds pay respects to Berry
Final honor given Berry
Boy dies in blaze; relative burned
Troubled teens program probed
Abuse that led to baby's death described in court
Black chamber officials deny writing Reece smear letter
Boy, 17, sentenced in concrete incident
Census: Cities shrink; burbs sprawl
CROWLEY: Kentucky politics
Floral paradise: Delhi invites visit
Grand jury gets case of woman left on floor
SAMPLES: Legacy of a craftsman
Man who hired killer will stay in mental unit
Mayoral debate barbed
Ohio man faces murder charge in brother's shooting death
Social links being measured
Spill heads down Ohio
State auditor checking tip on city spending
Technology links senator, teens
Tristate A.M.Report