John Mark Power, Antiques Conservator

Mahogany and Birch Rocking Chair (ca.1930)

2012-02-26T07:04:00.006-05:00

Recently I restored a rocking chair made from Birch with Mahogany veneer in a few places. The rocker had a broken rocker as well as a host of other structural problems. It also was in need of reupholstering and refinishing. There was not much to find out about this chair in terms of its history, but judging by the style and the construction methods used, I would place it around 1930. It could easily have been made earlier or later.

Below is a photo of the rocker in the condition it was when it entered my shop. the rockers are laid across the seat.
The finish was entirely removed from the chair and the next step was to make the repairs. the next few photos show this.

Patching a missing portion on the back of one of the legs.
gluing down loose veneer on one the front seat stretcher.
As I stated earlier, one of the rockers was broken. This was mended by making two bridging patches that spanned the break. These were inlaid in the rocker on both sides sandwiching the break with new wood. Below is a photo of one of the bridging patches.
This next photo shows the stripped chair being glued up.
The chair sanded, glued, and ready for staining.

These next two photos show the chair after the stain was applied.

These photos show the chair after the finish was applied. The last photo shows the chair with the new upholstery in place. The customer wanted to choose and put the fabric on herself, so the upholsterer covered the upholstery with muslin which goes under the final fabric. The bottle under the rocker in the last photo was placed there to keep the rocker from shaking in the wind!

Reproduction Walnut Hall Tree Part 1: Designing and Lion Carving (2012)

2012-02-21T13:28:00.010-05:00

Earlier this year I was commissioned by a customer to make a reproduction of an Oak hall tree for them to give as a gift to their son and his family. The original hall tree is in their family home and has been in the family since it was bought new. The piece comes from the Golden Oak period of furniture manufacturing and dates to around 1890. The style of the hall tree is loosely based on the designs of the Aesthetic Movement that was popular in America during the late 19th century and is often associated with the Eastlake style, although I would not go as far as to call this an Eastlake hall tree. As I have written about in previous posts, this style of furniture lent itself to mass production very well, because of the use of shallow carving and straight shallow moldings, both easily replicated by machine. Because of this the designs varied greatly and took on a life and style of there own which moved away from the principles of the earlier movements. As we will see as the process moves along, even with the use of machines there is still a lot of handwork and also plenty of thought dedicated to machine set up, etc.

While the original was made of Oak, the customer asked that I make the reproduction from Black Walnut bought by his uncle 50 years ago. Walnut is a great choice for the project, and it was a wood favored by American craftsmen of the late 19th century. The only reason that the original hall tree was made of Oak and not Walnut was because by the time it was made, the American Walnut stores had been heavily depleted and the furniture makers of the 1890's switched to Red and White Oak due to it's availability.

I will write several posts about this reproduction as the work progresses. This first post is concerned with the design and design changes made to the reproduction as well as the initial work, which was the carving of the lion pediment.

Below are a few photos of the Oak hall tree that I was asked to reproduce.

The customer asked that I make a few changes to the original. The biggest change was that they wanted to turn the area below the seat into an area for storage with a lid that lifts, like a small blanket chest with a hall tree back. To illustrate this as well as to get a good sense of the joinery, I drew a model of the proposed hall tree in Google SketchUp. This allowed me to figure up a cut list and it gives the customer a sense of what the finished product will look like. because I have the original to use as a template, I decided not to sketch the moldings, carvings, and turnings. These can be copied directly from the original. Below are several views of the SketchUp model first in white for clarity, and then "colored" with Walnut grain.

As I mentioned earlier, the customer supplied me with 50 year old Black Walnut to use for the project. Below is a photo of the Walnut stack.
When this wood was milled, it weighed far less then a new board the same dimensions, due to it's low moisture content. The color was also a bit darker. Below is a photo of a new board of Walnut (on the left) next to one of the older boards (on the right).
This post is concerned from here forward with the carving of the lion pediment that sits at the top of the hall tree. The lions and the top molding they sit on were removable which meant I could examine and work with this section individually (and I could stand the hall tree up in my shop!). Below is a photo of one of the lions taken while the pediment was still attached.
To copy the shape of the lions, I made a template that was traced directly from the original. The photo below shows the template. The large rectangle section that is cut out was made so I could put the template around a glue block that was in the way.
The next step was to get get the inside lines of the carving for the template. This was done by tracing the original with a transparency and transferring the lines to the template.
The carving was made up of two boards glued together. The first is about 1/4 " thick and took most of the carving. The second was a backer board around 3/4" thick. This was done so that the smaller board could be pierced using a band saw and applied to the backer, rather than removing material from the center by hand which was time consuming. I made the duplicated in the same fashion. Below are the two lion 1/4" face boards cut out.
The next step was to attach them to the backing board. This is seen below.
After the clamps were removed and the glue had dried, The lions were taken back to the bandsaw and cut out using the 1/4" boards as a guide.
The next step was to carve the detail into the lions. Here are a few photos of me using a V-gouge to carve a line.

The next two photos show the lion carvings next to their original counterparts.

Between the lions was a missing piece of molding. After much research, I could not find a good indication of what was there. The bits of the original that were there suggested an arch, so I decided to go with this. I carved a line in the arch and softened the upper edge to pick up on the carving on the lions. The next photo shows the missing section followed by a photo of the arch in it's place on the original.

After the arch was made I made the molded board the lions are attached to and then glued the whole piece together.
This is a photo of the finished product. The following photos show the original next to the new carving. I will post more on the manufacture of this hall tree as the work progresses.

Oak Bedroom Set (ca 1900)

2012-01-08T09:38:00.016-05:00

This post concerns an Oak bedroom set that was restored shortly before Thanksgiving. The set was made around 1900 and consisted of a washstand, a dresser with an attached mirror, and a full size bed. The pieces had lines consistent with the decoration used in mass produced American Eastlake style furniture, and it is interesting to compare the set to another set I restored earlier this year. Here is a link to the first set:

http://johnmarkpower.blogspot.com/2011/10/eastlake-bedroom-set-ca1880-part-2.html

The sets are different in several regards. First, the set I restored earlier was made 20 years earlier. The wood that was in vogue at that time was Walnut. By the turn of the century, factories had moved onto Oak and this period is often referred to as the Golden Oak period. Another difference is that the Oak set employs the use of a machined dovetail in the drawer construction. This is how I was able to date the pieces. The earlier set had a pseudo machined dovetail which is called a Knapp joint. I have written extensively about that joint and a search on this blog will provide you with more information about it.

Other differences between the two sets are that the earlier (Walnut) had Tennessee Marble tops and veneered drawer fronts. Both of those elements are missing from this Oak set. Perhaps they were available in more expensive models. The last difference is the absence of candle stick holders on the oak mirror frame. Perhaps this is signifying the move towards electric light over candlelight. Or perhaps this is a detail that was left out for cost or shipping reasons.

Overall, the set was in pretty good shape. One thing about Oak is that it is solid as a rock! It makes for some sturdy furniture. I have broken this post into three sections below which deal with the three pieces in the set.

The Washstand

The washstand below had some structural damage to the door . It also needed new drawer runners and the finish was removed and replaced with a new one. The piece was selectively stained and coated with a French Polish and then waxed. The hardware was also cleaned and everything was brought back to proper functioning order.

Here is a photo of the washstand as it came to me. The towel rack was removed in this photo.

These next two photos show the damage to the door. A previous repair was attempted by breaking an old hinge apart and screwing it on either side of the break. All of this was removed and the door was properly repaired.

This photo shows the washstand after the finish was removed and the piece was sanded.
These three photos show the restored washstand from a few angles.

The Dresser with Mirror

The Chest with mirror is seen in the photo below as it came to me. The mirror had the original glass with a beveled edge. One repair that was not documented with photographs was the removal of a large oil stain in the top. Most likely, this stain was from a oil lamp breaking, or cracking on the top of the dresser. After the finish was removed, the stain could not be sanded out. The answer was to bleach the top using a special wood bleach. Once the top was bleached the stain was gone. The top was then sanded and stained to match the color of the rest of the set. If you look closely in the photo below you can see the stain on the the top of the dresser.
The drawers had some significant runner damage. The one in the photo below was the worst.
To fix the runner on this particular drawer, the drawer was disassembled, and the broken area was removed. I then added new wood to the drawer side to build it back up and cut new dovetails to fit it back into place.
This photo shows the drawer side being glued back in place.

This photo shows material being added to all of the drawer runners for the chest ( and the washstand).
This photo shows the blocks that hold the mirror glass in place being glued in place.
These last three photos show the completed dresser with mirror.

The Bed

The bed had some minor repairs to it. The main issue with this piece was the finish and some mysterious white paint like substance on the headboard. This was quickly removed with the finish and the bed was sanded, selectively stained, and refinished. The photo below shows the bed as it came to me.
This photo shows the rails after the finish was removed.
These last two photos show the bed fully restored.

H. Holtzman and Sons Oak Piano Stool (Ca. 1900)

2012-01-01T07:25:00.005-05:00

Another piece that I restored for Christmas was an Oak piano stool made by H.Holtzman and Sons in Columbus, Ohio. Judging by the history of the company and also by the overall condition and style of the stool, I judged it's age to be right around 1900, give or take 10 years.

The H. Holtzman and Sons company was founded sometime in the 1860's by Henry Holtzman in
either Pittsburgh, PA or New York City,NY. (Sources Differ on this point.) In 1893 the business was moved to Colombus, Ohio and was run by the sons Frank (and possibly Charles). Henry Holtzman Passed away in December of 1904. I n Ohio, the business grew to be one of the largest piano stool and piano cover manufacturers in the country. An early advertisement for the stools reads as follows:

Henry Holtzman and Sons
Manufacturers and importers of
Piano Scarfs
Grand Covers, Square Covers,
Rubber, and Gossamer Covers
a large variety of
Piano Stools
2121 t0 2122 E. Main St.
Columbus, Ohio

To view the advertisement, follow this link:

http://mis.mclemore.com/mtr/MTR-1895-21-2/MTR-1895-21-2-10.pdf

They certainly did produce a large variety of piano stools, a quick Google search will show images of many different styles of stools made from many different types of wood. As for the piano covers, it is hard to know much more about that side of the business.

The factory mentioned in the advertisement has been demolished now, but I was able to find an image of it which I have provided below.

The business seems to have had it's heyday in the early part of the 2oth century. I found many references to it and one included mention of a Chicago branch of the company. The business was run by various members of the Holtzman Family until it closed in 1959.

I was able to find out the manufacturer of this stool because the mounting plate for the screw mechanism on the underside of the seat had the words "H.Holtzman and Sons Colum, Ohio" Cast in it. I neglected to get a photo of this, but was able to find a photo of a similar (and later) mounting plate on the internet.
Here is a photo of the stool when it arrived in my shop. The finish was in bad shape and the joinery on the stool needed some repair work.There was also a crack in the seat that needed to be filled.
One of the legs had been replaced during the lifetime of the stool, and it had later been repaired at the top joint with a large bolt going through the main post. This had great visual appeal, and the customer and I decided it was part of the history of the stool and should be left in place. This was until I discovered that the bolt was preventing the stool from raising and lowering fully. With this in mind, the bolt was removed and the joinery fixed on the leg. All off the other repairs were made and a new finish put on the stool. Here are two photos of the stool after it was completed.

Walnut and Maple Jewelry Box (2011)

2011-12-31T08:24:00.011-05:00

Earlier this year I was commissioned to make a jewelry box made from Walnut and Maple. Because of the dimensions of the box (15"wide x 7"tall x 12" deep) the customer and I decided it would take up too much room on a dresser and that it would be nicer if it had its own stand. Taking inspiration from early 19th century southern celerettes (liquor bottle storage boxes) and sugar chests, I designed the jewelry box on stand. The designs were made using Google's Sketchup program which is the program I use to design all of my furniture. One benefit of using this program is that it allows me to orbit the 3d model and look at it from any angle. As a bonus, I can then take "snapshots" of the model in the program and export them as jpeg (picture) files. the three images below were captured from the sketchup program and show the model of the box on stand from the front, followed by two views of the jewelry box alone.

I wrote an earlier blog post on this model which shows more views of the box and also the stand alone. to view this post, follow this link:

http://johnmarkpower.blogspot.com/2011/07/walnut-and-maple-jewelry-box-fall-2011.html

A few minor details were changed from the drawing to the finished product. The first is that the dimensions were changed from 6" tall in the model to 7". The second was that Walnut splines were chosen over Maple. The third was that the brass plate mentioned in the previous post was moved from the top of the box to the inside of the top. This is much more subtle and allows the flow of the top to be undisturbed.

And now from the concept to reality...

This project started out as all other building projects do, with the milling of the lumber. I found an exquisite piece of crotch Walnut to use for the top that came from a larger 1.5" thick board. after re-sawing the board to get the piece I wanted, I used the rest of the board to make the legs for the stand. Below is a photo of the milled wood used for the sides of the box and the stand followed by a photo of the piece chosen for the top. This piece was coated with shellac until I was ready to mill it to its final dimensions to help prevent the board from cupping and twisting, which crotch lumber is prone to do.

The next step in the process was to cit the groves to accept the top and bottom of the box in the sides. Each side and front (or back) was made from one piece of wood which was cut so the grain continued around the corner of the box.
Here are the four sides cut with the top edge of each side molded. I still had a bit of work to do before these sides could be assembled.
This shot shows the top fit into place. Before I glued the box up I had one last step, which was to route a channel in the top to accept a 1/8" band of Maple inlay. The finished channel can be seen in the following photo.

This photo shows me assembling the box. The sides are taped together on the outside using packaging tape and the top and bottom of the box are inserted. Once the sides are closed around the top and bottom, band clamps are used to square up the side and make sure the mitered sides are tight.The following photo shows the assembled box with the band clamps in place.

After the glue had dried, the box was set in a jig and passed over the table saw blade at a diagonal angle to cut the slots for the splines that hold the mitered corners together. The photo below shows that process.
After all of the slots were cut out, Walnut splines were inserted into the slots with glue. Once the glue dried I pared down the excess wood. I also took this opportunity to inlay the Maple banding in the top. Again, this was pared flush after the glue had dried.
While the box was drying, I turned my attention to construction of the stand. The first step in this process was to make apron for the stand. The individual pieces are labeled with chalk on the front sides to make it easier to see.
After the aprons were made, I morticed the legs to fit. In the photo below, the stand is seen roughly assembled. Once the joinery was completed, I tapered the legs and molded the top edge of the apron and legs for a smooth transition from the stand to the jewelry box.
This photo shows the box assembled and inserted in the completed stand.
this photo shows the top with the maple banding pared down.
The next step was to separate the lid from the bottom of the jewelry box. this was done on the table saw. After that, the hinges were put in place. Special hinges that stopped at 95 degrees were used to ensure the lid did not open too much. The next two photos show the hinged lid closed and then open.

These next few photos show the installation of the lock on the box and the inlaying of the Maple escutcheon. Once the lock was installed I located where the escutcheon should be and glued it in place. A similar process was used to inlay the brass plate on the inside of the lid. This can be seen in the third photo down.

One piece I left out of the Sketchup design was the tray. The customer wanted nine compartments with removable sides. The tray was also to have integral handles that allowed it to be removed and the bottom area to be accessed. The tray was also to be made of Maple with a Walnut bottom. The photo below shows the resulting tray fitted into the box.
These next two photos show the sanded box completed and ready for finishing.

The next three photos show the pieces all laid out during the finishing process.

The following photos show the completed jewelry box from different perspectives and with the lid open and the tray removed and inserted. This was a great building project and a great way to finish out 2011.

Painted Outdoor Thermometer (Ca. 1900)

2011-12-18T08:29:00.007-05:00

One piece I worked on recently that was unusual was an outdoor thermometer with a painted wooden back. When I received the thermometer from the customer, the wood back and the thermometer glass were in great shape but the paint had deteriorated to the point where the thermometer could barely be used. At some point in it's life someone wrote the indications on the side of the thermometer so that it could continue to be used, but even these had faded. The customer, who had owned the thermometer his entire life, remembered words written on the right side of the thermometer and one that could be clearly read was the word "blood". That was about it. What I was hired to do was to have the face repainted with the proper indications and if possible the words that had been lost. A real challenge!

I started by doing a little research into thermometers on the internet. After typing in several different search criteria I finally started to come up with some positive results. The first was a set of post cards from the turn of the century. There are photos of them below:

While these were a joke, the thermometers pictured in the images were similar to the one I had, and I could clearly see the words "blood heat" as well as several others that matched what I could see on my thermometer. I then found the thermometer below:
I was able to blow up this image to get a look at the font and the terms and all of the indications were the same as the one I needed to restore, with the exception of the highest temperature reading. A little more digging revealed that this said "Fever Heat" at a staggering 110 degrees. Quite a fever. Now I had all of the markings that I needed to get started.

For the actual painting of the thermometer and the words and numbers I turned to my friend Roberta Marovelli. Roberta is an extremely talented (this is an understatement!) decorative painter in the Washington D.C. area. For a look at her work follow this link:

http://robertamarovellistudio.com/3/artist.asp?ArtistID=24878&Akey=9X679CJP

Before Roberta could paint the thermometer back I needed to prep it for her by removing the original paint and repairing the damage. Below are photos of the process of the restoration from start to finish.

This first image shows the thermometer in the condition that I received it.
This detail shot shows the numbers written in on the side of the thermometer. It also shows the remnants of a blue paint around the molded edge.

This photo shows the indication marks that were still visible. These were transferred to ensure that the thermometer would give an accurate reading!
Here is a shot of the back without the thermometer in place.
While removing the finish, I found that the backing behind the thermometer had a gold paint behind it, which we decided to copy. After that I removed the finish and repaired the back. Here is a photo of the back being repaired.
The repaired back was given over to Roberta. Here is a photo of the back when it got to her shop.

Here is the back during the painting process.
These images show the back painted. after the indications and words were put in place, the paint was distressed and "dirtied" to give an older appearance.

These last two photos show the thermometer assembled and ready for delivery. All of the indications were in place and reading properly. This was a great project and I could not have done it without the talented hand of Roberta Marovelli. Thanks to her for a fine job!

Walnut Candle Stand (ca. 1970)

2011-11-29T22:03:00.002-05:00

This post concerns a candle stand made from Walnut. The stand was made around 1970 I am guessing and was made by hand. This is the kind of piece that reminds me of something that would have been made by a craftsman in his backyard shop. It was very simple in its construction and the simplicity gives it elegance.

The entire piece was made from Walnut and the only structural damage to it was that the top and base had loosened a bit. The top also had a lot of water damage so I decided to remove the finish from the top. The base had a finish that was restorable so I left it in place. The photos below show the process.

Here are two pictures of the table when it entered my shop. The second photo shows a detail of the water damage to the top surface.

I removed the top in order to strip the old finish off. while this was going on I cleaned the finish on the base and glued it up. Here is a photo of the base clamped while the glue was drying.
This photo shows the top reattached and sanded. The top was lightly stained to match the base and then coated to build up the finish.
These last three photos show the table completed. It really looks nice up against the green background of the shop!

Walnut and Chery Empire Pembroke Table (ca. 1840)

2011-11-27T08:16:00.006-05:00

A table I recently worked on had a very interesting history that was revealed to me as the work progressed. The table is a Pembroke or drop leaf stand with one drawer. What was odd about this table was that the top had too much overhang, so much so that when standing next to the table you could not even see the drawer below. Here are three photos showing the table as it came into my shop. The finish on the top was damaged and needed to be refinished, but the base was okay so I decided to restore this finish. The photos show the condition of the piece.

This first photo shows the drawer concealed by the top.
Here is a photo of the drawer and the legs. Looking at the style of the turning on the legs, I was able to identify this piece as originating during the American Empire period.
This photo shows the damage to the top.
The first thing I noticed about this piece as I started to take it apart was that the top was made of Walnut and the base out of Cherry. The second was that where the leaf supports were cut out of the apron I noticed a pocket hole that was useless and pointed towards a previous application. Below is a photo of that pocket hole. The screw next to the hole holds the swinging leaf supports in place and has nothing to do with this pocket hole.
As I looked over the top I found some writing on the underside. it read:

"Repaired by R H Siler
Dec. 5th, 1935 West Manchester Ohio"

Here are three photos of the writing.

So the table was repaired in 1935. What I figure is that this table was originally a one drawer stand That was made entirely from cherry. I saw no evidence that it had originally been a Pembroke. In addition, the drawer sides and bottom as well as the knob and possibly the drawer front were all replaced. The drawer front was cherry, but it did not have any evidence of being re-purposed. The knob was oak. Why the top was made to overhang so much is beyond me, but perhaps the owner had a specific reason to have this done and had the top replaced.

Mr. Siler did a lot of work to this table.The base was loose and when I took it apart I could see that it had been loose before and all of Siler's repairs were evident. In some places the joinery was tight so I left it alone. Here is a photo of the base dismantled for cleaning.

This photo shows the base being glued up.
The top was made from a single board of Walnut. it had a nice dark color to it which matched the base very well so no stain was needed. The leaves were reclaimed wood that had been patched in places where there were nail holes. They needed to be stained to match the top. Here is a photo of the entire top after it was selectively stained.
The rest of the photos show the table after it was refinished. There are a couple of photos of the table with the top down and some with the top up. It is interesting to note that the table was made around 1840, repaired in 1935 and repaired again in 2011. Obviously this has been a very useful table over the years and hopefully my repairs will last at least 76 years!

Walnut Extension Dining Table with Bobbin Turned Legs (ca. 1870)

2011-11-12T15:28:00.012-05:00

This past week I completed the restoration of a Walnut extension dining table. The table is American being made of Black Walnut with American Chestnut slides. It was made some time in the latter half of the 19th century. The legs were turned on a lathe featuring a bobbin themed turning. This style of turning is closely related to spool turned legs and both get there name from the spinning wheel. Both were quite fashionable in the late Victorian era. While a spool leg looks like many empty spools stacked the bobbin turned leg looks like a bobbin with the wool being wound around it. The following photo demonstrated the look very well:

The table was made by hand and originally was made to accommodate six 12 inch leaves. Three of the leaves had disappeared over the years and the table slides had warped and gotten stuck so that the table could not be properly opened and closed. Besides these problems, the finish had deteriorated and there were many cracks and damage that are associated with the use of the table. One other problem was that the table surface on one end had warped badly. The photos below document the entire restoration of this table including the repairs.

Here is a photo of the table as it came to me. I could not close the table any further than it is closed in this photo due to the table slides being warped.
This photo shows the condition of the finish. The finish had bleached due to being in direct sunlight for many years and it had also started to crack and flake off, especially on the legs.
The first thing I addressed once I had the table dismantled was the table slides. They were made of American Chestnut and had warped and gotten stuck so that they no longer worked properly. I was on the edge of swapping them with a new set, but with a little planing and a lot of paraffin wax I was able to get them working reasonably well.

The next step was to remove the finish. This was followed by all of the repairs. The first repair I worked on was to remove the warp from the top surface of the table. The photo below shows the table surface with a straight board placed on it on edge to show how far from being flat the top was. The difference in the center was about 1/4".
To remedy this, I cut several kerfs on the underside of the table about two thirds of the way through the top. This allowed the top to become flexible and I could clamp it flat. Once it was clamped flat, I inserted long tapered wedges in the kerfs with glue and tapped them into place.Once the glue dried the kerfs were planed flush with the surface. The following photo shows all of the tapered wedges. I cut them on the table saw with the blade set at a 5 degree angle.

This photo shows the top with the kerfs cut. Once all of this material was removed, the board warped a little more since there was nothing holding it back.
The board was then clamped to the table saw using two by four's as Cauls to hold the top flat. After the board was flat, the wedges were trimmed and tapped into place. This photo was taken after the wedges were inserted and the glue was drying.
The next photo shows the board after the wedges were hand planed flush.
The base of one end of the table was loose and needed to be glued. I did this as usual. One thing I found that I thought was nice and also a sign of craftsmanship was a double mortise/ tenon system. This is done because in certain cases,like a table leg, There is a lot of material removed from the leg to insert the tenon. If the leg is kicked hard or caught on the floor, there is a potential for the end of the leg to crack because it is only held together by about a a half inch of wood. The idea with the double tenon is to leave a little material in the middle of the mortise so that there is more material holding the end of the leg together. A bit of material is cut from the tenon making it two smaller tenons. Likewise two mortices are cut rather than one long one. This is an extra step,but it is worth it and shows a lot of forethought and skill coming from the cabinetmaker. One other point is that this joint increases the surface area for gluing which also makes for a stronger joint. Below is a photo of the double tenon.
The base is dismantled in the photo below. In the ends of the legs you can see the two mortises.

This photo shows the base being glued back together.
The pin holes on the leaves were severely damaged from the pins being lifted straight up. The result was that the pins could be seen with the table closed. Below is a photo of one of the damaged pin holes.
In trying to figure out a way to patch this, I came up with a new idea. Traditionally, I would have cut a trapezoid shaped patch and removed the damaged area. One thing I do not like about this is that it offers no support when the leaves are pulled straight up. My remedy for this was to make a jig that allowed me to drill out the damaged area from the side of the board with a Forstner bit. Once this was done the hole could be plugged with a patch turned on the lathe to the same size. The reason I did not just use a dowel to patch the hole is that the grain of the dowel would be running perpendicular to the table leaf. By turning the plugs, I could orient the grain so it went in the direction of the leaf.

The advantage of making this kind of a patch was that the sides of the circles tapered towards each other, locking the patch in place and offering some protection from the pins being pulled straight up as the leaves are removed.

The following photo show the jig I made for this procedure. The jig was made from a scrap two by four. a pilot hole was drilled in the edge side of the board for the bit and the board was mortised to fit over the edge of the leaf. the whole board was held in place by a clamp.
The next step was to insert the bit into the hole and to drill out the damaged area. This can be seen in the photo below.
This next photo shows the result. You may notice that the hole is a little off center. this was done intentionally so that the bit would remove the damaged area from the top surface of the leaf. When viewed from the top of the leaf, the final patch looks square.

This next photo shows the patch inserted and being glued in place. I was able to turn several patches at once on the lathe so that the work went along a little quicker. The pacthes were easily cut from the turned stock to the amount that was necessary for each hole. I forgot to take a photo of the finished product, but after the glue had dried, the patched were trimmed flush with a chisel.
There were two cracks in the table. One in a leaf and the other in the table surface that I had put all of the wedges in. I cut and inserted a butterfly patch into each so that they were secure. Below are some photos of this process.

Here is the butterfly patch on the underside if the table laid next to it's mortise. You can see how deep the wedges went into the table top in this photo.
This photo shows the patch being glued in place. It is followed by a photo of the butterfly patch being glued in place on the leaf. Both were trimmed flush with a chisel after the glue had dried.

As I wrote earlier, the table was missing three leaves.The customer wanted new ones made and the photos below show that process. This first photo shows the over sized leaves milled and set in the table
With each leaf, I pinned it into place before I cut them down to size. Here is one leaf being pinned.
After all three were pinned, the leaves were cut down. Here they are in the table.
This photo shows the edge of the table leaves rough cut. The following photo shows the leaves after the edges were molded.

The last step was to stain the leaves to match the top. here is a photo of the stained leaves waiting for finish.
The next two photos show the table as the finish was being built up.

These last photos show the table after it was completed. The first few photos are of the table closed up followed by several of the table with the leaves in place. It was quite a big table and will hopefully accommodate all of the Thanksgiving guests!

Arts and Crafts Oak "Mission" Rocking Chair (ca.1910)

2011-11-01T14:36:00.006-04:00

I recently completed the restoration of a rocking chair made in the Mission style that was part of the larger Arts and Crafts Movement of the late 19th century and into the 20th. All attempts to find a maker for this chair proved to be unfruitful, but by examining the make up of the chair, I am confident that this is an original Mission Rocker from the early part of the 20th century. The chair is made entirely of quartersawn White Oak and came with its original seat which is tarred canvas. For a brief history of the Mission Style, follow this link to an article written by Pete Maloney on the subject:

http://www.gustavstickley.com/missionstylefurniture.html

Structurally the chair was in great shape, but at some point someone had decided to paint the entire chair white. This covered over all of the beautiful ray flake from the quartersawn oak that gives Mission furniture that characteristic look. The current owner of the chair had tried to remove the paint, but seeing what a daunting task this was, turned the chair over to me.

Below are three photos of the chair as it came to me.

the hardest part about this job was removing the paint from the chair which was done meticulously by my associate Jesse. I must give the man credit for this because he worked very hard to make sure the chair was free of the paint. Here is the result!

The following photo shows the chair being glued up. Overall the joinery was tight, but it needed a little gluing.

Originally, the color of mission furniture was achieved by fuming the oak boards with ammonia. A chemical reaction would darken the boards. I believe this chair was originally stained and the stain was removed during the removal of the paint. If the chair had been fumed, I believe the fuming would be evident deeper than just on the surface of the wood. At any rate, I was able to stain the chair to give it that characteristic "Mission" color. Here is a photo of the chair after it was stained.
The slats that held the seat in place were largely replaced and of differing types of wood. As a result I decided to replace them with Yellow Pine and stain it to give it an oxidized look. here are the new slats prior to staining.
These last three photos show the chair after the new finish was applied. I left the cushion off in the photos to show the new slats in the seat. Overall, it turned out very nice!

Walnut Colonial Revival Side Chair (Ca.1900)

2011-11-01T08:18:00.009-04:00

I call this chair a Colonial Revival chair, but it's overall style is really Neoclassical. The chair is made of Walnut and has some very nice carving. A quick look at the glue blocks indicated that this chair was of more modern manufacture, and not that old. I put a date of 1900 on it but that is flexible in either direction. The chair had some cosmetic issues and also needed to be re-glued. It also had a pressed in cane seat that needed to be replaced. The use of pressed in cane to me signals a later date of Manufacture, but I need to do more research to find out when this style of caning first came into use.

Here is a photo of the chair as it came to me. The finish was dirty, but was otherwise in good shape. At first, the color of the chair made me think it was made of Mahogany, but once I really looked at it I realized it was Walnut. Sometimes these two woods can be difficult to distinguish.

This photo shows the old cane seat which is loose and torn.
after removing the seat and the spline. I disassembled the chair to glue the loose joinery. The seat frame was held to the back with screws that were covered over with wood plugs, so I left it intact and glued the leg assembly after cleaning all of the old glue. Here is a photo of the chair dismantled. The blue tape is labeling so I know how to put the chair back together!
This photo shows the chair clamped while the glue is drying.

After the glue had dried, I removed the clamps, cleaned the finish, and added several coats of French Polish to the chair to build the finish back up. Once all of the finish work was done and the chair was waxed, I installed the new seat on the chair. This photo shows the seat being put in place.
The last three photos show the chair completed and with the new cane seat.

Renaissance Revival Walnut Library Table (ca. 1870) Part 1

2011-10-26T14:54:00.008-04:00

Recently I have been working on the restoration of a Renaissance Revival Library Table made around 1870. The table is made primarily of American Black Walnut and uses Poplar as a secondary wood. The secondary surfaces are veneered with Poplar and White Oak and the secondary wood on the drawer is made from Mahogany. This is a very nice example and was made with some attention to detail. The carving throughout appears to have been executed by hand and great pains were taken to give this table a finished appearance throughout. One particular example of this that I found interesting was that the underside of the table was made up of a mix of Poplar and Quartersawn Oak. Where the Poplar boards were used they were veneered with Quartersawn Oak so that if one were to look at the underside of the table you would see all Quartersawn Oak surfaces. This certainly is a lot of extra work but again, the cabinet maker was going for the look of a refined piece where no part was left untouched. Likewise, the use of finished Mahogany as a secondary wood on the drawer is a nice touch where a lesser piece might have unfinished Poplar or Oak.

The table was in pretty bad shape when I received it. All of the joinery was loose and in addition, the stretcher assembly below was badly damaged. There were also several pieces of missing trim that needed to be made. The top surface was covered with a piece of Naugahyde that was badly damaged and not original to the piece. The customer decided to have new leather installed which I will cover in Part 2 of this post. The condition of the finish was pretty good, but it was buried beneath a lot of dirt and old wax. I decided that this finish could be restored once it was thoroughly cleaned.

Here is a photo of the table as it came to my shop.

This photo details the condition of the Naugahyde top.

As you can see in the photo below, the table had some very nice carving on it.the detailed finial below is seated at the midpoint of the stretcher. this photo also shows the condition of the finish.

As stated above, the stretcher assembly was badly damaged. A large section of this stretcher was missing and needed to be patched. Below is a photo of the damaged area.

After cutting a patch to cover the damaged area, the patch was clamped in place and a scribe was used to mark its location on the board below.

The next step was to carve away the wood so that it could receive the patch. Once this was done the patch was glued in place. The photo below shows the entire stretcher assembly being glued and the following photo shows the patch being glued in place.

This photo shows the patch glued in place after the glue had dried and the clamps were removed.

The last step was to carve the patch to fit the profile of the stretcher. after this was done the patch was sanded. Below is a photo of the completed patch.

As I stated earlier, the joinery of the entire table was loose. To glue the loose joinery, I had to first dismantle the table and clean all of the old glue from the joinery. Here is a photo of the parts disassembled and marked for reassembly.

After the old glue was cleaned off, the table was reassembled with fresh glue. Below you can see the table reassembled.

One last repair was to replace missing trim around the front legs. Below is a photo of the molding stock I made that I used to make the trim pieces.

This detail photo shows the replacement trim being glued in place.

Meanwhile the top had several areas with loose veneer. The photo below shows the veneer on the top being glued in place.

Likewise, the underside of the top had several loose areas as well. The pieces of wood seen in the photo below were tacked in place to hold the veneer while the glue dried. Wax paper was put in place to separate the blocks and prevent them from getting glued to the table.

The last two photos show the table with the cleaned finish and new finish added to the old. The next step will be to apply the new leather to the top surface which will be detailed in the second part of this post.

Eastlake Bedroom Set (ca.1880) Part 2

2011-10-12T07:39:00.008-04:00

I have finished the Eastlake bedroom set I have been working on and have posted several photos of the chest with mirror, The Washstand, and the Bed below. The removal of the old finish and application of a new shellac finish really brought out the natural beauty of the walnut, especially the burled veneer. The chest and mirror frame have tops made from Tennessee marble which is actually a stone (not a true marble) found and quarried in east Tennessee. The pinkish hue of the stone really complements the walnut as you can see below.

I have also included some photos of the Victorian side chair I was working on with a new cane seat. This chair went to the same customer as the Eastlake bedroom set, so I have included it here.

Before showing photos of the pieces I wanted to include a close up shot of one of the locks. The lock has a very small stamp on it showing a patent date of 1870. I believe these pieces to be made around 1880, but this is definitive proof that they were made post 1870. The image is upside down unfortunately but the date can still be seen.

And now, the photos!

The Chair

The Bed

The Washstand

The three drawer chest with mirror

Ed Roos Cedar Blanket Chest Model # 5205 (Ca. 1930)

2011-09-29T07:35:00.007-04:00

Sometimes a little detective work really pays off. I recently restored a blanket chest for a customer. The chest looked to be an early 1930's chest in a Jacobean style ( this style, especially with turned feet, was popular in the early to mid 1930's). The chest was void of any stamps or makers marks and I assumed it was probably a Lane chest form Altavista, Virginia. While working on the chest I discovered on the bottom of the chest the numbers "5205". I entered this number and cedar chest into Google and found out that this chest was a chest made by the Ed Roos Cedar Chest Company of Forest Park, Illinois. For more on the history of this company and to view some other examples, follow this link:

http://chicagoantiquesguide.com/archives/20110116111655.php

Here are links to some photos of the Ed Roos Factory:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/drewangle/2932302176/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27480139@N05/5866461675/

The chest I was working was made from cedar, with poplar as a secondary wood and walnut veneer. It had some structural issues as well as finish issues. The legs were loose and one fell off entirely in the shop. The chest was also missing its front rail between the front legs. The finish was damaged in several areas and because of this (and the customers desire to have the piece a different color) we decided to strip the finish off. Below are several photos of the work and the finished product.

Here is a photo of the chest when it entered my shop.
This detail shot shows some damage to the finish on the top.

Here is a photo of the broken leg!

This next photo shows the base of the chest being glued in place.

A detail shot of the foot being glued back in place.

In this photo, you can see the new front rail being attached to the chest, as well as the gluing of some more loose joinery.

This photo shows the chest stripped and sanded, ready for stain and finishing.

The color of the stain chosen was based on a sample given by the customer. This photo shows the chest after staining.

The next three photos show the chest during the finishing process. This is followed by four more photos of the chest completed.

Eastlake Bedroom Set (ca. 1880) Part 1

2011-09-27T15:27:00.000-04:00

Before getting into the details of the bedroom set which I am currently restoring, I thought it might be a good idea to shed some light on the Eastlake style in America. The Eastlake style of furniture is named after Charles Lock Eastlake (b.1836- d.1906) who was an English architect and interior designer and part of the larger arts and crafts movement in England during the second half of the 19th century. His book, Hints on Household Taste in Furniture, Upholstery and other Details, Published in 1872 took its inspiration from Gothic motifs and called for a return to hand made furniture using clean lines and largely rectilinear forms. Eastlake's belief was that Victorian furniture had grown to be overly decorated and that the designs demonstrated in the Rococo and Renaissance Revivals were too flashy, and that furniture design was being dictated not by artistic inspiration, but by what the latest machines were capable of mass producing in the furniture factories of the day. Eastlake and others like him called for a reform in furniture design which pointed towards a more "honest" look, which moved away from the curvy, floral, ornate designs of the previous decades.

The irony of this is that his designs called for straight line moldings and shallow incised carvings, both design elements which were easily produced by the furniture factories of the late 19th century. What resulted was an explosion of "Eastlake" style furniture in America during the last 20 years of the 19th century. While Eastlake himself distanced himself from this approach to his earlier designs, the furniture was widely accepted by the American public, and the major furniture hubs of the late 19th century produced bedroom sets, arm chairs, tables, and just about every other form of furniture in mass quantities.

The furniture I am presently working on is a bedroom set made in one of these furniture hubs during the late 19th century. The primary wood used is black walnut and the secondary wood used throughout is poplar. Each piece in the set employs fine walnut burl veneer as a focal point. What I find so interesting about this furniture style is that it is one of the earliest to be made entirely in a mass production setting and each element is produced by machine. Even the dovetails on the furniture are made by machine. The drawer joinery in fact, is not a dovetail at all, but is called a Knapp Joint. for more on the Knapp Joint, follow this link to an earlier entry on this blog:

http://johnmarkpower.blogspot.com/2010/05/knapp-joint.html

The walnut used on these pieces has beautiful grain and the whole set has great potential. The repairs to the pieces were extensive, so I have decided to break them down into three sections, each section detailing the repairs made to one piece.

The Bed

The finish for all three pieces had deteriorated to the point that I decided to remove it. The upshot of this is that the stain that was in the finish would also come off, showing off the natural color and grain of the walnut.

There were also several repairs that needed to be made to the bed prior to the new finish being put on. Below are some photos of the bed as it came to me and the repairs made to the bed.

The head board.

The side rails.

This close up of the side rails shows a missing section on the left hand rail.

The foot board.

This photo shows a broken section on the foot board.

This photo shows the condition of the original finish. The burl veneer on the headboard was obscured by the old finish.

This photo shows the same veneer after the finish was removed.

This photo shows some molding which had fallen off of the side rail being glued back in place.

The next series of photos show the repair to the missing section of the side rail. Since I had one complete side rail, I was able to make a template by tracing the existing rail onto foam board. After that I cut it out to make the template below.

After I figured out how much of the template was necessary, I traced the pattern onto new wood as seen in the photo below.

This photo shows the template and the new wood cut to shape

Here is the new wood being glued into place.

This photo shows the finished patch after sanding.

As seen in an earlier photo, the foot board was missing a portion of the molding.

This shows the molding cleaned and squared off to receive a patch.

here is a photo of the patch being glued in place...

...and the patch ready to be carved.

This photo shows the head board during the sanding process.

Here is the bed set up to check for loose joinery. The whole bed was tight and the slats were numbered for the best possible fit. The bed is also sanded in this photo and ready for the new finish.

The Chest with Mirror
These first two photos show the chest and the mirror as they came to me.

In order to refinish the mirror frame, it was necessary to remove the mirror back and glass. When I did this I found this piece of paper glued to the inside of the back. The paper shows the names of several towns in Ohio and their population numbers. Below is a photo of the paper followed by two detail shots that are pretty legible.

The secondary wood in the mirror frame had cracked and warped behind the veneer causing the veneer to tear. This photo shows this section being repaired.

The interior runners for the chest were severely worn .the bottoms of the drawers were also worn. the next few photos shows the repairs made to the drawer runner system.

This photo is of the interior runners removed from the carcass of the chest.

The wear was due to the bottoms of the drawers rubbing wood away, so once the interior runners were removed, the worn wood was cut away and replaced with new wood. Below is a photo of the new wood before it was glued in place.

This photo shows all of the interior runners having new wood added to them.

While the glue was drying on the interior runners, I turned my focus to the drawer bottoms. To display the amount of wear on the drawer bottoms, I put a square up to a drawer side in the photo below. The bottom of the drawer should run parallel to the square and perpendicular to the drawer front.

I removed the damaged area of the drawer by standing the drawers up on end on the table saw. the next two photos show this process. The saw was stopped for the photo!

Once the worn wood was removed, I glued new wood in it's place. This process was done for the chest and the wash stand. Below is a photo of all of the drawers being glued up.

The photo below shows the interior runners with the new wood in place. It is hard to believe, but all of the wood in this photo is poplar. the new wood was stained to match the old.

The next two photos here show the interior runners being glued in place. I use pieces of wood wedged in place to "clamp" the interior runners in place while the glue dries.

This photo shows the drawers after the new bottoms were glued in place.

Here is the mirror frame after the sanding was completed.

And this photo shows the chest after sanding with the repaired drawers in place.

The Wash Stand

The wash stand got the same treatment as the rest of the pieces, but the least amount of photo documentation! I did make several repairs to the doors and the drawers, but I only have a few photo to show for it. One change I made to the stand was to remove an inappropriate glass knob that was attached to the door. I had a suitable brass turnbuckle which was fitted to the chest and looks much more appropriate.

This first photo shows the wash stand as it came to me.

This detail shot shows some loose joinery on the door which was repaired.

This photo shows the wash stand repaired, sanded, and ready for finishing.

It should be noted that the chest and the washstand have marble tops which are not pictured in these repair shots. They will be displayed in the photos of the completed pieces. My next post will show the finishing of these three pieces.

American Empire Mahogany Side Chair (ca 1840)

2011-09-14T15:21:00.000-04:00

I recently completed repairs on a side chair made during the American Empire period and dating to around 1840. The primary wood is mahogany while the secondary is pine, perhaps pointing to northern origin. The chair has had many previous repairs and is one of a set of three so the customer asked that I make the repairs to the chair and leave the finish as is.

This chair is a classic example of form over function. The legs are beautifully arched and sculpted and help to accent the curvilinear design of the chair. the lack of stretchers beneath the seat frame really adds to the visual lightness of these chars and helps to achieve the overall elegant look that is associated with these chairs. While being elegant, the chairs are also designed with production in mind and most of the initial cuts would have been made with a very rudimentary band saw. The result is a piece that is easy to mass produce and is visually appealing. So far, so good.

The problem is that when you take away the support stucture in a chair made up of the stretchers that connect the legs, the chair becomes very delicate and prone to becoming loose and eventually breaking at the joinery that is the weakest point. The repair I made was also made by a previous craftsmen to the other front leg some time ago, demonstrating that this is not a isolated problem, but a design flaw.

All of this being said, I absolutely love the look of these chairs! The chairs were made from good, tight grained mahogany and accented on the back rest with a beautiful piece of crotch mahogany veneer. This furniture design really has a clean look and I especially like it because it lets the wood do the talking rather than weighing the piece down with elaborate carving or heavy ornamentation. I guess you can't have it all, but two broken legs in 170 years is not too bad!

This first photo shows the chair as it came to me.

The front left leg was missing a large section revealing the tenon from the side stretcher.

First, I disassembled the chair where it was loose.

This photo shows the damaged area clearly. The boards in the top of the photo are clamped to create a fence to guide a router, so that I can clean up the damaged area and make it ready to accept a patch.

This photo shows the damaged area after it was routed.

Using new mahogany, I cut a square patch to fit the damaged area.

Before gluing, I rough cut the patch to the profile of the leg, to make the work with hand tools a little easier.

Here is the patch being glued in place.

One other repair was to recreate a broken tenon on the seat frame. The tenon was partially there so rather than cutting a completely new tenon, I cut half of a tenon and inserted it.

This photo shows the joinery before it was glued together.

here is a photo of the chair being glued back together.

After the glue had set, the patch was further refined and then touched- up to match the color and finish of the chair. here is a photo of the patch completed....

....and a photo of the chair completed.

Victorian Beech side Chair (ca 1875) Part 1

2011-09-08T15:07:00.000-04:00

I am currently working on a large set of Eastlake/Cottage furniture from the late 19th century which I will write about in an upcoming post. Along with this set came a Victorian side chair made from beech. The finish was very thick and old (almost resembling paint) and the chair had several breaks that needed to be repaired. I decided to write a post dealing with the repairs up to the staining of the chair. I will post photos of the chair when it is completed and a new cane seat has been applied.

This first photo shows the chair as it came to me.

Once the cane seat was removed, I took a few close up photos of some of the previous repairs made to the chair using nails. The next two photos show these repairs in detail.

This photo shows the seat frame with the cane removed.

The first step was to remove the old finish. The photo below shows the chair once this was completed.

The chair was then dismantled so that I could clean the loose joinery of it's old glue. This also gave me a chance to make repairs to the seat frame. The broken section of the seat frame can be seen in the bottom of the photo.

This photo shows the frame front section of the seat frame being repaired.

One of the stretchers that goes from front to back was missing and the one opposite it had a very large crack that had been repaired with nails. Rather than fixing this stretcher, I decided to turn two new stretchers out of beech from an old table runner.

the next two photos show the chair being glued up.

This close up shot shows the new stretchers in place.

After the glue had dried, I sanded the wood to prepare it for staining.

I stained the chair based on the darkest color on the chair. It will be a similar color to the rest of the cottage furniture when it is completed.

As I mentioned before, I will write a follow up entry when the chair is completed.

Cherry Side Tables (ca 1960)

2011-09-08T14:37:00.000-04:00

I recently completed work on two cherry side tables. The tables came to me with no finish on them. At first glance I thought they were maple or beech due to their light color. The tables had sustained a little light water damage and needed to be sanded to remove rings , etc. Also the legs were a little loose so I glued any loose joinery. When I applied alcohol to the wood to clean the tables I quickly realized by the red color of the wood that this was cherry I was dealing with. Not wanting to loose the nice blonde color of the tables, the customer and I decided to go with a paste wax finish. On a closed pore wood like cherry, a wax finish can be quite nice. The only downside is that while the wax protects the wood from water damage initially, it offers virtually no protection against scratches and more severe damages they way shellac or a varnish wood. But in this case, the paste wax finish really did the trick giving the tables a nice soft luster and cherry is a strong wood not easily damaged. Below are a few photos of the repairs to the tables and the application of the wax finish.

This photo shows one of the tables as it came to me.

This detail shot shows the water damage to the wood. none of it was too severe.

The last two shots show a sanded table next to the other with the paste wax applied and buffed out. Eventually both tables were finished using the same process.

Duncan Phyfe Style Mahogany Dining Table (ca 1950)

2011-09-08T14:23:00.000-04:00

I recently completed work on a mahogany veneer dining table. The top needed to be refinished, but I was able to restore the finish on the base. I then gave the table a nice Fench Polished finish. Below are some photos of the repairs and the restoration of this table and it's leaf.

This first photo shows the bases being glued. The legs were pegged in place but they were still a little loose, so I applied some new glue and tightened them up.

When veneering a surface, most manufacturers also veneer the opposite surface. The reason for this is to keep the wood in the center from taking on moisture at a different rate from the underside (possibly warping the substrate boards). This technique was applied to this table and over time the veneer on the underside has loosened. Below are photos of three different clamping sessions gluing down the loose veneer.

Once all of the repairs were made, the table top was sanded to remove scratches and prepare it to be stained. The end result can be seen below.

Here is the same shot after the stain was added to the top to match the color of the base.

After many coats of shellac were applied using the French Polishing technique, the table was finally finished. Wax was applied lastly to protect the finish from water spills and give the table nice even polish. below are three photos of the completed table.

Caned and Upholstered Arm Chair (Ca. 1960)

2011-09-08T07:52:00.000-04:00

I recieved a chair recently that had caned panels between the arms and the seat. The original cane was torn on one side and the other had a small hole in it. In addition, the chair was a little loose in spots. Below are a few photos of the chair being repaired followed by some photos of the chair with the new cane installed and the process of staining the cane to match the existing color of the original.

In this first photo, you can see the damage to the cane. Before removing the cane, all of the loose joinery was repaired on the chair.

Sometimes, a previous repair prevents you from making a repair the way you want to! This was the case here. A dowel holding the arm in place was preventing the joint between the leg and the seat stretcher from closing up entirely. The answer was to glue in a little piece of wood to make up the difference. This is the lighter piece of wood seen in the photo below.

After the glue dried I carved the excess away from the scrap piece and touched it up to match the finish and color of the rest of the chair. The repair can be seen (or not seen) in the photo below.

After the repairs were made I took the chair to the caner and she replaced both panels of cane with new material. Here is a photo of the chair with the new cane.

The following photo shows the chair prepared for the staining process. I was starting to feel a little like the artist Christo!

After the stain was applied and sealed with shellac, the plastic was removed to reveal the completed chair. Below are a few photos of the completed work.

Hitchcock Style High Chair 2 (1970)

2011-08-08T19:36:00.000-04:00

Deja Vu! Back in June I restored a Hitchcock Style high chair made around 1970 for a customer. Soon after I finished the high chair and wrote a post about it I was contacted by someone looking to buy that chair. Unfortunately the chair was not for sale and I directed this customer to similar examples for sale on the internet. Several weeks later my friend Jesse was in an antique store in Brunswick, Maryland, and saw the exact high chair for sale. After an email to the customer, I drove over to the store and purchased the chair. It was in similar condition to the first one I had worked on and needed the same work. The result was that I restored a second Hitchcock high chair. below are several photos of the restoration as well as the finished product. I have also included a link to the first high chair below:

http://johnmarkpower.blogspot.com/2011/06/hitchcock-style-high-chair-ca1970.html

These first four photos show the high chair after I bought it. The second photo shows a crack in the seat that was repaired. The third photo shows areas where the black paint had chipped off.

The customer wanted to have the wood parts refinished like the other one that I had worked on. Here is a photo of the seat after the finish was removed followed by another photo of the tray and foot rest with the finish removed.

These next two photos show the wood parts after they were sanded and stained.

The next two photos show the chair during the finishing process.

Here are some photos of the completed chair. All of the black paint was touched up. After these photos were taken the chair was packed and shipped to the customer.

Pressed Back Rocking Chair (ca 1890)

2011-08-05T07:25:00.000-04:00

One of the pieces I have recently completed is a pressed back rocking chair made around 1890. The reason I give for this date is that that is when the method of pressing designs (into wood using metal wheels with the design etched in) was first used in a commercial setting. The wheel was forced down on to the wood surface (probably powered by steam) and rolled across the surface of the wood creating the patterns and giving the overall impression of a carved back. The overall design of this chair also seems to be fitting with the turn of the last century.

The chair was very loose and had a severe break in the seat of the chair. One of the lower back posts had pierced through the seat and was lodged with the tenon poking through. This break happened quite sometime ago, because at one point someone tried to address it with nails and then covered over the seat with naugahyde. The seat subsequently cracked in half and was only held together by braces underneath. In addition, the chair was held together with nails in all of the joinery. In short, this rocking chair needed some help!

Below are photos of the chair from start to finish. You can see all of the repairs made and the final product. I will start with a photo of the chair as it arrived in my shop.

Here is a close up of the seat with the upholstery.

Once the naugahyde was removed, I could see the extent of the damage. In this photo you can see how the wood was raised by the tenon poking through.

The photo below shows the crack that developed in the entire seat.

Once the seat was removed from the rest of the chair I removed the braces that were bracing the seat. I believe that the smaller brace was original to the chair while the bluish green slat was added as a repair.

Another view of the damaged seat.

After the braces were removed, I removed the finish from the seat. The crack in the seat was completely separated as seen in the photo below.

This was a section of the seat that was completely loose. It had been repaired before and had lost some material. Rather than putting it back in, I made a patch that would span the area. This way there was a tighter surface for gluing up.

This photo shows the new patch before it was glued in place. It was later carved flush with the contour of the seat.

Here is a photo of the seat being glued up.The patch is also being glued and can be seen in the lower right corner of the photo.

After the seat was glued, I noticed significant wood loos in the underside of the crack that ran the length of the seat. Glue alone would not hold the seat together! I made three butterfly patches that spanned the crack in three spots. Below is a photo of the patches before they were inserted into the seat. The following photo shows the patches in place and trimmed flush.

While the glue on the patches was drying, I disassembled the rest of the chair and scraped the joints clean. The chair had many nails in it which took a little time to remove, but I eventually got all of the loose joints apart. The following two photos show the chair knocked apart.

I glued the rocker up with the arms held in place by clamps alone so I knew that everything aligned properly. After the glue dried I removed the arms and spindles to make the staining of the seat a little easier. Here is a photo of the chair glued up followed by a photo of the chair with the arms removed and the seat stained.

After the seat was stained, the last thing to do was to build up the finish on the seat and clean and add finish to the rest of the chair. The results can be seen in the three photos of the completed rocking chair.

Walnut and Maple Jewelry Box (Fall 2011)

2011-07-28T22:43:00.000-04:00

I have been commissioned to build a custom jewelry box for a customer this coming fall.The jewelry box is to be made of Walnut with maple accents. The dimensions of the box are to be 15 inches wide by 6 inches tall by 12 inches deep. When open, the jewelry box will have a removable tray. the box will also sit in a stand so that the over all height will be thirty inches.

The basic design for the box right now is to have a Walnut burl veneer top that is captured by solid Walnut sides. The top will be inlaid with a 1/8 inch band of Maple and the front will have an inlaid diamond escutcheon of maple. The finished product will have a inlaid brass engraved plate in the top as well. The joinery will be keyed and the spline joints will either be made of Walnut or Maple. I have included preliminary drawings of the box on stand below that I have designed using Google Sketchup. This is a project that is still in development, so I will post some photos of the final drawings, and ultimately the finished product. You can click on any of the photos to see them in a larger format.

A front view of the box with the Maple splines in the corner.

A view of the box in perspective with Maple splines.

A front view of the box with Walnut splines.

The box in perspective with Walnut splines.

Atop view showing the burled Walnut and the Maple banding.

A view of the Walnut base in perspective.

A view of the base from the top.

The box on stand from the front.

The box on stand from the side.

Duncan Phyfe Style Mahogany Sofa (ca. 1930) Part 1

2011-07-28T08:22:00.000-04:00

Duncan Phyfe was a Scottish cabinetmaker who lived and worked in New York City in the early 19th century. Working in the larger Neoclassical style of the time, he created furniture designs that have been widely copied ever since. One design element, the curved out swept leg (as seen on this couch) is so closely linked with Duncan Phyfe that it is often simply called a Duncan Phyfe leg. For more information on Duncan Phyfe and his contributions, check out the following link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duncan_Phyfe

The sofa I have been working on is made in the Neoclassical style, but is a reproduction that was made some time around 1930. the frame for the sofa is made of White Oak and the exposed parts are all Mahogany. The sofa looked to be in pretty good shape at first glance, but below the surface was a lot of loose joinery and some old repairs that were shoddily done by a previous upholsterer. The sofa also had a very thick,opaque finish on it that was really masking the grain below. Here is a photo of the sofa as it came to me.

The Duncan Phyfe Leg

The first step in working on this sofa was to remove the upholstery. This is no small feat! Not only does the fabric come off as well as all of the stuffing, but the tacks and staples all need to be removed as well so the the upholsterer has a clean surface area to attach the new upholstery. At the end of the day my shoes sounded like tap shoes because of all of the tacks that were stuck in the soles!

After the upholstery was removed, The next thing I did was to remove the finish and make the repairs to the sofa. The Arms, legs ,and back were all loose, so I repaired the loose joinery. Below are a few photos of this process.

Gluing a loose leg.

A piece of the frame was loose and later glued back in place.

Loose joinery where the arms meet the back.

After the repairs were made to the frame and cosmetic repairs made to the mahogany parts, the sofa was sanded and made ready for staining. Here is a photo of the repaired frame. The springs were left in place in the seat so that the upholsterer can examine their configuration.

This next photo shows the frame after it was stained.

These last two photos show the frame during the finishing process. After the finish is applied, I will take the frame to the upholsterer to get upholstered.

Continuous Arm Veneered Rocking Chair (ca.1920) Part 1

2011-07-28T07:45:00.000-04:00

One of the pieces that I am currently working on for a customer is an upholstered continuous arm rocking chair. The chair is made of Birch and the arms are veneered with ribbon Mahogany. I could not find much in the way of history on this chair, but I think it comes from somewhere around 1920. The initial shape of the arms is cut using a bandsaw and then veneered over with a Mahogany. This technique in furniture making was introduced in the 1840's and can be seen on American Empire furniture. The claw foot on the rocker is machine carved.

When I received the rocker it had large sections of missing veneer on the arm and the joinery was loose. Below is a photo of the chair as it came to me. You can see that most of the veneer on the right arm (facing the chair) is missing.

This next photo shows the chair after the upholstery was removed.

This next photo shows the chair with the finish removed. The blue tape on the arm is holding a loose piece of the arm in place.

The chair had loose joinery, and it appears that it never had glue blocks in the rear of the seat frame. Glue blocks are pieces of wood glued and screwed to the frame in the inside corners to help add strength to the joints. The glue blocks on the front of the seat frame were nailed in place, so the the nails were replaced with screws and new blocks made for back. The loose joints were also spread apart and new glue put in place. The next two photos show the new glue blocks and then a photo of the frame getting glued up.

After the joinery was tightened, the next thing to do was to repair the veneer damage. The general idea of this is to clean the old glue from the damaged area, cut new veneer that will cover the space and attach it. After the glue is dried the excess glue is removed with hot water and the excess veneer is trimmed. Below are several shots of the veneer repair. I have put in captions to describe what is seen in each photo.

This is a photo of the right arm after the old glue was scraped from the Birch frame.

A long strip of veneer was assembled using smaller pieces taped together. This photo shows the glue being spread on the veneer.

Placing the veneer on the birch frame.

It is extremely important to clamp the entire surface area to prevent bubbles in the veneer. The easiest way to do this in this case was to use a lot of clamps. I think every clamp in the shop may have been used here!

After the glue dried overnight, the clamps were removed and the veneer below was the new veneer. The blue tape is covering the seams in the veneer.


This photo shows the veneer being glued down on the left arm

The next few photos show the after the chair was sanded and the ultimately stained. The new veneer blends very well with the old and is hardly (if at all) noticeable.

The sanded chair ready for staining!

The right arm with its new veneer.

A patch on the left arm.

The last two photos show the chair stained and ready for finish.

Mahogany and Birch Fireplace Mantel (ca. 1898) Part 2

2011-07-20T16:16:00.000-04:00

Below are a few photos of the mantel I have been working on completed. The stained glass doors really look nice and tie the whole piece together. On the back splash above the overmantel, there are two screws which hold the mantel to the wall. In an effort to conceal these, we used brass bed bolt covers to cover the screw heads. Here are the photos.

Mid-Atlantic Ladderback Arm Chair (ca. 1780) Part 2

2011-07-17T09:11:00.000-04:00

Well, I finished the restoration and repair of the ladderback arm chair I have been working on. It is always an enjoyable experience working on and spending time with a piece of furniture this old. I find my mind imagining the hands that created this piece as well as the many hands that it passed through. After all, isn't this why we are drawn to these things? Each piece is a direct link to another time and place, giving us a small glimpse of what life was like and how our ancestors thought about things. From the intention of the piece, to it's manufacture detail, to its subsequent use, all shed light on a piece of our collective history. Personally, Taking a chair apart like this and studying it to see what I can find out gives me a sense of communion with it's maker that gives the whole project a new purpose. We are fortunate to have these crafted pieces of art to admire in this day and age.

Once the joinery was reassembled on this chair, the next step was to clean the existing finish and build it back up. A previous owner had used linseed oil to "feed" the finish, resulting in a build up on the finish. This is usually a hard thing to remove, but it came off a little easier on this chair. After the surface was brought down to a consistent level, I applied new finish to the old in a process known as amalgamation. With a few coats of new finish, the chair developed a nice sheen, while still displaying the many signs of use. Below are a few photos of the chair, starting with the chair after my work was completed. The chair was then sent to the caner Chris Frear for a new rush seat. As always, Chris did a perfect job on the seat. The last few photos show the chair after it the seat was put on and ready for delivery.

Two small notes about the chair:

1) I do think that the chair was originally painted blue. My hunch is that the maker probably made the chair to be either finished clear or painted and that in this case it was painted. Not knowing the final finish on the chair during the manufacturing process, the maker probably decided to put the decorative scribe marks on the finials, in case it was finished clear. Because of the variation of the woods used and their different visual characteristics, chairs like these were often painted in the eighteenth century. Evidence of white paint was also found showing that this chair went through several different looks. The places where the blue paint were found indicate that it was probably the original finish.

2) One thing I never discussed was the gap between the top slat and the second one down. Usually the slats are evenly spaced. This one has a greater gap between these two than the other slats. I have not seen another example like this and do not see an obvious reason for doing this, but I am positive it was done intentionally. Perhaps future research will shed some light on this.

Mahogany and Birch Fireplace Mantel (ca. 1898) Part 1

2011-07-09T14:32:00.001-04:00

One of the pieces I have been working on recently is a late Victorian Mahogany and Birch mantel made around 1898. The mantel is somewhat typical of the era and has an overmantel storage area for books or plates. The doors for the overmantel have factory made stained glass panels that I think are original to the piece. The interior of the overmantel has plate grooves in the bottom, indicating that the piece was made with the option for clear glass in mind as well as the stained glass. What is most likely is that the mantel was ordered out of a catalog and the buyer was able to choose the glass that they wanted.

When the mantel was removed and brought into the shop, I discovered that there was a date and signature on the back of the mantel. The inscription reads like this, "1898 F.W. Balt. MD."Written in Pencil. This could mean several things. It could mean that this mantel was made in 1898 by "F.W". in Baltimore, MD. This could also be an inspection mark as it passed through Baltimore to it's final destination.Who "F.W." is remains a mystery. There was also a small label that had been painted over on the back of the mantel. I was able to carefully scrape off the paint to reveal that the label was a stock label for the worker or inspector to write down the mill number, mantel type, manufacturer, and wood. Under the "made by" heading there is the faint remnant of a signature, but it is illegible. Most likely this is in reference to the person who assembled the mantel and not the company that produced it. So in the end, no manufacturer, but I was able to find an approximate date for the mantel's manufacture.

The mantle was in pretty good shape over all, but the finish had cracked with age and cleaning. In addition, some areas, particularly the columns, had been touched up with paint of a mahogany color. Luckily, the use of paint was not to cover up some significant veneer loss, but looks most likely to be a cheap form of "Touch-Up".

When the mantel was removed from the wall the 110 year old glue gave out at the joints, so it pretty much fell apart on site. Below is a photo of the mantel when it came into my shop.

This next photo shows one of the columns that was painted.

The following three photos are of the signature on the back of the mantel.

This next photo shows the overmantel being glued up. It was missing some glue blocks and had loosened up significantly.

To assemble the mantel, the entire piece was flipped upside down. Certain parts of the mantel were screwed together and others glued. here is a photo of the mantel being glued up followed by the mantel flipped right side up. Supports were attached to the bottom to keep the mantel from falling over in the shop.

The capitals of the columns were made from a resin that was poured into a mold and cast. Each capital was comprised of four sections that were glued to the column. there were several pieces missing from each capital, which I replaced and carved to match. After all of the repairs were made and the mantel was sanded, the entire mantel was stained to the original color. The next photo shows the stained column. The next post will show some of the finishing of the mantel and photos of the mantel completed.

Mid-Atlantic Ladderback Arm Chair (ca.1780) Part 1

2011-07-05T16:28:00.000-04:00

Recently I have started to repair and restore a Ladderback or Post and Rung Arm chair which I have dated to being manufactured around 1780.In fact , this chair could have been made anywhere between 1750 and 1800. Dating a chair correctly is tricky business because this style of chair was made from the early 18th century through the beginning of the 20th century and continues to be made today. At first glance I had a feeling that it was probably made in the 18th century, mainly by looking at the finial design, but it is extremely difficult to be sure of such a thing. My suspicions were latter strengthened through close examination of the joinery, which I will discuss later. The really amazing thing for me about the restoration of this chair is how much I was able to discover about it with close examination.

A similar chair appears in the book Southern Furniture 1680-1830:The Colonial Williamsburg Collection by Ronald L. Hurst and Jonathan Prown. There are several stylistic differences between the two chairs, but over all the construction methods used are very similar. One striking similarity is how low the stretchers are on the bottom of the chair. This was a feature I immediately saw in the chair I am working on. two notable differences are the arm design and also the fact that the Williamsburg chair has a square seat while the chair I am working on has a trapezoidal seat. These, I believe are all stylistic differences, perhaps particular to a region and or a particular maker. below is a like to this book:

The chair is made up of two woods, Maple and Hickory. Maple was used for the posts of the chair, while every other component was made from Hickory. The chair came with a worn rush seat which was not original. Here is a photo of the chair as it came to me.

Above is a photo of the side profile of the chair. If you notice, the chair back is set at a slightly skewed angle from the rest of the chair. This allowed the back to be a bit reclined for more comfortable seating. Other ways of achieving this were to steam bend the rear posts so that they were bent a little in the middle or to use a method of multi-axis turning to achieve a bent rear post. Early American chairmakers seemed to prefer a straight leg set at an angle (which involves some interesting joinery angles) to the other two methods. In the 19th century, chairmakers commonly used the steam bending technique to achieve the raked back. This alone is not a good way to date a chair, because there examples of all of these methods throughout the 18th and 19th century.


The photo above is taken from the top of one of the rear posts. It is hard to see, but the leg is slightly oval in shape. Originally the posts would have been turned round on a lathe. as with all woods, the posts have shrunk along the grain so that the circle has turned into an oval. As I will later show, this natural function of the wood is used to the chairmaker's advantage.

When a chairmaker was plotting the layout for where the stretchers would meet the posts, he needed to have a way of marking where to drill the mortises for the tenons on the stretchers. Pencils were not as readily available as they are today, so alternative methods were used. Traditionally, when a post was on the lathe, the final step in the turning process would be to incise lines at the points where the post and stretcher would meet. this would either be done with the pointed end of a skew chisel on end, or by use of a stick with several sharpened metal points fixed to it being placed next to the spinning blank. the points would incise the lines exactly where the chairmaker wanted them. The benefit of this later technique was that the measurements were predetermined on the stick with the points and the scribe lines could be repeated exactly from post to post. Neither of these methods were used by this chairmaker. The scribe marks on this chair were made on the lathe while the blank was spinning using wire to burn the wood by friction. This permanently darkens the wood and serves the exact same function as the incised lines. I have heard of this technique in turning before in turning, but this is the first time I have ever come across it being used for this particular application. Above is a close up shot of two of the scribe marks on the chair. They mark the top and bottom points of the mortise for one of the slats in the back of the chair.

This photo is a closeup of the finial. With more research, it might be possible to find out the region and possibly the maker of this chair by close examination of the finial. The lines on the finial were once again made by use of the wire burning technique.

As stated above the rush seat on the chair was not original and was in need of replacement. When I started to remove the old seat I noticed that old newspaper had been used for stuffing between the layers of rush. The paper was balled up and very brittle from age, but I was able to open enough to find out that the seat had been put on in 1934 in Xenia, Ohio, a town near Dayton. The paper was various copies of the Xenia gazette. One copy had a date of Friday October 20th, 1934. above are two photos of the paper I found.

This photo shows the chair after the seat was removed.

What followed next was very interesting and told me great deal about the manufacture of this chair and the amount of attention to detail that the maker put into his work. The techniques used below also confimed in my mind that this chair was made during the 18th century, since that is the time period in which they were most used.

The chair was loose in spots and so I set about knocking the chair apart so I could clean the joinery and re-glue the chair. When I started to dismantle the chair, I found that the tenons for the chair had a specialized design. after a little research this is what I have learned.

Chair makers of the 18th century used two techniques to make a locking tenon that would keep the chair tight, even when the glue dried. One utilized a split tenon that was wedged from the interior. The other process is as follows. The chair maker would make the tenon of the stretcher slightly bulbous, sometimes carving a shoulder onto the inside of the bulb. The stretchers were made of Hickory in this case. The sides of the tenon would sometimes be carved down flat so that the tenon was slightly wider in one direction that the other. The tenons were then heated by putting them next to a wood stove on just outside of a fire in an effort to remove the moisture from the tenon causing it to shrink. Meanwhile, the posts for the chair would be made from green wood and the mortice for the stretcher would be made using a Spoon bit. Below is a photo of a spoon bit:

Spoon Bit

The spoon bit used with a brace would drill out a hole for the mortise. With a little movement, the chairmaker would cause the bit to cut a hole slightly wider in the center. After the mortise was drilled and the tenon was dried, the tenon would be hammered into the mortice with a little hot hide glue. The moisture from the hide glue would cause the tenon to expand into the mortise causing it to lock in place. As the posts cured, the wood would contract around the tenon making the fit tighter. The flattened sides of the tenon prevented the post from cracking at it shrank do to pressure. The end result was a tight fitting joint for the ages that relied largely on the forces of mother nature.

Any person who has ever glued a chair will tell you that the sections that loosens up the most are the stretchers that connect the front of the chair to the back. This is due to the motion of people sitting in the chairs and leaning back, etc. To accommodate for this, the chairmaker oriented the posts so that the maximum amount of shrinkage would happen around these stretchers, minimizing the amount that the chair loosened. The result was that although the stretchers from side to side were loose, the stretchers from front to back were very tight and needed no re-gluing, just a little wedging in spots.

It is very impressive that this amount of consideration went into the manufacture of this chair. It clearly shows that it was the intent of the chairmaker of old to build a chair that would last for generations to come.

Below are some photos of the tenons.

This photo shows the tenon with its carved shoulder. The end of the tenon was rounded like the end of the spoon bit.

The flat side of the tenon can be seen in this photo.

It is worth mentioning that while I had the chair apart, I noticed that the tenons for the slats had a barb on the top edge of the tenon, similar to the tenons on the stretchers. These serve no function that I can see, because they are visible when the chair is together and do not lock the slats in place. One other thing I discovered while the seat was off and the chair disassembled was that there appeared to be remnants of blue paint. Many of these chairs were originally painted and refinished some time later on. It is my opinion that the chair was not painted originally due to the fact that the finial has a decorative scribe mark around its diameter. I do think that it was later painted and then striped and refinished at some point. It is possible that the paint is original and that would certainly be in keeping with the trends of the time.

The tenon of a slat with its barbed side and remnants of the blue paint. This photo shows the condition of the existing finish in detail. The crazing in the finish is largely due to use of linseed oil on the finish.

these last two photos show the chair disassembled and also being re-glued. The next post will focus on the restoration of the finish and the application of a new seat.

New Haven No. 1 Movement Walnut Regulator Clock (ca. 1885)

2011-06-30T14:28:00.009-04:00

Recently , I received a regulator clock made by the New Haven Clock Company.To read a little about the history of the New Haven Clock Company, you can follow this link:
http://www.clockguy.com/SiteRelated/SiteReferencePages/NewHavenClockCoHistory.html

Judging by the overall style of the clock I dated it to be from around 1885. The clock has a Pine case with a Walnut turned frame surrounding the clock face. The Pine portions of the clock had been stained to match the natural color of the Walnut frame.It was evident that the clock had been refinished at some point in the past, and that the existing finish on the clock could be restored. the following photos show the restoration of the finish as well as the repairs made to the clock.

Here is a photo of the clock as it came to me.
On the inside of the lower door which houses the pendulum, I found this label on the reverse side of the glass.
To work on the case of the clock, I needed to remove the face of the clock as well as the works. This gave me the opportunity to take a photo of the works which were in very good condition.
Most of the repairs were made to the turned Walnut frame. this was made up out of six individual pieces of Walnut which were assembled using several lap joints. Once the pieces were fit together, they were turned on a lathe together to produce the molded frame. Several of these lap joints had become unglued over time and were loose. The photos below show the joinery being glued on the frame.

After the repairs were made, the case was cleaned and new finish was applied to the old, bringing out the natural beauty of the wood. Meanwhile, all of the brass parts (excluding the movement) were cleaned. After the case was waxed, the entire clock was reassembled. Below are two photos of the clock during the application of the new finish. These are followed by several photos of the clock after it was completed. The last three photos were taken using the Retrocamera setting on my phone and seemed to be very appropriate for the clock. As for the clock itself, I started the pendulum when I was finished and it seems to keep pretty good time!

3/4 Maple Sacking Bottom Bed (ca. 1840) Part 2

2011-06-25T07:48:00.006-04:00

Most of the photos below are of the bed that I have been working on completed. I also included several color and black and white photos of the bed taken with a RetroCamera App on my phone just for fun. Before getting into those, I also included a few photos of the slats that I made for the bed.

The bed had a unique problem in that the hardware that connected the rails to the head and foot board is a hook assembly. This is common enough, but usually, the hooks, which are connected to the rails, have two hooks per end. the reason for this is to keep the rails from swinging side to side. This bed had one hook per end, and so the rails moved around. The worst case scenario would be one of the rails slipping out from under the mattress and the mattress and the occupant falling to the floor in the middle of the night!

To rectify this, I kept the existing hardware, but made three special dovetailed slats that fit into the rails and prevent any movement. These slats lie underneath the other, more conventional slats. Here is a photo of the slats followed by a close up of one of the dovetails.

The rest of the photos below are of the completed bed. The first three were taken with a regular camera setting and the rest with the RetroCamera setting.

3/4 Maple Sacking Bottom Bed (ca. 1840)

2011-06-18T06:53:00.008-04:00

One of the pieces I am currently working on is a 3/4 size bed made of Maple that dates to around 1840. The only exception to the Maple is the Pine head and foot boards. This bed is what is called a sacking bottom bed and is often mistaken for a rope bed. The difference is that in a rope bed, the rails would be pierced and the rope would thread through the posts, making up a web that the mattress could sit on. The sacking bottom bed has a canvas with grommets, similar to a modern tarp, that is stretched and tied with ropes. The rails have pegs which protrude for the rope to wrap around.

For a detailed description with drawings, you can follow this link:

http://www.countrybed.com/ancillary_pages/reference/Rope.shtml

One of the things that I find interesting about this bed is its construction. The side rails and the rails below the head and foot board were turned. At each end of a rail, the rails were threaded so that they screw into the posts. What this means is that the bed can be completely dismantled for storage. The flip side of this is that it takes three people to put this bed together! One to hold each post, and a third person to screw the rails in place. The result is that the bed is very tight when assembled, and the original sacking bottom would have pulled the rails so that they got even tighter, eliminating a squeaky,loose bed (a rarity in antique beds).

As time went on and people switched over to a box spring, these beds were converted, and this is the case with this particular bed. The original rails for the bed were discarded and new more traditional rails retrofitted , probably some time in the late 19th century.

The bed was in decent shape when I got it, but needed some structural repairs which meant removing the finish. Below are a series of photos that show the repair work in progress.

Here are two photos of the head and foot board. You can see the holes in the posts where the original rails would have threaded in. The long vertical mortises next to the holes accommodate the hardware for the replacement rails.
On the rails, there were boards added to the top at either end for decoration. One of these boards was very loose and had fallen off. Below is a photo of the boards followed by a photo of the repair.

Both the head and the foot board had cracks in them which came from shrinkage in the wood. Luckily the crack in the foot board was not to severe, and I was able to draw it together with screws that were hidden, minimizing the visual impact of the repair. The head board had a more significant crack that had been previously fixed with an iron mending plate. The plate was removed and three butterfly patches were inlayed into the back side of the head board. Below are some photos of this process. The patches will later be touched up.

The crack in the head board and the mending plate.
The three butterfly patches laid out.
Carving out the mortises for the dovetails.
All three mortises carved out and ready for the butterfly patches
The three butterfly patches in place. The crack was later wedged with wood on both sides.
The rails for the head and foot board were turned out of solid maple. Finding turning blanks that were this large in diameter has always been a problem. As a result when the bed was made, the cabinet maker used a piece with a little bit of bark inclusion. The bark was situated so that it was on the underside and not visible. Over time this bark has fallen out a bit and at the end a significant portion of the wood and bark was torn off. I decided to patch the missing portion of the wood and fill the bark areas. They will eventually be fauxed to look like bark again.

Below is a photo of the damaged area.

Using a router and a special jig I made, I was able to create a flat spot for a patch to fit into.
In this photo, the patch is being glued in place.
Here is the patch, ready for carving.
To round over the patch, I used a hand plane to remove the majority of the material, followed by some chisel work and some final sanding. Here is the patch after it was carved.
One of the rails was bowed pretty badly and to remedy this, I replaced the slat supports with new straight and sturdy supports. There is still a little waviness to the wood, but it reduced the bow to 1/8 of an inch across the entire length of the rail. Here is a photo of the new slat supports being glued in place.
There was a little damage to the turning on the bed. The photo below shows that there is finish on the broken area of the turning. This and other indicators led me to believe that this bed had been refinished in the past, and helped me to make a decision about removing the existing finish. Below are a few photos of the patching of this broken area.
The initial patch glued in place.
The patch after it was carved down.
These last two photos show the bed after the repairs were made and the pieces sanded. In my next post I will show the fabrication of the new slats and also the completion of the bed.

Hitchcock Style High Chair (ca.1970)

2011-06-16T15:32:00.005-04:00

Another piece I have recently restored is a Hitchcock style high chair. I figure it was made around 1970, but it could be older or younger. The chair was in pretty good shape, except that the finish had deteriorated. The black painted areas and the stenciling were in good enough condition to restore, so I selectively masked off the wood areas and removed the finish from these sections only. I then sanded and stained those areas and applied shellac to those areas. After the finish was built up a little, I started to coat the entire chair. The worn areas on the black surfaces were touched up and the chair was eventually waxed. The beauty of using a shellac finish on this piece is that it is a child friendly finish and now the high chair is ready to use!

Below are photos of the entire restoration process.

Here are a few photos of the chair as it came to me.

The next few photos show the chair after the natural wood areas has been stripped and sanded.

These next few photos show the same sections after they were stained.

These last few photos show the finished product.

New England Federal Candlestand (1810-`1825) Part 2

2011-06-16T14:32:00.004-04:00

Here are a few photos of the candlestand I have been working on. When I left off, I had completed all of the repairs to the table, including some major repairs to the pedestal where one leg is dovetailed in. The piece had been stained at one time and the stain proved to be hard to remove. In order to even the piece out, I stained it again. Most likely, this piece would have been stained originally anyway, and to remove all of the stain from the piece would mean a lot of invasive sanding. The other benefit of staining was that it toned up my repairs so well, that I decided to leave them natural and not try to hide them with touch-up powders. Here is a photo of the table after it was stained.
The next few photos show the table after the restoration was completed. the new finish is shellac based with a final coat of paste wax. The finish was applied using a French Polish method. Most of the scratches and dings were left in place to retain the piece's sense of authenticity and originality.

Anthony Buzak Mahogany End Table (ca. 2000)

2011-06-16T08:20:00.005-04:00

Sometimes accidents even happen to a brand new piece of furniture. The table I recently completed was made circa 2000 by Anthony Buzak of Tonawanda, NY. Mr. Buzak builds tables of many shapes and sizes and has been in business as a professional woodworker since 1990. To view his work including this table, Click on the link below to his website:

http://www.anthonybuzak.com

The legs and apron of the end table I worked on are made of Mahogany. The top has a veneer of quilted Mahogany with an inlayed band of Ebony and Mahogany molding around the edges. The legs of the table have an elegant sweep outwards and the Quilted veneer on the top is dazzling.

Below are two photos of the table as it came to me.

Here is the artists stamp on the underside of the table.
The reason that I had this table to work on was that the table had accidentally been used as a bedside table and sweating water glasses severely damaged the finish on the top. here is a photo of the top with the water damage.
To remedy this, I removed the finish from the top and refinished it with shellac. The natural color of the wood was beautiful, so no stain was used. I also cleaned the base and gave it a couple of coats of shellac to bring it out. Afterwards, the entire table was coated with paste wax to help protect the finish. Below are several photos of the completed table.

New England Federal Candlestand (1810-`1825) Part 1

2011-06-09T14:44:00.007-04:00

One of the pieces I am currently working on is a Candlestand made in Maine during the Federal Period sometime between 1810 and 1825. Before going on to explain the history of the piece, I feel that I should first write a few lines concerning the design of this piece.

The top is square and has a serpentine perimeter that is canted on the corners. The underside of the top is beveled to give the top an appearance of being thinner than it is. The top is fixed to the base with a tapered batten that is beveled and attached to the base with a wedged mortise joint. The column of the base is turned and the vasiform pedestal is beaded, this action being performed on the lathe during the original manufacture. the pedestal is connected to the legs using dovetail joinery. The legs are in a spider shape typical of the Federal period and terminate in a spade foot. With all of these details assembled, the result is a wonderful and unique table.

The piece was handed down through many generations to its current owner, and was reported to have been made in Maine. There is a very similar piece that is included in the Wintherthur collection and is listed as number 381 in the book "American Furniture: the Federal Period" ByCharles F. Montgomery. The piece in the book is given similar dates and under description notes that it was probably made in a rural area in New England. I would have to agree with this statement and the use of Maple and Birch (both northern domestic woods) would back this rural provenance up.

The piece was in really rough shape when it came into my shop. The main problem was that joinery for the legs had broken and been poorly repaired in the past. The top was also loose and the table had been stained red at some point. I do not think that this was done originally, despite the fact that many of these tables were stained red, because the under side of the table was not stained and showed evidence of being stripped at some previous time. Below is a photo of the underside of the table.

The top itself had some water damage, and many knife scratches that had gone deep into the surface. To try to remove would take a great deal of sanding and the scratches lend to the authenticity and history of the piece, so the customer and I decided to leave them and lightly sand the top. Here is a photo of the water damage to the top.
The wedged mortise and tenon joinery had loosened over time and someone had tried to repair this with a hot glue gun. This was an inappropriate glue to use and an ineffective repair. The photo below shows this.
The same glue was used to repair the bottom where the legs meet the pedestal. Missing portions of the joinery were replaced with wood putty, resulting in a messy and once again ineffective repair.The next three photos show this work.

After the finish had been removed, the next step was to dismantle the table and remove the prior repairs, so that I could see what I had to work with. the base of the pedestal was severly damaged and roughly 1/4 of it was missing. This needed to be patched with real wood to create a strong joint. The rest of the post shows this process. The next three photos show the damaged area in detail.

I Built a jig that would allow a router to move over the top of the broken area and remove some of the surface so that I could have a flat surface to glue my patch onto. This jig was made from scrap lumber and can be seen below with the pedestal clamped in place.
This detail photo shows the affected area before it was routed flat.
This photo shows the affected area after it was routed flat. I hit a few nails, but the blade seemed to be no worse for the wear! You can see that in the turned section to the right there is an additional area that needed to be repaired. That was dealt with the same way and can be seen in the following photo.

Now that I had a flat surface, I could clamp new wood to the base. I used reclaimed maple flooring to make my patches. They can be seen being glued in place below.
Here is a photo of the patches after they were glued in place and ready to carve.
The pedestal would have originally been turned on a lathe, but it would be very hard to center it again to return the patches, in addition to the fact that the batten on the top was not removable. Instead of turning the patch, I carved it by hand. Below is a photo of the patches carved down to a roughly cylindrical shape.
It is hard to see, but in the next photo the patch is scribed where the carved lines will be put in.
Here is the patch carved and ready for sanding
After the patch was carved, I needed to cut the dovetail mortise in the pedestal to receive the leg. to get the placement of this just right, I measured the diameter of the pedestal (9") and divided it by three (3"). This gave me the location to cut my dovetail. To make the process go a little faster. I used my router to create a flat shoulder for the leg and also to cut the dovetail mortise. I then fit it to the legs dovetail by hand and glued the leg in place.
Below is a detail photo of the patches before they were stained and with the legs put in place. The photo at the beginning of this post shows the repaired table standing on its own three feet! The next post will show the finish work and the completed table.

Modern Walnut Dresser (ca.1960) part 2

2011-06-09T13:58:00.006-04:00

This is the second post concerning the Walnut dresser I have been working on. Here is a link to the first post:

http://johnmarkpower.blogspot.com/2011/05/modern-walnut-dresser-ca1960.html

After all of the repairs were made to the dresser, the next thing to do was to sand out all of the scratches and make any cosmetic repairs. Luckily, none of the scratches on the top were deep enough to cut through the veneer and they were all removed during the sanding process. Below is a photo of the dresser after it had been sanded and ready for staining.

This photo shows the top after the scratches were removed.
The customer had expressed a change in hardware from brass to a silver color. Luckily, the existing hardware was coated with a brass coloring that was removed through buffing. The result was a cleaned and polished aluminum hardware. Below is a photo of two handles. The one on the left has been cleaned.
This next photo shows the appliques for the feet before and after cleaning. the one on the bottom has been cleaned.
The only other piece of hardware to be dealt with was the brass stringing between the long drawers. This turned out to be made of plastic, and therefore could not be cleaned. Luckily, I was able to find the same material in a silver color.

The last step after staining the piece was to apply the finish. Below is a photo of me applying the finish.
Here is a photo of the piece during the finishing process. The color of the piece after staining was matched to a sample provided by the customer.
The last four photos show the completed restoration of the dresser.

Modern Walnut Dresser (ca.1960)

2011-05-27T06:39:00.006-04:00

I am currently working on a long Walnut dresser that was made around 1960. The dresser has a label on the back, but no mention on it of who manufactured the piece. I can say by looking it over that it was made in America because of the use of Walnut veneers and Poplar as a secondary wood. The piece has aluminum pulls and feet appliques which were painted to look like brass. the strips between the drawers are made of plastic. There are also indications that the dresser once had a mirror, Although I think it looks quite nice without it.

Overall, the piece is in good condition. The finish has deteriorated quite a bit and has some significant scratching on the top. Also, the joinery on the legs has loosened up considerably. The customer also requested a darker color for the piece and a transition from the brass hardware to a silver color. the handles and feet will be brought back to a polished aluminum and the plastic trim pieces will be replaced with ones that are silver colored. Below is a photo of the dresser as it came to me.
The next two photos show some of the scratches on the top.

This photo shows the dresser after the removal of the old finish.
As mentioned above, the joinery was quite loose. I removed the leg assembly from the case and knocked it apart to scrape the old glue. I found that one of the legs had a previous repair that was poorly done. I removed the previous repair to the leg and fitted it with new dowels where the old ones had been removed. I then glued the leg assembly and re-attached it to the case. Below are a few photos of this process.

A photo of some loose joinery.
More loose joinery including some missing dowels.( they had been replaced by a drywall screw and a couple of nails!)
A photo of some broken joinery.
After the screw and nails were replaced with proper dowels, the whole assembly was re-attached to the case.
The next post will deal with the application of the new finish.

Completed Eastlake Desk (ca.1890)

2011-05-12T07:57:00.001-04:00

I recently completed the restoration of a Walnut Eastlake secretary desk dating to around 1890. The finish on this piece was restored after a vigorous cleaning. Whenever it is possible, I like to leave the original finish intact and on this piece I was glad that this was possible. Below are a few photos of the final phases of the restoration process followed by several photos of the completed desk. If you are interested in looking at the repairs of this desk as well some photos of it in the condition that it came to me, you can follow the link below:

http://johnmarkpower.blogspot.com/2011/05/walnut-eastlake-cylinder-desk-ca-1890.html

Here is a photo of the desk after the finish had been cleaned and new finish had been amalgamated with the old. The back, cubbies, and desk lid had been removed initially for repairs and they were left out to make the finishing process easier.

Here is a photo of the cubbies, desk lid, and lower doors during the finishing process.
One thing I often do when restoring a piece is to replace missing or broken hardware. In this case, the casters that were on the desk were broken and needed to be replaced. Below is a photograph of the new casters in place followed by a close up showing the a caster. I usually go with casters that have an oxidized finish because they look more appropriate.

This photo shows the two original handles for the long drawer. The one on the left has been cleaned. To do this I use nothing but a little elbow grease and #000 steel wool.
Here are several photos of the desk completed with the lid closed and then open. The glass knob on the inside drawer was probably a replacement but has been with the piece for long enough that I decided to leave it.

Walnut Eastlake Cylinder Desk (ca. 1890) Part 1

2011-05-05T13:57:00.012-04:00

One of the pieces I have been working on recently is a cylinder roll top desk built in the Eastlake style around 1890. The piece is American, and uses Walnut lumber and veneers throughout the case. the secondary woods used are Cherry in the cubby holes on the interior of the desk, and a mix of Poplar and American Chestnut throughout the case. This piece is very similar in style to a desk that I worked on about a year ago. Her is the link to that piece:

http://johnmarkpower.blogspot.com/2010/05/walnut-eastlake-cylinder-secretary-desk.html

The first and most noticeable difference is that the desk I worked on previously has a glass front cabinet above the cylinder, where the current desk has a shelf. One of several other differences is that the current disk is smaller in proportion. If you notice, I dated the current desk slightly later than the first desk. The reason for this is that the desk I am now working on employs the use of machine made dovetails on the drawer as well as a joint called a sliding keyhole joint or a "french" dovetail. Both of these joints made there debut on the furniture market around 1890. Immediately Prior to this most pieces used what is called a Knapp joint. A history of the Knapp joint can be found in the following link:

http://johnmarkpower.blogspot.com/2010/05/knapp-joint.html

The desk I worked on previously had this type of joinery, which was used as early as 1870. With this information, I was able to identify this current desk as being made around 1890 because of its use of machine made dovetails. In fact, this was one of the very first machined dovetails made. What is impressive to me is how well these dovetails look and also how strong the joinery is.

One other note, if you are interested in looking at other examples of Eastlake style and a little history on the Eastlake Movement in Furniture, feel free to click on the Eastlake label on the right hand side of the screen.

Overall this desk was in decent shape, but it had several repairs that were necessary and also a very dirty finish. The finish beneath the dirt was in pretty good shape so I decided to restore the finish instead of removing it. Below is a photo of the desk as it came to me. The door on the right hand side is off of it's hinges.
The next two photos show the joinery used in the two drawers. The large drawer in the bottom section of the case uses the machine made dovetail and can be seen below.
The smaller drawer in the cubby section of the desk uses the sliding keyhole or French dovetail. This is a simple joint made using a table saw and is a good one for a small drawer such as this.
The case was loose in several places. The next two photos below show the top desk section being glued. This piece sits on top of the lower section and is held in place by dowels.

On the gallery section of the desk section, the board that creates the back section had cracked open. the next photo shows the crack being glued up.
One of the doors had a crack in one of it's stiles which was loose.The next two photos show the door being glued.

The cubby section of the desk was also loose. This photo shows it being glued.
The writing surface for the desk pulls out along a rabbited track. the rabbited groove in the lid had broken on one side sometime ago. This prevented the writing surface from pulling in and out easily. The photo below shows the broken portion on the underside of the surface being repaired with new wood.
This next photo shows the lower case being glued.
The desk surface was missing some appliques o the top of the desk, so I needed to turn two new ones. Luckily, I had several that were intact to go by. Below are two photos showing this process on the lathe and the finished product.
Likewise, one of the doors was missing it's escutcheon. I used the existing escutcheon on the desk lid as a template and made a replica. Below is a photo of the new escutcheon being turned, and then the finished escutcheon after the key hole was filed. The last two photos show the new escutcheon in place on the door. My next post will show the finished piece.

The turned escutcheon.
The escutcheon after the key hole was filed.

English Regency Mahogany Chest of Drawers (ca. 1810) Part 2

2011-04-16T13:46:00.006-04:00

I recently completed the English Regency chest of drawers I have been working on. The results were quite nice, as can be seen by the photo above. One interesting fact about this chest is that it contains no less than eight distinct different types of wood. The top is veneered with Honduran Mahogany, with Rosewood and Holly accents and a band of Yew around the perimeter. The drawer fronts and veneered drawer dividers are veneered with Cuban Mahogany, with inlay of Boxwood and Holly, and cross banding of Rosewood. The case is made up of Spanish Cedar or Cedrela, a tree in the Mahogany Family that has a fragrance and is commonly used in cigar Humidors. The Secondary wood on the case is pine. This piece is very nice and well worthy of restoration. Below are the rest of the photos of the repair and restoration followed by some additional photos of the completed chest.

The next three photos show the patching of a damaged drawer side. After the patch was glued in place it was touched up to match the oxidized pine drawer side.

This photo shows the replacement of a piece of missing quarter round on the inside of a drawer.
This photo shows the chest stained and ready to have finish applied. I matched lighter sections to the natural color of the drawer fronts.
The next two photos show the brass pulls before and after cleaning.
The customer requested a piece of glass for the top to protect the finish. I left the glass off of the piece for the completed photos but show it in place in the two photos below. The edges were softened and the glass was suspended on six plastic transparent feet which rest on the top of the chest.

The last few photos show the completed chest from several angles and some close ups of the top and the inlaid urn in the top.