Green dyed Poplar wine rack, with copper bronze powder coated steel frame |
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
UPDATE: dog damaged chair
Monday, February 6, 2012
Mahogany must taste like MilkBones
Chair or Chew toy? |
Are the first words out of your mouth, the minute you walk into the living room. Cowering in the corner is your 8 month old Golden Retriever. " I'm sorry, but my teeth hurt and your furniture tastes good", is what he seems to be saying as he looks up at you.
Friday, February 3, 2012
Antique tool chest repair and restoration
Early 1900's carpenters tool chest |
Dove tail joints |
Exposed nails on back of lid give a good idea of the age of this tool chest |
Wire nails were invented and came into use around 1870. They didn't become common until the early 1900's. This chest was built using wire nails and a lot of them, meaning they were common and inexpensive. That leads me to believe that the tool chest was built sometime in the early part of the 1900's.
I will start work on this piece in the next week or so, repairing and replacing damaged wood and repairing loose joints.
Keep checking this blog for updates, I think this piece is going to be a lot of fun.
Friday, January 27, 2012
Restoration of a primitive piece of furniture
This little foot stool has been in my family
for as long as I can remember.
It is made of what appears to be a slab of oak that was shaped with an axe or adze.
With legs that were shaped with a spoke shave, a very crudely made piece. I am only able to guess at the age of it, probably somewhere around a hundred years old if not older.
It has had a broken leg since I was a kid, my dad fixed it with liberal amounts of glue, but it truly needed more than that for a repair. When that repair failed, I threw it in a box and have carted it around with me for the past thirty years. I recently uncovered it from a box in the basement and thought it was time to do something, either throw it out or fix it right.
Time for deconstruction.
Fortunately old furniture comes apart easily for the most part, joints shrink with age and older glues don't have the holding power of todays modern adhesives. The legs came out with a little hammering with a wooden dowel. I measured the legs and took notes and photos. I thought I would only have to replace the broken leg, but when I got the legs out, there was extensive damage from powder post beetles that were attracted to the glue in the joints and they had eaten into the legs making them to weak to reuse.
The original legs were made from rough lumber and completely shaped using draw shaves. I used the lathe to rough out the shape and then final shaped everything with hand tools, to reproduce the original feel of the wood.
for as long as I can remember.
It is made of what appears to be a slab of oak that was shaped with an axe or adze.
With legs that were shaped with a spoke shave, a very crudely made piece. I am only able to guess at the age of it, probably somewhere around a hundred years old if not older.
It has had a broken leg since I was a kid, my dad fixed it with liberal amounts of glue, but it truly needed more than that for a repair. When that repair failed, I threw it in a box and have carted it around with me for the past thirty years. I recently uncovered it from a box in the basement and thought it was time to do something, either throw it out or fix it right.
Time for deconstruction.
Fortunately old furniture comes apart easily for the most part, joints shrink with age and older glues don't have the holding power of todays modern adhesives. The legs came out with a little hammering with a wooden dowel. I measured the legs and took notes and photos. I thought I would only have to replace the broken leg, but when I got the legs out, there was extensive damage from powder post beetles that were attracted to the glue in the joints and they had eaten into the legs making them to weak to reuse.
Roughing out the new legs on the lathe |
Using a spoke shave to shape the legs and reproduce the original finish |
The original legs were made from rough lumber and completely shaped using draw shaves. I used the lathe to rough out the shape and then final shaped everything with hand tools, to reproduce the original feel of the wood.
Fitting the new legs in the old holes |
The legs are held in place with a tapered spline |
Legs installed with spines ready to be trimmed down |
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Antique Furniture REPAIR
This is a very common example of damage that occurs to older furniture. Damage to the ornate carved appliqué work is heartbreaking, because you can't just go to the store and buy a new piece to replace the damaged one. Chances are you probably couldn't when the piece was new either, so what can you do?
In this case, even though it looks pretty bad. The repair was fairly straight forward, had more of the work been missing it could have been another story.
Steps to take;
1.)Cleanup the area around the missing work, and if the break is kind of rough square it up with a chisel or a file.
2.)Figure out what kind of wood your working with.
This chest was Walnut, and chances are the appliqué was also. The appliqué could be Mahogany, but since they are very similar in grain pattern and both carve very well and look identical when finished, I chose to use Mahogany(because I had some small scrap in my shop.)
3.)I trimmed a small piece down to the right thickness, roughly cut it to shape and glued it in place.
4.) Carving...the trick is to take your time and always use very sharp tools, especially with small work. There is very little margin for error, so chip out or tearing of the wood has to be avoided. Most of the final shaping is done with files and a little sandpaper. I can make no claim at being a great wood carver, but I have spent a considerable amount of time with a chisel in my hand.
In this case, even though it looks pretty bad. The repair was fairly straight forward, had more of the work been missing it could have been another story.
Steps to take;
1.)Cleanup the area around the missing work, and if the break is kind of rough square it up with a chisel or a file.
2.)Figure out what kind of wood your working with.
This chest was Walnut, and chances are the appliqué was also. The appliqué could be Mahogany, but since they are very similar in grain pattern and both carve very well and look identical when finished, I chose to use Mahogany(because I had some small scrap in my shop.)
3.)I trimmed a small piece down to the right thickness, roughly cut it to shape and glued it in place.
4.) Carving...the trick is to take your time and always use very sharp tools, especially with small work. There is very little margin for error, so chip out or tearing of the wood has to be avoided. Most of the final shaping is done with files and a little sandpaper. I can make no claim at being a great wood carver, but I have spent a considerable amount of time with a chisel in my hand.
5.)Finishing...the finished product, stained and shellaced to to match the original work. Matching stains can be very difficult. I first start out the finishing process by darkening the wood with a little dye, to kind of age the wood, then it is a trial and error stain battle. I find it usual takes a combination of stains added in layers to get the job done. Also the darker the shellac the better when matching old work. To further age the work a couple coats of wax buffed with ultra-fine steel wool, and there you have it
JUST LIKE NEW! or I MEAN OLD! or JUST PERFECTLY AGED!
JUST LIKE NEW! or I MEAN OLD! or JUST PERFECTLY AGED!
Sunday, January 15, 2012
How To Make Curved Wooden Panels
) ) ) C U R V E S ( ( (
How to make curved wooden panels or large diameter cylinders from wood, literally takes the ability to think outside the box. As a simple example; I will start with, how to make a large diameter cylinder out of solid wood.
This drawing represents a 36" DIA. circle that has had one quarter divided into 5 equal wedges at 18 Degrees.
That would mean that 20 boards cut and fastened together would complete the cylinder.
Each board is beveled on each end to 9 Degrees. When the two bevels are put together, their total is 18 degrees. The width of the board is just a little bit less than 5.75 inches. In the drawing above, the blue line is the 36" circle and the red lines represent the boards. The red that falls outside of the circle will have to be removed using hand planes and sandpaper to fair it down to the finished curve.
This drawing is to illustrate how to use plywood over a framework to make the same shape. I would say that probably the smallest diameter you can bend a piece of 1/4" plywood around, would be 48". The other option is to kerf the back of the plywood panel to make it bend easier. A kerf is a shallow saw cut made in evenly spaced increments perpendicular to the bend of the wood. This allows the inside of the panel to compress making it easier to bend. There are also manufactured bending plywoods, which would accomplish the same thing. They come without a finished veneer, so you would need to apply a veneer over the top. Bending plywood would allow for very tight bends without distortion.
The advantage of using solid wood is the lack of a need to build an elaborate framework, also it may take less time to construct. The biggest disadvantage may be in the appearance, because grain matching might be a problem.
The plywood method might take longer, but the cosmetic appearance would be more even.
How to make curved wooden panels or large diameter cylinders from wood, literally takes the ability to think outside the box. As a simple example; I will start with, how to make a large diameter cylinder out of solid wood.
36" DIA. circle |
That would mean that 20 boards cut and fastened together would complete the cylinder.
Each board is beveled on each end to 9 Degrees. When the two bevels are put together, their total is 18 degrees. The width of the board is just a little bit less than 5.75 inches. In the drawing above, the blue line is the 36" circle and the red lines represent the boards. The red that falls outside of the circle will have to be removed using hand planes and sandpaper to fair it down to the finished curve.
This drawing is to illustrate how to use plywood over a framework to make the same shape. I would say that probably the smallest diameter you can bend a piece of 1/4" plywood around, would be 48". The other option is to kerf the back of the plywood panel to make it bend easier. A kerf is a shallow saw cut made in evenly spaced increments perpendicular to the bend of the wood. This allows the inside of the panel to compress making it easier to bend. There are also manufactured bending plywoods, which would accomplish the same thing. They come without a finished veneer, so you would need to apply a veneer over the top. Bending plywood would allow for very tight bends without distortion.
The advantage of using solid wood is the lack of a need to build an elaborate framework, also it may take less time to construct. The biggest disadvantage may be in the appearance, because grain matching might be a problem.
The plywood method might take longer, but the cosmetic appearance would be more even.
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