A local lady contacted me to see if I could repair a chair she became attached to over the years. Best I can tell, it was originally built as a rocker with a shaw or comb back and was converted to a chair for reasons I can't determine. She bought it at a collectables dealer. The bottom of the legs had been cut with a dowel installed and another piece added (front legs). I replaced the two broken back legs, the back stretcher, glued and wedged the other loose joints, and glued the large crack running front to back on the seat. If you look at the seat in the "before" pics, you will see a large burn mark. I tried to sand that mark out and math the finish color. The finish is a mix of General Finishes Salem Maple and Minwax Oak. Photos with captions follow.
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| "Can you fix this please"? This is how the chair arrived to my shop. |
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| There was something attached at one time, looks like the spindles were cut off. |
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Bottom of chair with what is left of the legs broken off in the seat. Looks like a spoon
bit was used since the legs holes were not drilled through the seat.
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| One way to fix a broken leg and a cracked set at the same time I guess |
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Burn on lower left front of seat, crack down the right side
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| Finished Chair -turned back legs and stretcher from hard maple, repaired burn mark on seat. |
Fine job!
ReplyDeleteThanks Tico
ReplyDeleteVery nice work Rick. I am getting ready to try to salvage a rocker, and if my project works out only half as nice as yours I'll be pleased.
ReplyDeleteOne question, what do you make of the circular marks in the sawn off spindles?
Dan, thanks for the comments. If you are referring to the cut at the bottom of the leg set at a weird angle, I took one of the broken legs apart and it had been drilled and a dowel inserted. I assume this was done after the rockers were removed, so the "circular" marks are two pieces joined together. I was going to try and get that offset on the two legs I turned but thought the taper would do. The woman was real pleased with the result.
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