Morris Chair (Part 2)

In a previous post I talked about bridging patches and showed one on a chair leg. When inspecting the Morris chair for damage I found a cross grain crack along the one side of the chair back. This crack was caused by a knot in the wood. If the break had been along the grain It would have been sufficient to glue the break, however since the break was across the grain it needed a patch to be structurally sound. Below is a picture of the break: I cut a patch in a trapezoid shape to cover the break. The reason for the shape of the patch is that the 45 degree angle has better strength than one cut at 90 degrees because the 90 degree cut would be across the grain like the original break:

After I scribed where the patch was going to be, I made several saw cuts into the leg to help with removing material:

Here is a photo of the material being removed:

The patch next to the cleaned out area in the leg:

The patch being glued in place:

this picture shows the patch in relation to the back of the chair:

The patch glued in place:

The patch carved down and sanded. As I apply finish to the chair I will touch this up to match the existing finish.

The brackets which hold the back in place were damaged and needed to be replaced. In addition, the rod had been lost and replaced with a steel rod from a hardware store. Below is a photo of the brass replacement rod and brackets next to the original hardware.