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Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Repairing Side Rails to a Mahogany Bed (ca.1900)

Recently I have been repairing two side rails from a Mahogany bed from around the turn of the century. At some point, these rails were cut in half and material was added to make them long enough to accommodate a full size mattress. to attach these extensions, Bolts were used and at some point one of the rails cracked along the holes where the bolts were drilled. To remedy this problem, I installed five butterfly patches going perpendicular to the grain of the rail to bridge the crack and stabilize it. I also replaced a missing portion of the other rail and glued some loose sections. Below are some photos of the repair work to these rails.

One of the ends of the rails was missing a significant portion. I copied this missing part from another rail and recreated it using Mahogany. here is a photo of the rail as it came to me.
After planing the break flat, new material was added to the rail.
Here is the new material glued to the rail.
Using another rail as a guide, I created this template from some scrap plywood.
Here is a photo of the new wood after it was shaped and sanded. It was later touched up to match the existing finish.
Here is a photo of the butterfly patches laid out along the crack on the inside of the rail.
Here are the same patches after they were inlaid into the wood. They were later pared flush and touched up to match the finish.

A portion of one of the rails that had become loose.
Gluing the loose portion back on.

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