Repairing a William IV Rosewood Chair

[niall Y]

I thought some folk would be interested, in having a quick gander at a repair , re polish and upholstery of a chair I am working on at present. It is one of a pair , and with any luck only one will need the full treatment. The other, hopefully, will just need re-covering.

The chair was in a bit of a state with the top of the Balloon-Back, having broken off, and the seat tenons having pulled out of the back.

First thing was to remove the upholstery, taking photos along the way, to ensure that what can go back, will go back in the right order. The back could then be removed from the front legs and rails.

The broken dowels were cut flush and drilled out with a slightly smaller drill bit, and what remained of the dowels was steamed and prised away so as not to damage the sides of the original holes. I turned a couple of Ash dowels to fit.

More to follow soon......

 

[thetyreman]

very interesting, will you be using hot hide glue?

 

[niall Y]

I certainly will, at least for the joints themselves. I do reserve the right to use other types of glue to repair broken components, or when adding bits to worn tenons

 

[niall Y]

It's only when you start repairing furniture, that you can see exactly how it was made. You also notice all those strategies that were adopted to save on materials - and to hide the less than perfect bits. This particular chair certainly has it's fair share of flaws.

The uprights on the backs of the chair are quite wasteful of timber. The photo of the chair back, with the two laths laid against it, roughly indicates the outline of the piece of Rosewood needed to make one of the uprights. I calculated that each needs to come from a section at least 2" x 4" x 30". But, if you double up, you can get a couple of similarly-handed, pieces , nestled against each other, from a section 2" x 5 1/2" x 30". Which is a saving in stock, when you are making sets of chairs.

All the seat rails are made of Beech - with Rosewood veneers to the bottom half, of each of their front faces. And, why not? These are mostly covered with upholstery, and nailed into for the webbing.

One of the front legs is turned from a square section, barely large enough .Consequently ,there are a couple of flats at the widest part of the turning. This has been tucked on the inside , so as not to appear obvious.

One other thing that occurred to me, when working on the dowelled top , was that the drilling of the holes would have needed to be carefully considered. The top section is fairly straightforward - two holes, a set depth and a set distance apart . drilled perpendicular to the side of the stock being used.
The uprights, however, are a lot trickier. I've not been able to discover the exact method, but my beat guess is that they were drilled with the stock still in the square, before the shaping took place. A compound angle would have been cut at the top, and a hole drilled perpendicular to this sloping face - possibly with some form of drilling jig
All conjecture on my part - having never made one myself

The middle photo shows the damaged top of a leg - likely dating from when the chair was made.

 

[Jacob]

......
The uprights, however, are a lot trickier. I've not been able to discover the exact method, but my best guess is that they were drilled with the stock still in the square, before the shaping took place.....

Useful trick with things like tool handles - get a blank to fit first and only then shape it.

 

[niall Y]

All musings aside ,the next stage of the repair was to glue the top rail in position, with the dowels. For this I used hide glue. As I only use this occasionally, I don't have a pukka glue pot , but make do with a small double boiler. And, as it's winter, this is set up on my wood stove..

With the back glued ,I turned my attention to the rear tenons on the rails. These are surprisingly narrow - 1/4" - and their bases had been squashed, by being levered out of their mortises. So, a small Beech inset was glued at the base of each, to square the tenons up.

The whole rail/front leg, assembly was then glued to the back. First, pulled home with a pair of sash-clamps; which were replaced with a webbing clamp, when the joints were fully home. The reinforcing blocks were cleaned up and re used. They were glued in position in their housings. The rear two, were also screwed , to reinforce the joints.

Next, some cleaning up and polishing.........

 

[thetyreman]

nice, I really like HHG, it's really easy to clean up compared to PVA.

 

[niall Y]

I cleaned up the existing polished surface with meths and a fine wire wool. I have in the past used a genuine-turps/meths mix, but the surface was in pretty good nick. and only needed a light clean. When dry ,I rubbed the whole surface with fine wire wool, before dusting off and applying a couple of coats of French polish. I used a squirrel mop, rather than a rubber, which seems to work well for chairs. When dry I applied a wax, as I don't like the brash, high-gloss finish. Though I appreciate this is a matter of taste

It is now ready for upholstery. Though I have done some upholstery ,in the past. it is out of my 'comfort zone'. So, the next stage could be ,what a friend used to call " Never less than interesting."

 

[Inspector]

Thanks for letting us follow along.

My father was a partner in a repair and refinishing business. They did container loads for auction houses and he did all the repairs. I saw him do a lot of similar chairs and did a few myself. We usually used white glue and he didn't have strap clamps. One thing he would do if the crest and back legs was extra curvy and hard to get clamps to align was to quickly cut a board to match the upper curve and then use a router with whatever bit was a close reciprocal to the crest profile to groove it. Sometimes cutting a little extra with a gouge. That would hook on the crest and allow the clamps to pull the joints tight without slipping. Same technique was employed when glueing profiled round and oval solid wood tables.

When one is fixing old pieces they have to be more creative than working with new projects. Hats off to you.

Pete

 

[niall Y]

Now to start the upholstery, beginning with stretching and tacking the new webbing, A base of hessian cloth is laid over, and the cut ends of the webbing were folded over this and stapled.

I re used the shaped pad rescued from the original, but added a layer of wadding beneath to give it back some of its plumpness. Next, a thin layer of hair on top which also goes over the rolled edge. Them another layer of hessian. This is stretched and tacked to the chamfered top edge of the seat frame, all round.

Sowing with cord now, with a long needle, to form a firmer, fatter edge to the seat pad. The hessian is trimmed neatly, to just below the tacks.

There will be a bit of a pause at this point, while I wait for supplies to arrive. Which includes some skin wadding , for the layer beneath the upholstery fabric, and some samples of gimp for the trim,
It's a bit of a challenge in this part of the country, buying specialist bits and pieces, and especially things that have to be colour matched, With the scarcity of suppliers, I am reliant on samples, before buying, which really slows down the whole process

To follow - final covering and trimming of the seat............

 

[Adam W.]

Wow, that's lovely work, it's going to look very nice when finished.

 

[niall Y]

Wow, that's lovely work, it's going to look very nice when finished.

Thanks, that is very nice of you to say so..... In my 'minds eye' I can see it finished, and if it looks that good I'll be 'well chuffed' However we all have reality to contend with and there are a few more processes before I am 'home and dry'
The covering fabric looks the part ( some of my wife's stash of fabrics), with just enough for two chairs. The next challenge will be getting the two chairs to match.

 

[Inspector]

Your pictures take me back to when I was a little kid watching the upholsterers covering chairs. Then it amazed me to watch them take a magnetic tack hammer and eat mouthful of tacks, spitting them out on the tack hammer one at a time as they drove them into the seats. They gave me a few tacks to put in my mouth to sort and spit out head first. Too sharp and couldn't do it. I thought they had mouths of leather. When I grew up I tried it for a project and got the hang of it soon enough. I was never as fast as they were and I doubt I would be able to keep up even with a stapler.

Pete

 

[niall Y]

Your pictures take me back to when I was a little kid watching the upholsterers covering chairs. Then it amazed me to watch them take a magnetic tack hammer and eat mouthful of tacks, spitting them out on the tack hammer one at a time as they drove them into the seats. They gave me a few tacks to put in my mouth to sort and spit out head first. Too sharp and couldn't do it. I thought they had mouths of leather. When I grew up I tried it for a project and got the hang of it soon enough. I was never as fast as they were and I doubt I would be able to keep up even with a stapler.

Pete

A mouth full of tacks - what could possibly go wrong? I'm glad things have moved on from then. Much safer with a stapler. Though, it's nicer doing things the old fashioned way, that is one aspect of the job, that would have made me cringe.

As a woodworker, I have deliberately weaned myself off holding rows of screws or nails in my lips, when working. Such a' hostage to fortune, especially if you stumble or slip the last few rungs off a ladder.

 

[Inspector]

It is no big deal ........unless you get the hiccups.

Pete

 

[J-G]

Such a' hostage to fortune, especially if you stumble or slip the last few rungs off a ladder.

Why would you ever think of using a tack hammer when you're on a ladder ????

 

[niall Y]

Why would you ever think of using a tack hammer when you're on a ladder ????

Not reference to using a tack hammer,. but to my bad habit of using my mouth to hold screws or nails when I need a spare pair of hands. I have come a cropper a few times, one of them by stumbling when coming off a ladder and stabbing my gums with a screw

 

[J-G]

Not reference to using a tack hammer,. but to my bad habit of using my mouth to hold screws or nails when I need a spare pair of hands. I have come a cropper a few times, one of them by stumbling when coming off a ladder and stabbing my gums with a screw

Have you ever been nominated for a Darwin Award ?

 

[niall Y]

The next stage of the upholstery is to add another layer of hair, and a layer of skin- wadding before laying on the upholstery fabric, and lining up the pattern. The fabric was stretched and stapled in place, with careful attention paid to the internal and external corners.
After removing and repositioning some of the staples, I finally got there. The fabric was then trimmed with a sharp Stanley blade along the edge of the veneer on the seat rails. And, then a pause, of a couple of days, until the gimp arrived.

I know some folk glue this with a hot-melt, glue gun, but having no experience of this method I used Copydex and a few pins. I find Copydex always has the potential to be a bit messy with fabric, but, for me, this was simply a case of 'dealing with the Devil you know'

With the arrival of the gimp, I was able to glue and pin this in position , and the chair was finally finished