Furniture Repair And Restoration - (Malestrom)

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Furni ture

Repa i r&.

Restora t ionOve r 100me thods & projects

L en & K a y Hil ts

CRE ATIV E HO ME OW NE R P RE SS TM A D IV IS IO N O F FE DER AL M AR KE TING CO RP ORA TIO N, PA SS AIC : N J



TP

COPYRIGHT©1981 CREATIVE HOMEOWNER PRESS®

A 'DIVISION OF FEDERAL MARKETING CORP., UPPER SADDLE RIVER, NJ.

This book may not be reproduced, either ln part or in its entirety, in any form,

by any means, without written permission from the publisher, with the

exception of brief excerpts for purposes of radio, television, or published

review. Although all possible measures have been taken to ensure the

accuracy of the material presented, neither the author nor CREATIVE

HOMEOWNER PRESS is liable in case of misinterpretation of directions,

misapplication or typographical error. AI! rights, including the right of

translation, are reserved.

Manufactured in United States of America

Current printing (last digit)

10 9 8 7

Editor: Shirley M. Horowitz

Associate Editor.. Gail N, Kummings

Art Director: Leone Lewensohn

Designers.: Leone Lewensohn, Paul SochackiAddiUonallllustrations: Norman Nuding

Cover design: Jerry Demoney

Cover photo: David Arky

Furniture oncover: Courtesy Evergreen Antiques

1249 Thi rd AvenueNew York, NY 10021

We wish to extend our thanks to the many designers, companies, and other

contributors who allowed us to use their materials and gave us advice. Their

names, addresses, and individual identifications of their contributions can

be found on page 159.

ISBN: 0"932944·52-3 (paperback)

ISBN: 0·932944-51·5 (hardcover)

LC:81·69640,

CREATIVE HOM EOWN ER PRESS®

BOOK SERIES

A DIVISION OF FEDERAL

MARKETING CORPORATION

24 PARK WAY, UPPER SAqOLE RIVER, NJ 07458·2311

About the Cover

The chest on the cover is an excellent exam-

pte of good factory-made IloIfni lure ollhe Ameri-

can "Golden Oak Period," circa. 1880·1910. We

found it in a garage where it had been stored lor

16 years. Here is a summary of its history: Pur-

chased in 1901 fo r a gentleman's bedroom, it

served until he died in 1963. The mirror was

missing; we tracked itto the family member who

had antiqued. it and was using it as a wall mirror.

She was willing to part with it. The "safe" com-

partment door had, been damaged when pried

open during a burglary before the owner's

death.

Our work list included these repair jobs: new

dowels to hold the mirror lyre to the top; new

casters; repair of a chipped 1001; repair of Ihe

"safe" door edge and the tock: restoration of the

wooden back 01the mirror; new drawer guides

and slops; replacement alone drawer pull: and

complete refinishing. Al l of these processes are

detailed in this book.

The restored piece should be good lor a cou-

ple of generations of service. The total cost.

including the purchase. restoration materials,

and an allowance for work time. was around

$150. The present market value of the piece is

difficult to estimate, but is probably between

$600 and $800 and it will rise as the piece ages.



Projec t sAlli.gatored finish 100

Antiquing 124

Bentwood furniture repair 63

Bleaching stains 86

Cane seats and backs 135Caster repair and replacement 66

Chair seats 58

Cigarette burns 80

Dents and gouges 97

Disassembling types of furniture 49

Disassembling joints 47

Doweled joints 41

Drawers, rebuilding 52

Edges and corners, broken 61

Enamelling 123

Foggy finish 1!01

French polish 122

Identifying and testing existing finish 77

Lacquering 118

Mitered corners 44

Oil finish 121

Penetrating resin application 119

Sandpaper and sanding tools 45

Sanding stnppeo wood 108

Sanding techniques 48

Shellacking 121

Stains and blemishes 79

Steaming dents 98

Stick shellac 99

Strippers, safety measures 103

Stripping off the old finish 104

Surface scratches 101

Tenons - loose, cracked or broken 57

Tung oil application 120

Varnishing 115

Veneer application 125

Veneer repair 60,83

Warped surfaces 66

Water rings 99

Wax finishing 120

Wood fillers 110

Wood stains 89, 111



Conten ts

I

Look It O ve r

and P lan th e W orkAnalyzing the work required; ordering the work process; selecting a

finish and a work area 9

2

How to Se lec t a nd Use

Hand and Power Too lsGeneral and specialized hand and power tools; howtheywork;when

they are used 17

3

F as te ne rs , G lu e"a nd Wo o dNails,screws,when tousethem;types andusesofglues; recognizing

hardwoods and softwoods 24

4

S an din g , D owe lin g ,

J oin e ry T ec h n iq u esIdentifying the basic joints; making doweled joints; sandpaper types

and grades; how 1 0 sand 33

5

Co sme tic S urg ery

fo r F u rn itu reinrtial cleaning; drsassembly methods; repairing broken seats, ve -

neer, corners, edges; more 50

6

Sav ing

the O ld F in ishTesting the finish; slain removal; bleaching; cigarette burns; dents

and gouges; scratches 76



7

S trip p in g O ff

th e O ld fin ishProfessional str ipping methods, advantages and disadvantages;

hand stripping alternatives 102

8

Sand ing , F illin g

a n d S ta in in gSanding procedures; wood fit lers; selecting and using diHerent types

01 wood stains 108

9

A pp ly in g th e F in al F in is hUsing varnish, lacquer, shellac, penetrating resin, tung and other oils,

specialty finishes 113

1 0

Venee r ingGluing methods; applying veneers to a variety of projects 125

1 1

Rep a ir in g Can in gRecanlng a broken chair seat; materials; weaving

12As semb lin g a n d F in is h in g

F u rn itu re K itsWorking with high quality unfinished furniture kits from specialty man-

ufacturers; projects 148

Glossary 155

Index 156

Product Sources, Contributors 158

Metric Charts 160

132





1

L ook It O ver an d P lan the W ork

We paid $3 for this 75-year·old rocker at a gao

rage sale. Alter being reworked. it wiHbe worth

several hundred.

This chair , valued at $200, is hardly rare or un-

usual. Hundreds like i t are sitt ing in at tics await -

ing restoration.

This handcarved oak blanket chest is an example of Earty American furni ture that still has its naturat

finish. Such a piece only sboulo be cleaned.

Why g et in to fu rn itu re re sto ratio n? O ne

reaso n is th at th ere p rob ab ly is n o g reater

fe elin g o f satisfac tio n th an th e O ne y ou g et

w hen you bring that new ly restored chair

to its place of bonor in the living room .

You put it in exactly the right place,

stand back - and feel good. A few

m onths ago, that chair was battered and

bru ised , an ern barrassern en t o n its w ay to

th e trash c ollecto r. Y ou th ou ght ab ou t re -

placing it, but a little shopping show ed

that the price of a new chair of the same

quality w as steep - a 1 01steeper than you

anticipated. In addition, you had a deep

attach men t fo r that old c hair. A fte r all, it

had shared m any years w ith you,

S o y ou se t o ut to re sto re it. N ow th e task

is fin is he d an d th e c hair p ositiv ely g lo ws .

You experience the warm feeling thatcomes from a job well done. You also

saved a fair am ount of m oney, w hich adds

t o y ou r s at is fa ct io n .

F urniture restoration is rew arding in a

lot of w ays. Y ou can upgrade the appear"

ance of your home by restoring several

pieces that now look dowdy. You enjoy

gaining a new skill and feel real pride in

y ou r w ork .

O ne of the best rewards is that you end

up w ith a m uch better collec tion of furni-

ture in yo ur h om e .. Go od furn iture is h ard

to fin d to day . F urn itu re m ak in g h as u nd er-g on e a n um be r o f im po rtan t c han ges in th e

last sev eral d ecade s, as g oo d h ard wo ods

h av e b eco me h ard er to g et. W oo d carv in g

h as v irtu all y d isap pe ared, an d in its p lace

are m old ed d esig ns, o fte n p las tic , g lu ed to

flat surfaces. Hand rubbing and other

m ark s o f th e fin e fu rn itu re c raftsm en h av e

disappeared because of cost and few er

craftsm en to do this w ork.

N ew m ate rials h av e c om e in to fu rn itu re

m ak in g. Plastic la min ate s, p las tic b on de d



10 Valuable Antiques

This valuable French chest is a good example of the kind of antique whose repair should bereserved for experts. It is worth several thousand dollars.

look for these Roman numerals stamped into the drawer and the chest when you shop for goodantique furniture. You don't see this notation on less valuable pieces.

to poorer grades of w ood to sim ulate fine

w o od s, p artic le b oar d fin is he d to lo ok lik e

wood - the lis t is long Som e of these

n ew ma te ri al s o ffe r a dv an ta ge s, o f c ou rs e,

P lastic lam in ate s fo r e xam p le , m ak e tab le

to ps th at res is! alm ost an y on slau gh t. B ut

o ve rall, y ou re ce iv e le ss fo r y ou r fu m itu re

d ollar to day, at least in trad itio nal fu rn i-

t ur e t erm s.

T he re a re o th er r ew a rd in g a sp ec ts , 100:

the sense of h istory that com es w ith sal-

v ag in g an o ld fam ily h eir lo om , o r in b uild -

ing a collection of restored furn itu re

b elo ng in g to a sp ec ific p er io d.

V A LU ABL E ANT IQ U ES

On e w o rd o f c au tio n c on ce rn in g v alu ab le

antiques: M ake a distinction betw een

good old furn itu re and very valuable an-

tiq ue fu rn itu re . T he v ery v alu ab le an tiq ue

p ie ce is a c olle cto r's ite m . I ts v alu e c om e s

not only from its age and condition , bu talso fro m th e fac t th at i t p ro b ab ly i s i de n ti -

fied as exem plary of a sty le, designer or

p er io d, s uc h a s Ch i p pe nd a le , H e pp lewhi t e

or E ng lish R eg en cy . Piece s su ch as th ese

re qu ire v er y sp ec ial c are in o rd er to retain

th eir v alu e as co llecto r's item s. It is im -

p o rt an t, f or e x amp l e, not t o s tr ip th e f in is h

fro m su ch p ie ce s, sin ce th e o rig in al fin ish

is an in te gral p art o f an d c on tr ib ute s h eav -

ily to the value of the piece, Repairs to

such fin ishes are delicate jobs, to be at-

tem pted only after you have gained con-

s ide rab le exper i ence .T he se d ay s, b ec au se o f th eir d ollar v al-

u e, v al ua ble a nti qu es a re s el dom used in a

hom e, They are d isp layed , of course, bu t

they are often worth far too m uch to be

exposed to the dangers of everyday use,

This rough plank back helps determine apiece's age. Do not replace such materials.



GOOD OLD FURNITURE

G ood old fu rn itu re , on the other band, has

real p ractical value after it ha been re-

stored. It, too , has m oney value, bu t not

the imm ense p rice tag of the collecto r's

p iece. In al l probability) a well -restored

piece has a value at least equal to , and

o ften m ore than , a sim ilar piece availab le

in the sto res today. Under som e circum -

stances, i t can be w orth m uch more than

any thing you can buy now . Bu t the true

value is that it p leases you , is u sefu l, and

perhaps has a h isto ry in your fam ily .

RESTORATION ISN'T HARD

C an you restore a piece o f furn iture? C an

you do a w orthw hile job that doesn 't look

Iike th e bote h ing of an am ateu r") lsn ' t th is

w ork really a job fo r an expert?

Most people can restore furn iture and

achieve satisfactory results . That's w hy

there are so m any refin ish ing k it and m a-terials on the m arket. Peop le have tried

them and found that they w ork.

T he ta sk is c ha lle ng in g at t imes, bu t not

difficult. M ostly , you need patience and

perseverance. A few skills are requ ired

bu t t he se deve lo p quickly. A few too ls ar e

needed, bu t the list isn 't long and the

m ost expensive ones can be rented on a

d aily b as i.

The u ual c au se o f tro ub le fo r b eg in ne rs

i an overw helm ing desire to get the job

Most pieces in antique shops are sound old

furnilure from 75 to 125 years old.

Good Old Furniture I Restoration Isn't Hard 11

This shows the original condition of the qotcen oak dresser on the cover. More than 80 years old. the

dresser had been stored in an unheated garage for 16 years.



1 2 How to Begin

done yesterday. This w ork requires tim e

and patience .. G lue needs tim e t.o d ry, and

you can ' Iun)' it. Surfaces must be sand-

ed completely , not partially . One coat of

fin ish has to dry before the next coat goes

on. This is w here the patience comes in .

You have to work, then w ail, then work,

then w ait again. If you plan the work in

advance, allow ing time between tasks,

you can avoid m ost problem s.

Practice each technique before trying it

on your project. G el the m istakes out of

your system on a practice board; then

work on the project and do it right. The

results w ill be better than you expected.

HOW TO BEG IN

The first job is to take a hard look at the

piece you want to restore. A ssess it care-

fu lly . S om e furniture is so badly dam aged

that a restoration is nearly im possible.

O ther pieces are so badly designed and/orconstructed that after the restoration you

w ouldn 't w ant it around.

W e inherited from grandparents an old

chair that had achieved heirloom status. It

was old, for one thing. For another, it ha d

senti m ental value, so we considered

bringing it back to life. A s w e talked about

the kind of fin ish we would like, ( sat on

t he c ha ir . It had been stored in t he a tti c for

ye ars an d I had forgotten what it was like

- but now Iemembered. The seat was

high and too w ide - perhaps an inch

higher than standard and two inches toodeep from back to front. You couldn 't sit

com fortably on .it for very long.

The discussion lasted long enough for

m e to become uncom fortable, and our de-

cision w as made. There was no point in

working for weeks on a chair that we

would probably never like, sentim ental

value or not. W e quickly found another

fam ily m ember who wanted it (he was

very tall) and went on to another m ore

prom isi n g p ro je ct .

Ground Rules

You m ight adopt these ground rules for

decid ig whether or not to tackle a proj ect.

t. Do YOll lik e th e d es ig n? Ifyo u don't, or

have m ixed feelings, pass it u p .. Unfor-

tunately , over the years, a lo t of badly

designed pieces have been m arketed,

and the fact that a piece is 50 years old

doesn 't make it less ugly.

2. Can you use it now . or give it to s om e-

one who can? If not, pass it up. One

incentive for doing the work is know -

in g that, when finished, your piece w i II

find a welcome home and be used and

adm ired. W ithout this, you m ay not

have enough incentive to stay w ith

t he p ro je ct .

3. Does the piece have many broken or

rnissi ng parts? You m ight expect to

mend some parts, but save any m ajor

rebuild ing projects for later, w hen your

sk i lis h av e d ev el op ed .

4. Does the piece fit in to your room s? If

this is furniture that hasn't been in your

home, be sure iI is in scale w ith your

other furniture . O lder furniture, espe-

c ia lly th at dating back to th e V ic to ria n

era, often w as oversized t o fit the big

rooms of those old hom es.

You are really asking yourself: is the

p ie ce w or th r es to rin g? It is hard to be pos-

i tive an d e nth u siasric u nle ss yo u ar e

convinced that you w ill produce really

worthwhile results

This 19th century cardtable is missing a small

st rip of mahogany veneer.

This side chair also should be handled with care. Set IOtathe mahogany are sat inwood inserts. Note

the detailing of the upholstry nails to match the style of the chair



F IG U RING O U T Once you have

A R E AL IS T IC decided the proj~

W ORK P LAN ect has a future,

make a work pi an. Th is is One 0f those

secret ingred ients many people don't

know about. One good way to botch a

project is to start without planning each

step. Sooner or later, you discover that

you have just taken the step at the wrongtime, like staining oak before filling it.

A good work plan guarantees th at e ach

task in the project w ill be done when it

should be, that the proper tim e is-allotted

for each task, and that the whole j ob w on' t

sink iJl a flurry of wasted work.

Step 1: L is t th e W o rk F irst. m ak e a

list of what you can see has to be done.

Note broken parts thar must be mended,

and any pieces that need (0be taken apart

and reglued. Exam ine the Finish and make

a judgment as to whether it can be sal-

vaged or w ill have to be stripped and refin-ished. Check the hardware, and note an y

that must be refinished, repaired or re -

placed. Look at the drawers, at the casters,

at the joints. Search for evidence of old

repairs, perhaps sloppily done ,. that w ill

req uire w ork .

If there is veneering, is it damaged,

bl isle red or Ii fti ng from the surface? Is O ne

le g shorter than the others'? A re carvings

damaged and in need of restoration? ls the

f i n ish damaged. perh a ps by ci arette

burns or deep gouges?

S te p 2: O rd er In g th e W o rk B e v ery

thorough in making your list; then put the

individual tasks in order. Som e obviously

must be done before others. Here are some

guidelines.

Cleaning As a rule , the firs! tusk

should be a thorough cleaning of the

piece. Over the years, wax, polish, dust ,

smoke film and other forms of pollution

te nd to b tl iId up on Fum iur e surfaces. The

buildup is so gradual that you may not

notice it if the p iece is p resen tly in daily

use. But the dirt is there, and you can't

really judge how good the finish is unti l i t

ha s been cleaned. In ad d ilion, cracks ill

the wood and other problem s w ill show up

during the cleaning. Once the piece has

been cleaned, reassess the work list. You

can no w de cide whether you can save the

present finish or mus t s trip a nd r ef in is h.

Repairing Repairs should be made

before any refinishing, so th e next step on

the work plan is to schedule repair and

replacement of parts. If hardware is m iss-

ing, plan the hunt for matching parts now .

Figuring Out a Realistic W ork Plan 13

This is a detail of the trent of lhe 1850 dresser , showing lhe hardware and the veneer on the lactnq

pieces, One 01 the drop-shaped knobs is missing and must be replaced.

The veneer on this drawer has dried. cracked and broken away. We usually l ry 10restore veneer, but

this l ime we'l l have 10 replace it. The wood types must match.

Here is more veneer thaI has broken away and

must be replaced. We also must add new cast-

ers. This piece dales to about 1852.

The back of the dresser - rough, unsanded

boards - is typic at at much otder lurniture. We

keep as much o f the piece as we can.



14 Figuring Out a Realistic Work Plan

Old hardware often is hard to match. Spe-

cialty companies, which we will talk

about later; can match most common old

hardware, bu t contacting them and plac-

ing your order takes tim e, so put that into

the work plan early . Then you may have

the new hardware by the time you needit,

Regluing Is the piece w obbly because

some of the glued join ts have loosened? Ifso , the old glue is dry and has lost its

holding power, so plan a complete reglu-

ing. This includes disassernbl ing the

piece, removing the old glue, and ' reas-

sembling everything. Later in the book,

we tell you how to do it, step by step . For

now , include disassem bly and regluing in

your work plan.

Finishing When the work has pro-

gressed this far, you will have a complete-

ly repaired piece of fum iture , w ith no

m issing o r b rok en parts, ready for the res-

cue of the finish . If you are fortunate, you

need only to perform repairs on the old

fin ish to complete t he r es to ra ti on . See

Chapter 6 fo r i ns tr uc tio ns on bo w 10

rep air the rav ages o f c ig are tte s, Inisplaceddrink glasses. and other in juries to the

finish.

If the finish is in bad shape, and cannot

be salvaged by repairing, include a com-

plete refinishing job in your plan. Sched-

ule the stripping of the old finish, which

yo u can do yourself or have done by a

professional. In Chapter 7 on stripping,

This detail of the golden oak dresser shows the carving on the mirror lyre. The lyre had beenremoved and antiqued before we restored and reflnished it.

we discuss the good and bad points of both

approaches. If you decide to do it your-

self, the chapter tells about the stripping

Tye Behnke at the Squaw Alley Shop in Naper-ville, lll., restores an old pol metal larro. Places

like this are invaluable for the furniture restorer

Detail of golden oak dresser. Note the evidence of craftsmanship in the beveled edges 01the The shop contains display boards and drawersdrawer. Refinish the insides as well as the outsides of drawers and cupboaros. lull 01old, rare hardware.



This 18th century mi rror is a combination 01pine, walnut. veneer and gilt, Such a combination was

not uncommon, especially since pine was so plentiful.

Figuring Out a Realistic Work Plan 1 5

compounds that are available and how to

use them . This is a messy job that can take

considerable tim e, so plan an appropriate

piace to do the work and a block of I i me to

do i t in .

N ext com es the cleanup after stripping

- rinsing off the stripping chem icals,

drying, and finally sanding 10 smooth

down the grain of the w ood raised by thestripper. Thea you can finish the piece.

Chapter 8 will g ive the inform ation you

need about chokes of fin ishing m aterials,

an d C hap ter 9 tells how to apply them .

Step 3: Choosing a' Finish What

kind of a fin ish do you want? You have

many from which you ca n choose.

W hat do you want the final calm to be?

For the beginner, th is can be tricky. W e

have found that m ost people w ho don 't

deal w ith furniture every day have trouble

visualizing furniture colors. They tend to

think in generalities when il comes to col-

or. W alnut, they believe, is walnut, and

mahogany is mahogany The fact is, there

is a w ide range of color variations w ithin

each of those categories, and you must

select the specific color you want before

you buy the fin ishing m aterials.

There are fashions in furniture colors

just as there are fash ions in clothes. Y ears

ago, for example, mahogany finishes

tended to be a deep red-brow n in color.

Today, m ahogany furniture tends to be

more of a natural brown, m uch lighter in

color. This gives rise to the question: if

you are restoring mahogany furniture , do

you want the "old" red;.brow n look, or do

you want a contemporary lighter brown?

The old look is authentic, if you want the

piece to look as it did orig inally . A nd itis

possible that the contemporary light

brown m ay seem out of place on this

design.

Your best move is to visit Som e good

furniture stores. Spend a few hours look-

mg at the displays. L ook at th e c olo rs .

Compare th e pieces on the floor, and be -gi n to se nse th e co lo r v ariatio ns. It won't

tak e lo ng 10 sensitize your eyes. Then you

can decide which color you want for your

piece.

N ext, v isit the store w here you purchase

your fin ishing m aterials to see their

displays of stains, varnishes and other m a-

terials , show ing the range of colors avail-

able. You may find leafle ts w ith color

samples in them . If you have doubts, take

these leaflets back to the furniture store 10

m atch the colors. This traveling from store



16 Figuring Out a Realistic Work Plan

to store takes tim e, but i t is a good invest-

m ent because if you don't like the final

color you choose, the project w ill have

b een a failure.

S tep 4: F Ind in g a W ork A rea Furni-

ture repai rand refi nishing are dusty jobs,

so be prepared. You need a workroom

where you can be messy in com fort. It is

difficul t to use a Iiv i ng area of your hom e,even i f you spread papers on the floor and

cover the other furniture. The m ajor prob-

lems are dust from sanding , spills and

splatters fro m finishing and stripp ing ma -

terials, and ventilation. In add ition, tools

m ust be conven iently at hand, so you need

a bench or table for them .

The log ical work areas are the base-

ment, th e g ar ag e, a porch, or a spare room

that can be devoted to the project. Youmay find it best to use several work areas,

Hardwoods such as oak, the fruitwoods and clear birch are used to make good unfinished furniture,

which, when finished with care, become very worthwhife pieces

depending on the task W hen you sand,

the air m ay be filled w ith tiny particles that

can get into television sets, motors and

other equipment that w on't work well

when fu ll of dust. So plan to do really

dusty sanding in a place where the dust

won' t harm anything and cleanup isn 't a

big problem (M inor hand sanding doesn't

m ake m uch dust, but m ach ine sanding ca nrapidly fill the air in a roorn.)

Stripping of th e finish requires the use

of strong chem icals and results in a lot of

sloppy , hard -co-co ntrol residue. T his resi-

due can damage floors and o ther surfaces

because it is fu ll of active chem icals. The

b est p lace to strip fu rn itu re is 1 11 th e g ar ag e

or the yard, where the stripping and rins-

ing can be done w ith a minimum of con-

c er n o ver s urr ou nd in gs .

Bas emen t wor k a re a Basem ents of-

fer a logical workplace, bu t are not as

good as m a.ny people think . Al l th ai s an d-

ing dust could do terrible things to a

furnace or washing m achine motor. For

another, m ost basements have very poor

ventilation. W hen you do a b ig s an din g

job, the fum es or dusty air has no place to

g o. T he d ust b eco mes co ncen trated -an d

you breathe it. L ikew ise, if you work in

the basement w ith h ighly vo latile finish-

ing materials, such as lacquer, you w ill

breathe in a lot of hazardous fum es.

A basement workshop, w ith a work-

bench and tool storage faci Iit ies, is prob -

ably the best place to do repairs, gluing

and regluing, d isassem bly and assem bly .

L ight hand sanding can be done there, too.

Itm ight be a good placefor the application

of som e finishes - varnishes that don't

give off strong fumes, for example, And

perhaps, w ith the addition of ven tilation

equipment, the basement could be used

for o ther work.

A simple but effective way to ven tilate a

typ ical basement is to open all w indows

and set up a good-sized electric fan to

b lowout through one of them . This cre-

ates cross ventilation and a good move-

m ent of air through the area to dispose of

dust and fumes.

An unused bedroom can be converted

into a furniture w orkshop i f y ou p ro tect

the floor from spillage, arrange for good

ventilation, and set up a work bench or

worktable fo r too ls. clam ps and other m a-

terials. Iyour project lakes place in the

w inter, such a room is likely to be m ore

com fortably heated than a basem ent or a

garage.



2

should be sufficient to provide good lever-

age. Claw hammers come in a variety of

w eights, starting at 7 ounces. The best all-

around sizes are 13 or 16 ounces.

Rubber mallet The rubber mallet is

one of the h an die st to ols to have because itenables you to pound on fu rn iture parts

w ithout denting or marring them . It is

ideal for use in knocking furniture apart

before regluing and for tapping new ly

glued joints firm ly together.

Wooden mallet A w ooden m allet is

no t a real necessity but is handy when you

chisel wood. Tapping the chisel w ith the

wooden head saves wear and tear on th e

chisel handle.

Magnetic tack hammer The other

hammer you m ight need is the magnetic

tack hammer .. This is a thin-nosed light

hammer w ith a magnetic head, good for

reupholstery work. The magnetic head

holds the tack upright';s you drive it, so

that you can tack w ith one hand. Because

of the narrow construction of the head,

this hammer is good for gelling into tight

places where other hammers can 't go, so

yo u'll find other uses for it beyond uphol-

stering. The head w ill re tain its m agnetism

fo r a long period if you keep a metal wash-

er on the face when the hammer isn 't in

use.

Sc r ewd r i v e r s You'll find mostly

large screw s used in furniture, notably i n

corners blocks and braces on chairs and

tables, so you should have a good collec-

tion o f large-blad ed screw driv ers.

The secret in using a screwdriver is to

match the w idth of the blade to the slot on

th e s cr ew . A blade that is smaller than the

slot won't provide the leverage you need

to tum th e s cr ew in or ou t easily . A blade

that is only half the size of the slot may

bend under the pressure you apply or may

H ow to Se le c t and Use

H an d an d P ower Too ls

. . .

I

~<» ./ e

1 \

H OW MANY TO OLS AR E NEED ED ?

Professionals in all trades share one secret:

the right tools make the job easier and

quicker and do the work better. Furniture

restoration is no d i ff e ren t. It will pay you

handsomely i n the long run (0 ac qu ire th er ig ht to ols . F ortu nate ly . i t won't cost an

arm and a leg to add to your present tool

collection, but there w ill be some ex-

pense. You need to buy good tools only

once, and you can amortize their cost over

a large number of jobs.

Ifyou find need for an unusual and ex-

pensive tool that you won't use often , you

can rent it for a couple of days. An exam -

ple might be large bar clamps, used to

span big work such as a dining room table.

The job m ight call for three or four of

these - a large investment, We have

found clamps such as these in mos t r en tal

shops when we needed them .

Some of th e tools we list m ay s ur pr is e

YOl- cotton sw abs, w ooden toothpicks,

tongue depressors, emery boards. One

doesn't usuall y rhi nk of them as tools. BuI

when you gel down to the fine repair and

You will use these very handy "non-toots" regu-

larly. Also add cotton swabs and small dispos-able aluminum baking dishes.

refinishing work, these, along w ith a thin-

bladed pocket knife , w ill probably serve

yo u better than so me e xp ensive su bstitu tes

you could buy.

Go over the follow ing list and note the

tools you already have. Then list those youneed 10 add to you r armory. If th e w ant list

appears long, just rem em ber that these can

be bought as you need them . You don't

have \0 gel them all at once. Don 't buy a

dowel irrg jig, for exampl e, unless the pre-

sent project calls for adding or replacing

dowels.

T O O L S EL EC T IO N

C ho o s in g an d U sin g H an d T o o ls

H amm e r s Hammers are not a big

item in furniture restoration, since few if

any joints require nailing. Three types

come in handy,

Standard claw hammers The best

quality claw hammers are drop forged and

have hickory handles. Look at the claw

before you buy. It should have fine inside

edges that w ill slide under the head of a

nai I easily , and the curve of the claw

Three hammers wi lt serve you in furniture work:

a rubber mallet, a magnetic tack hammer, and a

smatl (7' /2 oz.) claw hammer.



18 Tool Selection

damage the slot in the screw . Your best

buy is a matched set of good-quality steel

screw drivers, w ith handles large enough

to allow a com fortable grip. There are a

good m any cheap screw drivers available,

bu t it is best to avoid these "bargains."

Good ones will las! longer and give much

better service.

Y ou w on't need screw drivers with Phil-

lips heads for wooden furniture, but to

work with metal units, you will need sev-

e ral s iz es .

Nailsets In those rare instances when

you use na iIs in furni lure restoration, you

wan! to hide all traces of them . This is

done by countersinking the nailhead and

then fil!ing the hole with wood putty . To

countersink a nail, use a nailset to tap the

nail a six teenth of an inch or so below th e

w o od s ur fa ce . Nailsets are m ore freq uen t-

ly used to drive out the metal pins used in

som e furniture in order to reinforce dow eljoints.

Ha n d s aw s Most sawing in restora-

tion is small work and requires a smooth

cut. The best handsaw for the purpose

is a small bucksaw , a square-ended saw

w ith fine teeth. A backsaw also can be

u sed w ith a sm all m iter box. to m ake angu-

la r cuts

On occasion, there are uses for a coping

saw. If you need to cut a new chair splat to

replace one that was broken, the coping or

scroll saw would do thejob. A splat, inci-

dentally, is the w ide centerpiece in theback of a wooden chair, frequently made

with eye-pleasing curves. To cur a new

splat, trace the design on a hardwood

board of the proper th ickness, then cut

along the pencil line w ith the coping saw .

I! is d ifficult to make a continuous

smooth cut with a handheld coping saw .

The job goes faster and better w ith a n e le c-

tric scroll saw or w ith a sabre sa w . But you

can use the handsaw if a motorized unit

i sn 't a va il ab le . It w i I I tak e a co ns-id e rab le

am ount of sanding, how ever, to fin ish th e

splat edge smoothly after cutting w ith a

handheld coping saw .

Forfum iture work, mount the blade in

the coping saw w ith the teeth pointing to-

ward the handle, so that the cutting is

done On the pull stroke. This produces

sm oo th er cu ts.

Wood Chisels Good, sharp wood

chisels are used in a number of ways in

furniture w ork. Y ou'll cut recesses for the

installation of hinges and other hardw are,

or make dovetail or mortise-and-tenon

joints w ith them . Have several chisels in

your kit, the best w idths being V 4 - , 1 12 -,

and Y4-inch. Resist any temptation to use

the chisels for anything but cutting w ood,

or you may ruin the fine cutting edges.

Use a mallet or light hammer 10 drive

chisels when cutting, and always make a

series of light, thin cuts rather than fewer

but deeper cuts. The light cuts are m uch

easier to control. B egin by m aking vertical

CUIS across the area to prov id e a straig ht

fin ished edge. Then shave OUi the w ood

between the vertical cuts to the needed

depth . Make all cuts w ith the grain of th e

wood. Have the beveled side of the chisel

race up for shallow cuts, and beveled side

down for making deeper cuts ..

Practice using the chisel i f you have

never cut w ith One before. Clamp all old

board to your w orkbench and try different

cuts. Practice controlling the work, mak-

ing just the cut you need. Keep at i t until

Most sawing in furnitu rework can be done with a

backsaw, whiCh makes a smooth, line cut. Hold

the work securely in a vise.

You'll regular ly lind uses for ';;'., 'h·, and %·in

wood chisels, Buy ones with shanks thai extend

up through the handle.

you feel secure in your ability to cut the

right amount at the right depth . Then you

can go 10 your project confident of your

ability to do thejob. One thing about chis-

eling: once you have made a cut that is too

d eep , rep air w ork is diffic ult. It is better to

make a number of th i n cuts, even though it

takes tim e, than to repair a b ad ly c he we d,

deep cut.

Clamps No tools are more important

to the furniture restorer than clamps.

Make it a basic rule from the beginning to

clamp every glue job, no matter how big

or how small. Then you will m ake neat,

successful glue joints every tim e.

There are four basic types of clamps at

your hardware store, and you'll need all of

them in a variety of sizes if you do much

restoring.

Hand screws T he se ar e th e trad itio n-

al wooden- jawed clam ps fu rn iture m akers

have been using for centuries. They con-

The backsaw in action being used to cut thesides of a new dovetail joint Cut in the waste of

the wood. along the guideline.

The wood chisel at work. If you plan to do much

furniture work, practice with the chisel to learn

how to control your cuts.



Wooden furniture clamps, called Jorg.ensens,

are old standbys. Easy 10adjust and lit, theydon't bite into the wood.

This is a bar ctamp, so called because the IWO

clamping units fit over a metal bar. You shouldhavebar or pipe clamps that span 4 It . or more.

A bar clamp is at the back 01this piece and apipe clamp at the front. Inorder tomake a pipeClamp of any size, buy standard pipe in anylength you need

These Jorgensens won't mar the wood of this

dresser but will hold the base plate firmly untilthe gluedfles_

I~ow available everywhere, these small barclamps have proved very 'handy, replacing C-

clamps in much 01our work.

Theweb or strap clamp consists of a long beltand a clamping head. Totighten the web, turnan adjusting screw

Too l Selection 19

sist of two blocks of shaped hardwood,

w ith two steel, w ood -h and led c lam pin g

screw s running through them . To lighten

lhe clamp, you tum the scr-ew s. Because

the clamping screw s are mounted in piv-

OlS, the jaw s can be set at any desired

angle . These com e in all sizes, from m in-

iature for m odeling work, to the big ones

w ith jaw s which open to 14 inches. Agood basic starter group m ight include a 3-

or 4-inch and an 8- to lfl-inch model .

Bar and pipe clamps These are

called furniture clamps in som e tool cata-

logs. They consist of two movable m etal

jaw s, one of w hich has a built-in clam ping

screw , fitted over either a long steel bar or

a long pipe. They are used to span big

work such as table tops, the seat of a chair,

or the side of a cabinet. You can buy them

in lengths from 1 2 to 48 inches. W e have

found the longer lengths most practical,

because even the 48-inch clamp can befitted to work of 12 inches - though

som etim es fitting larger clam ps to sm aller

work is clum sy. For big gluing jobs, YOl l

may need as m any as three or four at a

tim e; two is a m inimum for m ost shops.

Strap and web clamps S om e fu rn i-

ture workers think these are the handiest

tools in the shop. They are inexpensive

and often can be m ade to do the work of

the m ore costly hand screw s and bar

clam ps. L iterally , strap and w eb clamps

are just tourniquets applied 10 furniture.

The clamps you buy consist of a fabric

strap fitted w ith a m etal clamp body. Put

the strap around the wgrk to be clam ped,

then tighten it by pull ing the strap through,

not unlike the w ay you tighten an airplane

seat belt. Most clam p bodies are m ade so

you can do the final tightening by turning

a nut on the side of the body w ith a sm all

w rench. M ost straps are L 2 to J 5 fe et lo ng ,

so they can go around big work.

W e often improvise our own strap

clam ps, using ordinary clothesline rope

and along screw driver. The result is not

an elegant tool, but it w orks. Just w rap the

clothesline several tim es around the w ork

to be clam ped. Tie the loose ends togeth-

er. Then insert the screwdriver between

strands of the rope and tw ist to tighten,

(like a tourniquet). W hen the rope is tight

enough, ruck the handle of the screw driver

under the nearest part of the work so that

the rope is held at the right tension. One

word of caution: don 't tw ist the rope too

tight or it may break. Just make it t ight

enough to hold the glued parts together.



20 Tool Selection

c-otemos The C-clam p is shaped like

the letter C , w ith the open mouth of the

letter used for clam ping. The clam ping

surfaces are sm all metal pads, adjusted by

turning a screw handle , w hich m oves the

C-clamps are Ihe workhorses 01the business.Note the clamp in the center, designed for

clamping edge pieces as they dty.

Someonetook tile spring Clothespinand devel-oped it into big spring. clamps. They come inmany sizes and are applied easily.

Touse awedge clamp, tap on thewedges, oneatter the other. The increasing width graduallydrives the pieces together.

lower pad .. C-clamps are available w ith

Jaw openings from one to eight inches or

more. It is best to buy the sizes you need

for each job as required instead of trying to

p urch ase a w ho le co lle ctio n im me diate ly.

Here, a C-clamp clamps a small leg. Note thesmall wooden pads used to protect the surface

01the furniture,

Thisdrawer stop is being clamped in place witlla spring clamp,

Here is one of the handiest devices you canhave-the doweling jig. Use it to place oppos-ing dowel holes perfectly,

Always insert p ieces of scrap wood be-

(ween the work and the metal pads of C-

clamps before tightening. O therw ise the

pads w ill m ake ugly dents in the surface of

t he f urni tu r e.

Other clamping devices Anything

that can hold tw o pieces together while

they are being glued can be Called a

clam p. W e have used spring-type clothes-pins for small work and have found tim es

when a rubber band was as good as any-

thing else. You can buy metal spring

clam ps, which work the sam e as the

spring-type clothespins but have jaw

openings in sizes ranging from an inch to 3

inches. It is good to have a few of these

around"

Wedge clamps Wedge clamps are

used to clam p two flat pieces, such as th e

two halves of a c rack ed d re sse r top to ge th -

er w hile the glue dries. A lthough the prop-

er tool for the job would be two barclamps, a hom emade wedge w ill work.

To construct the wedge, take an 18- to

2 4-inch length of lx4 board, an inch or

more thick, and cut it d iagonally to make

tw o long triangles. Place the work to be

g l ue d ag ai nst a so l id w all, such as the back

rail of the workbench. Apply glue to both

surfaces and fit them together. Fit the tri-

angles you have cut together again and

place them next to the w ork opposite the

w a l l. D rive nai Is th ro ug h th e o uter triang le

[0 hold it in place. Then tap the w ide end

of the unanchored triangle w i Ih a ham mer.

It w ill slide inw ard, betw een the anchored

triangle and the work, to force the glued

pieces into firm contacr'w ith each other.

You can see how it works in the accompa-

n yi ng p ho to gr ap h.

D ow el J ig Many pieces of furniture

have parts jo ined by dowels - wooden

pegs thai fit in to holes drilled in each of

the joined pieces. D ow el joints are strong,

neat and long-lasting, and elim inate the

need for screw s. To do dowel joining, you

need a dow el jig . Basically each type posi-

tions the drill in the proper place on the

pieces to be joined, so that the holes are

p erfe ctly a lig ne d a fte r d rillin g. IIi s n e ar ly

impossible to make a precise dowel jo int

w ithout the jig , w hich is a worthwhile in-

vestment if you plan to do much furniture

work. Each brand is slightly different, so

fo llow t he i ns tr uc ti on s mat come w ith the

one you buy.

Buy ready- made hardwood dowels that

come grooved to take glue. A fter drilling

the holes, coat the dowels w ith glue. Tap



them into the holes in one p iece. Then join

the pieces by fitting the second piece over

the dowels. Tap the pieces together and

clam p until the g lue dries.

Dowel centers A s an altern ative,

you can use little m etal pieces called dow -

el centers . These look like little bulle ts, To

use them , drill the hole in one of the pieces

to be joined; then insert a dow el center inthe hole . Tap the other piece to be joined

against the first one. A sharp point on the

dow el center m arks the spot where the sec-

ond hole m ust be d rilled . This is the inex-

pensive way to line up dow el holes, and it

works i f you are very careful. H owever,

dow el centers are not nearly as satisfac-

tory as the dowel jig , so we don 't recom -

m end them .

Bench vises 1 1 takes two hands to do

most w oodwork ing jobs ~ chiseling, for

example. Unless you have a third arm ,

there is no w ay to ho ld the wood while youwork on it. This m eans you should have a

bench v ise o f som e type, in to wh ich you

can clam p the work. A bench vise is not

only a convenience but also a safety de-

vice, since a lot o f w oo dw orking accidents

occur w ben people attem pt to work on

loose pieces and a tap of the hammer

causes one of the undam ped p ieces to fly.

If you already have a good w orkbench,

it probably is fitted w ith a bench vise. If

you don 't have a workbench and perhaps

have no place to put one, then buy a

clam p-on vise, w hich clam ps to the edge

of any sturdy table . Just be sure La p u t l itt le

wooden pads between the dam ping areas

on the vise and the tabletop to p reven t

marring.

Som e vises have heads that sw ivel,

allow ing you co change the angle of

the w ork by adjusting the angle of the

clam p. These are the m ost useful for gen -

eral w ork,

W oodwork ing vises are a special vari-

e ty of bench vise mounted on the side of

the w orkbench, w ith jaw s flush w ith the

top of [be table. They are lined w ith w ood

to p rotect anything clam ped in them , and

are the m ost practical for fu rnitu re work.

Clam p-on m odels are available , but sw iv-

el m odels are not. If you are buying your

first v ise and intend to work a lot w ith

wood, the w oodwork ing v ise is best.

How ever, you can use a.bench vise to bold

m ost w ood work by padding the jaw s w ith

th in wooden boards to pro tect the w ork.

Pocket K nIfe A pocket knife is used

dozens of lim es a day for scraping, m ak-

ing sm all cuts , roughing up wooden sur-

faces before g lu ing, carving, cutting the

string on packages, d igging reluctant

stains out of corners ~ the list could be

endless. A sm all, th in-bladed knife w orks

best, Buy a honing stone, if you don 't

already have one, and strop the blade O n

it regularly to keep it sharp .

Pliers You probably already own thestandard pliers , called slip join t p liers . In

add ition, two o ther types com e in handy

from tim e to tim e. One is long-nosed

pliers, for w orking in tight places, The

other is end-cutting p liers, w hich you use

to pull nails or cut off the heads o f nails.

D on 't buy either of these im m ed i atel y , be -

cause you w ill use them infrequently . But

keep them in m ind, because there are rare

m om ents when no other tool will do .

Rules A ru le , of cou rse, is a device

fo r m easuring, and you n eed o ne constant-

ly to m easure the work . Th ree types arehelp ful in doing good furniture work : the

fo lding rule; the steel tape rule; and the

try-square, commonly known as the

Tvsquare.

The folding rule is m ost conven ient for

g en er al m e as ur em e nt s, especially of out-

side dim ensions. The steel rule is handy

for m ak ing inside m easurem ents, such as

the inside of a draw er or cabinet. The

T -square is held aga i n sr the outside of a

cabinet, draw er or other square construc-

tion to show w hether or not the corners are

t ru ly s qu ar e.

Carpenter's L evel A nother m easur-

ing tool w hich you m ight usc from time to

tim e is (h e carpenter's level. It is used

-_ -,1

._--_"_

~ ~.These units will handle most measuring jobs:

the carpenter's square, a good steel tape, a

fol.ding rule and a contour guide,

Tool Selection 21

to determ ine w hether cabinet sides are

plum b and tops are level.

P lanes Once in a while you m ay find

uses for a plane when m aking furn iture

parts, bu t w e have found that need infre-

quent, so we don 't recommend that you

buy one.

D rills W e feel the righ t too! for drill-

ing holes is the electric drill - a goodinvestment because you can perform a

number of tasks in add ition to drilling

w ith il.

Choosing and Using Pow er Tools

Pow er tools do any job quicker and o ften

better than hand tools. The costs o f good

power tools have com e down in recent

years, so they are generally affordable .

W e think they pay for them selves in tim e

saved and in w ork quality . A s w ith any

tool, how ever, you must p rac tic e w ith II

pow er tool to find out how to get the m ostout of it.

There ar e tw o classes of pow er tools,

the portable and those that m ount on a

workbench or stand alone. The bench

tools and stand-alone un its include the

wood lathe, the band saw , the d rill press,

the joiner, the jig saw , the shaper, and the

radial arm saw . A ny or all of these are

w onderful to have in a workshop, and you

can find all kinds of uses for them . Each

of them , how ever, requ ires a . major in-

vestm en t in m oney and in w orkshop space

~ and you can do furniture restoration

w ithout tbem .

The po rtable pow er tools you can use in

furniture restoration i~clude the electric

When you veneer, you'll need a veneer saw and

roller . (If you have a wallpaper seam roller. useit. It is the same thing.)



22 Tool Selection

dri 1 1, the sabre sa w , and the electric sand-

er . If you make furniture or have to make

m any replacem ent parts, th e router is a

good versatile addition to your tool collec-

tion. In overall importance, w e rate the

electric sander first, and then the electric

drill.

Sande r s Three kinds of sanders are

av ailab le at most hardware and home cen-ter stores: the oscillating sander, in w hich

the abrasive paper m oves hack and forth

rapidly and imitates the back and forth

motion of hand sanding; the orbital sand-

er, which moves the abrasive paper in a

sm all-d iam eter circle; and the belt sander,

which has a continuous belt of abrasive

paper or cloth that runs constantly at high

speed. Some units now available are com -

bination oscillating and orbital sanders.

You control the m otion of the abrasive

paper by turning a sw itch,

Each of these sanders has its specificuse. The oscillating sander is the best all-

around sander for m ost people. Its sanding

action is straight-line and relatively slow ,

so the novice doesn 't m ake as m any m is-

takes with it. The orbital sander is specifi-

callya finishing tool, used for putting that

final sm ooth fin ish on wood. It doesn't

remove much m aterial, even when used

w ith coarse abrasive paper. The bel! sand-

er, on the other band, cuts in to wood fast,

even w ith fine and m edium abrasive pa-

pers. In restoration work, handle the belt

sander carefully or you w ill cut deeper

than you intended.

Your best buy is a c omb in ati on o sc il la t-

ing/orbital unit. If your budget allow s it,

add a belt sander later.

E le c tr ic D r ill An electric drill can do

a lot of jobs in addition to drilling holes. It

can be con verted to a circular sander, or a

drum sander, or a disc sander. It can be

used w ith a w ire brush to remove rust,

paint a nd f in is he s. It is, w ith the addition

of attachm ents, the m ost versatile tool you

can buy.

Electric dri lis come in Y4-, Y s - , an d

V2 -inch sizes, w ith these num bers refer-

ring to the size of the chuck (the device

that grips the drill b its and other attach-

m erits). The power rating of the drill gen-

erally varies w ith the size, ranging from 1 /,

to I V 2 horsepow er. For most home work-

shops, the V4-inch model is fine. If yo u

expect to do some heavy duty work on

occasion, then go up to the %- in ch m o de l.

W hen buying a dri 1 1, features to look for

include a variable speed trigger, which

perm its you to control the speed of the

drill by squeezing the trigger, and double

insulation. This allow s the use of a two-

prong plug because the shell and the chuck

are com pletely insulated from the w iring.

The cheapest units have m inim um horse"

pow er, low -quality bearings and m ay burn

out if used for heavy duty work: they are

fin e fo r! ight d ut y c ho re s. As a ru lc . if yo u

buy recognized brand names, you can as -

An electr ic sander si rnpli lies the job of sanding. Avoid using sanding discs in a portable electr ic dri II;always use a straight 01 orbital sander similar to the one shown.

A belt sander Is a fast worker, great for removing matertal last, But be careful of It. You can dig

trenches in the surface with it if you work too carelessly.



The sabre saw can be used to cut curved

shapes, such as a new chair splat. or rocker.

A circular saw is useful for straight cuts. Always

use it wilh an edge guide.

sum e that the m ore expensive m odels are

m ade to survive heavier w ork. W e think

those units in the m iddle to top price range

ar e the best buy.

Attachments A ttach men ts add to th e

versatility of your d rill. G ood ones to con-

sider at the start include: screw driving

units; a b uffin g an d san din g se t co nsis tin g

of a rubber pad, a lam b's w ool buffingpad, and sanding discs; and a co llection of

drill b its. B its com e in sm all storage cases

containing a range of sizes. Your collec-

tion shou ld include w ood/m eta! tw ist b its

in sizes from V nlo if 2 inch. A dd to these

som e wood spade b its from if 2 to 1 1 , 1 2

inches. If you drive m any screw s, a set of

screw -m ate bits can be help ful. U se these

10 drill p ilo t holes for screw s. The bit no t

only d rills a bo le of the correct depth , bu t

also w idens the top of the hole so that the

screw is au tom atically countersunk w hen

y ou d riv e it.Stands A drill can be turned into a

sm all w o rk sh op i f you buy a stand fo r it.

The stand holds the d rill so that you don 't

Two very handy lools for the furnilure worker-the router and the dovetail iig:. Use the router lor

making grooves and in repair work as well as with the dovetail jig.

This hand grinder by Dremel has a flexible shalt

and has cutters. grinders, sanding wheels and

other accessories.

This is a g.rinder and wire brush Sharpen tools

on the grinder; polish hardware with the wire

brush or a cloth buffing wheel.

Mini Pow er To ols 23

have to . You can then use grinding

wheels, d isc sanders and other fittings in

the drill, and have bo th hands free to hold

the work. The drill also Can b e c on ve rt ed

into a sm all bu t effective d rill p ress with

th e purchase of a drill p ress stand.

W ith a disc sand er in th e chuck , you can

bo ld sm all w ooden parts to the sp inning

sander w heel and do som e very good sand -ing w ork. M any people decide not to buy a

sander bu t to use the disc sander in the

e le ctr ic d rill in ste ad . This is false econo-

m y. W e don 't recommend using an elec-

tric drill for sanding furn iture surfaces.

The spinning disc is 100d iffic ult to c on tr ol

and you are likely to get uneven results

and circular gouges. The disc in the drill is

fine for sanding rungs, legs and irregu lar

shapes, but Ihe oscillating sander is best

fo r fl a t s u rf ac e s.

S abre S aw The sabre saw is a porta-

ble jigsaw used to m ake curved and interi-or cu ts in plyw ood and boards up to 2

inches thick. If you have to m ake a new

ly re-shaped splat for a chair, or new

rockers for a rocking chair, the sabre saw

is a good too! for the job. It is not the best

tool for m aking long, straight cuts; those

are jobs for the circular power saw .

Rou t e r The router w as m ade for fur-

n iture w ork . It cuts grooves, rabbets ,

dovetails and dadoes. It makes cove,

cham fered, beaded and other decorative

edges, and is the too l to use when m ak ing

inlays. You certain ly can have a lot of fun

w ith a router, and it is essential if yo u

m ake your ow n fum iluje from scratch. In

restoration work , however, you often can

d o w ith ou t it. Put it on the list as a tool 10

buy after the m ore essential units - the

d rill, the sander, and the sabre saw .

Mini Power Tools

Space is a prob lem for m any people , espe-

cially those who live in apartments an d

don 't have the luxury of a basem ent work-

shop area .. For them , m ini pow er too ls

m ay be the answer. D rem elis the leading

m anufacturer in this fie ld , and am ong the

tools they offer are {he Mote-Tool (sm all

dri 1 1), a m ill i belt sander, a tab le saw , a

table scro ll saw , and a wood lathe. W ith

attachm ents, the M alo-Tool can be turned

into a dri 1 1press and a rou ter. If you have a

space problem , look these tools over.

They are not in tended for large or heavy-

duty w ork, bu t w ill do m ost of the norm al

jobs in fu rnitu re resto ration. They store

easily and are conven ient to use.



3

F a s ten e rs , G lu e an d W o o d

Furniture, for the most pan, is a matter

of wood - how to shape it how to j oin it,

and how to finish it. In furniture restora-

tion, you only shape wood when making

replacement parts. Your major concerns

are with wood joints and the finishing of

wood surfaces. In this chapter, we deal

with fasteners, glue, and wood itself, as

well as how to handle the problems you

will encounter in restoration work.

IFASTENERS

Screws

Screws are the most common fasteners

used in good furniture. The majority of

joints are made of shaped wood - such as

mortise-and-tenons, rabbets or dovetails

- and are glued. Screws rather than nails

are used whenever a fastener is requ ired.

Always look fo r wood screws (as opposed

to metal screws) when buying fasteners

f or f ur ni tu re u se .

V© lD ihillips Single sial

Round Oval Flat

Screws. no t nails, arepreferred fo r jOiningwoodpieces in furniture repair. Select the type most

appropriate for the location

Size Screw size numbers refer to both

the gauge and the length of the screw.

Gauge numbers run from 0 to 24, and refer

10 the diameter of the shank at its widest

point. An O-gauge screw has a shank that

is about Vl6-inch in diameter, while that of

a 24-gauge screw is 3fs-inch in diameter.

Screws range in lengths from tiny (1f4-

inch) to about 6 inches. Most stores carry

screws from 2 to 16 or 18 gauge in a vari-

et y of lengths. The screw s most used in

Roundhead Most important use for roundhead screws is in applications where

you expect to remove the screw and the work is to be disassem-

bled. They also can be countersunk covered.

WOOD SCREWSWoodscrews have a number of uses in furniture work. The mas! common is to

attach table and dresser lops to frames. They also are used as joiners, replacing

wood jo in ts , In this use, they usually are countersunk and then covered with a wood

plug. Always predrill holes fo r screws, making the hole slightly smaller Ihan the

diameter of the screw shank.

Do not drive screws into the end grain of wood, since they don't hold. Always

make sure the blade of the screwdriver is as wide as the slot in the screwhead when

drivi ng screws. If the blade is narrower, you (1 ) may damage the screwhead or the

blade, and (2 ) will get much less turning. power. ~I fthe blade is wider than the sial,

you will damage the surrounding wood.

SCREW SIZES

Screws are designated by both length and diameter. Length is designated in inches .

Diameter is designated. by a gauge number. Lengths available run from V.inch to 6

inches. Gauges avai lable are 0 (V's inch) to 24 (% inch). The label on the box of

SCrews mighl read 1x e , meaning the box contains 1 inch screws of No. 6 gauge.

Most stores carry all standard lengths of screws in appropriate gauges. Most

common gauges are Nos. 2 through 1 6. The heavier the work requi red of the screw,

the larger the gauge should be.

TYPES OF SCREWHEADS

Siandard slotted woodscrews come in three headstyles: flathead (fl.al across the

top); oval head (Ihe top is rounded and the underside of the head is beveled); and

roundhead (top rounded, underside of head flal). For most furniture work, you will

lise flalhead screws, but fhe others have uses, too.

Flathead Use flathead screws when the head 0 1 the screw is to be flush with

the surtace. Use a countersink bit in your electric drill to drill out a

place for the head, or use a screw mate bit, which both pre-dnlls a

hole for the screw and a wider place at the top for Ihe head. You

can also countersink the head slight ly below the surface.

Oval head Oval head screws are pleasing in appearance and are easier to

remove than flatheads. As a rule, Ihe underside 0 1 the head is

countersunk, and the oval top remains above the sur1ace. Use

where the screw will be seen and appearance is important,



furniture work range from 8 to J6 gauge,

and from % to J I I 2 inches long.

Styles Screw heads come in flat, oval

and round shapes. Flat heads are used

when the screw head is to be flush with the

surface of the work or countersunk below

the.surface. Oval and round heads are used

when the screw head will show on the

surface of the work.

A screw head either rests on the surface (Ie! t), is

set flush (center) or is countersunk (lett), The

countersunk opening is often filled.

When drivinq or removing screws, always be

sure the blade of the screwdriver is the samewidth as the sial in the screw head.

Using Screws Much of the lime in

restoration work, you remove old screws

and use them again. If the screw has been

damaged, replace it with a new one of the

same size and type. When driving a new

screw into wood for tile first time, always

drill a pilot hole, using ad rill bit two sizes

smaller than the shank diameter.

Some hardwoods will split i f you drive

a screw in without first drilling the pilot

hole. To b e s afe , widen the upper part ofthe pilot hole to accommodate the unth-

readed part of the shank. This part of the

hole should be the same diameter as the

shank. A screw-mate drill bi t does all of

this in one motion. At the same time, it

drills OUI a space for the head so that when

the pilot hole is finished and the Screw

inserted, the screw head is flush with or

countersunk below the work surface.

Screws will tum into new work easier i f

you lubricate them first. To do this, rub

the screw on a bar of soap or wax.

Screws I Nails 25

NailsAlthough nails aren't used in making fur-

niture joints, they do have some uses i n

furniture. The nails and other fasteners

you may see are finishing or casing nails,

upholstery nails, tacks, dowel pins, corru-

gated fasteners, and staples.

The common nail has a head. Finishing

au d casing nails have virtually no headsand, when used, are driven below the

work surface with a nail set. Then the hole

is f illed 10 hide the nail. They can be

bought i n lengths ranging from I to 3

inches, but when buying nails, look for the

"penny" size number and not inches.

In England, 400 years ago, nails were

sold by the penny weight. That is, you got

a certain weight of nails for a penny, and

the bigger (he nails, the fewer you gol for

Common nails

so 2 ' 1 2 " long

~ *1>Sd; 2" long

4d: 1\Ii' long

2d: 1" long

Finishil"lg nail Wire brad

Corruga1ed fastener

NAILSAs a general rule, nails are lor carpenters, notlurniture restorers. To lasten furniture

parts together, use wood joints (dovetails, etc.), dowels, and glue. When metal

lasteners are needed,. use screws, The two legi timate uses of nails in furniture are

to hold a drawer bottomin place by driving a sing.le small nail up through the bottom

panel into the drawer back, and to pin a dowel joint. Do NOT use nails to mend

broken furniture parts.

Note that in pieces made before 1895, square nails often were used, usually to

reinforce glued joints or parts glued together. When restoring these pieces, reuse

these nails just as they were used originally, They confi rm the antiquity of the piece.

IIthe nails have been lost or are not lit lor reuse, you can buy replicas at woodwork-

ing specialty shops to replace them. If you choose not to replace them, do not use

modern nails in the jOint. lnstead, use dowels and glue.

NAIL SIZESNails are sold by "penny" sizes (dssiqnated by "d''), The smallest nail is a 2d or 2

penny, which is 1 inch long. A 3d nail is 1'1. inches long. A 6d nail is 2 inches long. A

10d nail is 3 inches long. ~

Common nails Typical nai l with a head. In furniture, a 2d common nail will

hold a drawer 'bottom. The thickness 01 the shank increases

with the length.

Barbed dowelpins

These are nails without heads and with scored shanks. Used

1 0 pin a dowel in place by being driven through the dowellrom

the outside 01 the joint; then countersunk with a nailset and

puttied.

Corrugatedfasteners

These are small wavy steel fasteners with sharp teeth on one

side. In cheap furniture, they are sometimes used to reinforce

mitered joints by being driven into the wood across the joint.

Can be used for some repai.r work.

Staples More and more staples are showing up in furniture. They are

commonly used 10 hold backs on dressers and chests, and to

hold drawer bottoms in place. In cheap furniture, staples may

be used to lasten joints, replacing glue. It is best not to use

them in woodworking. They are ideal lor use as replacement

for tacks in upholstery work.



26 Tacks I Fasleners

yo ur pen ny . T his sy stem h as evo lved u m i 1

to day the pen ny size nu mb er refers to th e

na il l eng th . A two -penny na il ( abb rev iated

2 d) is an inch long . A three-penny nail is

IV 4 inch es lon g. E ach pen ny nu mb er ad ds

1 1 4 inch to t he l en g th . A IO d nai I tu rn s o ut

to be 3 in ch es l on g.

Upholstery Nails U ph olste ry n ails

are m ade w ith round, ornam ental headsand are used to attach upholstery fabric

w herever a fastener w ould show - usual-

Iy at the ed ges of up ho lstered chair arm s

and seats. T here is o nly o ne size of uphol-

s te ry n ail , b ut .3 w id e s ele cti on o f p lai n an d

fa nc y h ea d d es ig ns .

~ ~Uphotslery lack

a >-

Gimp lack

~~Webbing lack C J o 1 ·1rnarnanta os,

T ac ks ar e i nt en de d l or upholstery work .Heada nd s ha nk s ty le s v ar y a cc or din g t o t he j ob lo rwh ic h e a ch i s d es ig n ed .

Tacks Tacks are used enly in uphol-

stery work and never to hold or attach

an yt hin g b ut u ph ol st er y ma te ri als i n fu rn i-

tu re. S tan dard up ho lstery tack s are rated

in size by the ounce. That is, you buy

boxes of tacks m arked" I oz." or "2 oz. "

Tacks in the l-ounce box are Y l6-inch

long , and those in the 2 -ounce box are %-

inch Check the accom panying tab le for

o th e r l en g th s.

W e bb in g lac ks are th e sam e as stan dard

tacks, but bigger, and are used to attach

w eb bin g in chairs and so fas.

T he g imp t ac k, sm al l a nd r ou nd -h ea de d,

is used to attach fabric coveri ngs. The

sm all r ou nd h ead is alm o st in visib le w he n

d ri v en in to a fab ric, so g im p tack s are u se d

w hen you m ust lack in an obvious p lace

but don 't w ant the heads to be seen.

Dowel P in s, D ow el p in s are nails w ith

n o h ead s. O n OC casio n, a fu rn itu re m ak er

w ill m ake a dow el jo in t and then secure it

by driv ing a dow el p in through it. The pin

is' then countersunk and the hole filled.

This isn 't done very often, bu t w hen you

are taking a chair apart for reg lu ing you

may find a dow el jo in t that refuses to

co me ap art. W hen this occurs, insp ect th e

area carefully for evid en ce o f w ood filler

o ver a n ail h ole. If y ou see a sm all telltale

circle on the surface over the dow el, you

know the m aker used a dowel pin.

12 oz.14 oz.

GIMPTACKS

TACK SIZES AND LENGTHST acks co me in th ree stand ard ty pes: u ph olstery , w eb bing , and gim p. T he up ho l-stery tack is the com m onest. W ebbing tacks have barbs on thelr sh ank s to giv eg reate r h old in g p ow er. G im p tac ks h av e s mall ro un d h ead s an d ar e n early in viS ib lewh en u se d in a pp ly in g u ph ols te ry . U se t ac ks o nl y fo r u ph ols te ry wo rk , to ta ck fa br icto wo od fr am e s, a nd n ev er fe r j e in in g wood . Be c au tio us wh en d ri vi ng t ac ks , a s t he y

m ay split th e w oo d into w hich th ey are driv en. A sk lor tacks by their w eigh ts. T he

chart below gives the w eigh! and the length of the tack shank .

UPHOLSTERY TACKS

Size

WEBBING TAGKS

Length Size Length

2 oz. 0/'6 "

2% oa . ' V a "

a oz, 7/'6"

4 oz. ' 1 2 "

6 oz . 0/'6 "

8ez. 5/S"

Size Length

1 oz. 0/'6 "

1 '1 2 oz . % 2. .

2 oz. 'I."

2 ' 1 2 oz. o/u{'

3ez. o / s "

4 oz. 7 / , s "

6 oz. '/2"

8 oz.0/,6

"10 oz. o / a "

12 oz. "/'6 "

14 Oz. ~/4"

16 oz.. 13/16"

18ez . 7 / S "

20 oz. '0/'6 "

To rem ove the dow el p in , use a nail set

T ap it ag ain st th e sm all circle o f the w ood

filler to drive the pin through . Then use a

pliers to p ull th e p in o ut. Y ou sho uld then

be able to d isassem ble the dow el joint

easily.

Corrugated Fasteners Corrugated

faste ne rs ar e strip s o f c or ru gate d m etal an

inch or so long, w ith one side sharpened

like the blade of a knife. Y ou w on 't find

these in good furn itu re, but in some

cheaper furniture they are used across

mi ter jo in t s 10 h ol d th e J oi nt to ge th er . F ur -

n itu re repairers som etim es use them as a

q uic k w ay to re pair c rac ke d o r lo ose jo in ts

(not a good idea). Y ou should never use

them fo r any reaso n.

if y ou en cou nter a corru gated fastener

in a piece yo u are resto ring , tak e it o ut and

rebuild the join t in correct fash ion. Y ou

p ro bably w ill fin d that th e do wel o r teno n

o f the orig in al jo int w as dam ag ed , and the

repairer didn 't w ant to take the lim e to

m ake the righ t repair. To rem ove the cor-

rug a ted fasten er, y ou m ay have to chisel a

bit of the w ood aw ay from its upper edge

in order to grip the edge w ith a narrow -

n o se d p li er s.

Brads B rad s are sm all h ead le ss n ails ,

and actu ally are sm all v ersion s of th e fin -

S hown h e re is a b rad d riv er . a [ oa t e sp ec ia ll yde signed tod r ivethe sma ll f a st ene r s. Brad s a reu se d f or f as te ni ng wood t rim .

ish i ng an d c asi n g n ail, w ith th e sam e u se s.

Staples A staple, o fcou rse. is a piece

of bent w ire applied w ith a stap le gun.

S tap lin g w ith an e le ctr ic stap le g un is v ery

fast, w hich app eals to p resent-d ay furni-

tu re m anufacturers . By using stap les

wherever possible, they can cut labor

co sts. T rad itio nal fu rn itu re b uffs fe el th at

the staple is an abo minatio n, u sefu l o nly



for tacking tw o pieces of paper together.

The fact is that the staple is II v ery g oo d

fasten er in certain applications, an d a very

bad one in o thers. W e have found that in

a pp ly in g c ov er in g m ate ria ls in upholstery ,

the electric stapling gun beats hand tack -

ing by a m ile in som e places. (Tack ing

fabric along the bottom rail of a chair o r

couch is a good instance.) The staple holdsbetter than the tack, and the w ork goes

m uch faster. W e part com pany w ith the

tr ad itio na lis ts h er e.

Staples are a handy alternative for upholstery

lacks. D o n ot. h ow ev er. use staples to replace

correct Joints or wood screws.

But we agree w ith traditionalists on the

m atter of u sing stap les to fasten w ood

parts together. W e don 't like this tech-

nique. First, to use stap les in m aking fur-

niture you must design the fu rnitu re for

them . In designing a chest of draw ers, for

exam ple, you m ight decide to staple the

back panel in place. In good furnitu re,

m ade the old-fashioned w ay , you wou ld

cut rabbets "(grooves) on the inside face of

the sides near the back. The back panel

would slide into the grooves. Today, in

cheaper - and even in som e better -

furn iture , you w ould skip the grooving en-

tire ly , lay the back panel against the back

of the chest, and staple it in place.

If t he s ta p le s used are long enough , and

if a suffic ient num ber of staples are .driv-en, then the stapled back stays in place

and does its job of closing the back and

bracing the w hole chest. But the panel

can be seen from the side because it

has been stapled 10 the outer su rface of

the side p ieces, and the appearance be-

speaks cheaper work .. W e prefer the old-

fashioned m ethod because it is neater and

adds value to the fu rnitu re.

The second prob lem w ith stap les is that

they loosen and pull out easily when used

in places w here they are under stress. This

isn 't a p roblem w ith stapled backs, but it is

when staples are used to rep lace good

w ooden joints. A draw er m ade by stap ling

the sides to the fran! w on't last long . A

draw er w ith the sides dovetailed to the

front is a strong , lasti ng cons tr u ct io n .

Fasteners to Keep on Hand

Lay in a supply of fasteners because it is anuisance to run to the store every tim e you

need a screw . Buy an assortm ent o f wood

screw s from % to t 1 /2 inches long in

gauges 8, 1 0, and 1 2 . If you expect to

m ake upholstery repairs , have som e N o.3

(3 oz.) and No.4 (4 oz.) tacks on hand,

along w ith som e No. 1 2 s. Buy other fas-

teners only as you need them .

GLUES AND ADHESIVES

There are m ore than a dozen different

types of glues and adhesives available ,

fro m lib rary p aste to th e new in stant adhe-

sives that w ill g lue your fingers together if

you aren 't careful. On Iy a couple of these

ar e su itable for furniture w ork. The old

tim ers used hide and fish glues. Antique

restorers who are pu rists still use them .

Modem adhesives for furniture work in -

clude the polyvinyls, resorcinol resin and

form aldehyde g lues, con tact cem ent, and

the epoxies. The chart on the next page

g iv es a. g oo d bird's eye view of glues and

when to use each type.

Selecting the right glue is one hal f o f the

job. A pplying it properly is the other half.

But neither the right g lue nor the proper

application m eans m uch un less you clam p

the w ork and give the glue all the lim e i t

needs to dry. A w ell-m ade g lue joint is

strong, neat and du rable. A poorly m ade

joint is sloppy looking and com es apart

q uick ly und er stress.

It m ay sound like gratuitous adv ice, but

alw ays read the label on any new adhesive

you buy. Most of us have been using glues

so long that w e think w e know how they

al l work, so w e rush ahead to use a newglue as w e used the o lder ones. But newer

g lu es s om etim es re qu ire d iffe re nt ap plic a-

tion techniques. R ead the label to find out.

The m anufacturer wants you 1.0gel good

results w ith his product, and h is instruc-

lions are designed to help you get those

results.

Gluing Techniques

In gluing, m ore is not better. Som e people

feel that if a little gl u e holds fi rm ly, then a

lo t of g lue ho ld s even better. That's not

Glues I Adhesives 27

the case. In fact, the opposite is true. Too

much glue m akes a w eak joint, chiefly

because g lue in itself is not a strong sub -

stance - no t nearly as strong as the w ood

it b on ds .

If you placed two pieces of w ood 1 / 8 -

inch apart, filled the space betw een them

w ith glue, and let it set, you would have a

w eak joint that could be easi Iy b roken. O nthe other hand, if you applied a thi n c oa t-

ing of glue to each o f the surfaces, then

clam ped them firmly as they dried, yo u

w ould have a joint that in m any cases w as

stronger than the w ood itself. Ify ou trie d

to break the joint apart, the w ood on either

side of the joint w ould probably fracture

before the joint b roke.

And therein lies the secret o f m aking

a good glued joint. A pply thin coats of

glue, clam p secu rely , and allow ample

d ry in g tim e.

Glue Types

Here are som e of the properties of the

adhesives you should use in furniture

restoration.

These glues should take care of all your

needs, so stock up on them . A lso keep

an eye on the shelves at your hom e cen -

ter store, because chem ists are w orking

constantly to develop new form ulas and

techniques.

Polyvinyl Glues The white cream y

glues that com e in plastic squeeze bottles

(Elm er's is a leading brand nam e) are

polyvinyls. They are inexpensive, set in

an h our o r so , and w orl£._injust about every

furniture situation. These are the choice of

m ost furn iture w orkers today fo r general

g luing applications. Polyvinyls dry clear

and won 't stain any wood. They do have

one drawback, and that is that w ater will

so ften them after they have set. S ince m ost

furniture is kept (or certain ly shou ld be

kept) in a dry atm osphere, th is is not a

problem most of the tim e. But don 't use a

polyvinyl to glue the sides o f a fishtank orto seal the edge of a bathtub.

Reso.rcinol and Formaldehyde

GlUes You m ix these just befo re using.

The resorcinols come in tw o parts, a resin

an d a powder, and the fonnaldehydes

com e as powders you m ix w ith w ater.

Both are good for from two to fou r hours

after m ixing,. and m ake very durable

joints. The reso rcino ls are w aterproof but

the fo rm aldehydes are not. Follow the

m anufacturer's in structions on drying.

Usually the tim e ranges from 3 to 1 2 hou rs



28 Adhesives I Glue Guns

Two types are available, water based and chemical based.

The chemical type mustbe used in a well-ventilated area; the

water-based needs no special precautions. Contact cement

comes ready to use as a thick liquid and dnes in a few minutes

(much like rubber cement). To use, coat both surfaces, allow

each to dry, then press together. The bond is instantaneous

and permanent. You can't take the pieces apart to try again.

Chief use in furniture work is in applying veneers, in gluingleather to a table top, and in applying plastic laminates.

ADHESIVESThere are 'li terally scores of di fferent types of glues and adhesives available, but

relatively few have direct application in furniture work. The chart below lists those

you can use for furniture. The cardinal rules in making an adhesive do its job are:

(1) the surfaces to be glued must be absolutely clean; (2) the adhesive should be

applied as directed, and not 100 heavily; (3) the glued material must be clamped

tight ly unlilthe glue has dried; (4) the glue must be allowed to dry completely. When

wailing for glue to dry, remember thai !iumid conditions can more than double the

drying time listed on the container. The safest way is to allow the glue to dry

overnight every time.

White glue Elmer's and Ihose polyvinyls like it: these glues are Ihe while

creamy liquids in plastic bollies. They are good lor ali lurnilure

work. They can also be used on most porous materials such

as cloth, paper, leather, etc. A polyvinyl has moderate resis-

tance to moisture and should not be used on anything that will

be subjected to excess moisture. (Furniture shouldn't be' al·

lowed in such areas either.) The most recent type of Ihis glue

is yellow in color, is made especially for woodwork, and is

stronger than the white variety. This material dries clear, los-

ing its yellow or white appearance.

Liquid hide andfish glues

These are the traditional turruture gl,ues and have deserved

reputat ions. They are strong, do not slain, and stay somewhat

flexible for years - meaning thai they won't get brillie and

crack. These will soften in water, but aren't much affected by

humidity.

Resorci n o · 1 1 A syrup and powder are mixed [ust before use to make a

resorcinol glue. Has great strength and durabili ty, and should

be used where moisture could be a problem, since it is abso-

lutely waterproof. IIwill slain light colored woods, so apply

with care. Drying time is long, up 1016 hours.

Epoxy Strongest of all adhesives, it can be used lor repairing metal,glass and most plastic furniture. Also good for masonry and

ceramics. You mix.the resin and the hardener just before use.

This is the only adhesive that actually needs no clamping. It

sets instead of drying, a chemical act ion. and will set even

under water. Good to know about for special problems,

Contact cement

under clamps. Use both types at tempera-

tures over 70 degrees, F. A srnal I problem:

these glues are brown in color and will

stain l ight-colored woods.

Contact Cement This is a stronger

version of the familiar rubber cement.

Contact cement is used mainly to apply

veneers and bond plastic laminates to

wood for table and counter tops. The

correct way to use a contact cement is

to apply a thin coating to both surfaces and

to allow both to dry. Then press the sur-

faces together. Be careful how you do

this, since the two surfaces will stick

together instantly on COJilaCI, and you

won', be able to pull them apart with a

tractor. Since they can't be adjusted after

contact, be sure to alignthem before you

put them together. This is one of those

techniques you should practice on old

wood before trying it on your project. For

specifics on how to align pieces exactly,

see Chapter 10 ,

Chemical-based contact cements have a

strong odor and must be used in w ell-

ventilated areas. The water- based types

are more expensive, bu r a re s af er 10 use.The Epoxies No adhesive is tougher

than an epoxy. Epoxies come in two parts,

a resin and a hardener, which must be

mixed just before you use the glue. By all

means, read the label' before mixing, be-

cause it will tell you the correct propor-

tions of resin and hardener to use. I f you

mix the wrong proportions, you may end

up with a st icky, nondrying mess.

Epoxy cement resists almost every-

Ihing, from water to gasoline to solvents,

once i t has set. For this reason, you may

not want to use it in regular furniturework. You may never be able to disassem-

ble th e piece again. But it can be great

for making permanent repairs 10 metal

furniture.

Note that an epoxy is the only adhesive

as strong or stronger than the material it

bonds. It is the one adhesive you can pu t

between those two pieces of wood VR-inch

apart and expect a strong joint. For this

reasonvepoxies sometimes are used as

fillers when a large cavity must be filled.

The dried epoxy can be machined. sanded

and shaped ,i f necessary. For this reason,

100, an epoxy is not applied in a thin coal

as other glues are, and it should nOI be

t ightly clamped while seiting. Clamping

may squeeze OUt too much.

Epoxies must be used in wann tempera-

tures, since the warmer the air around

them, the faster they set. Setting time

varies considerably from brand to brand,

so once again, read the directions be-

fore using.

The Glue GunThis is a plastic tool shaped like a toy

pistol. You load a solid slug of gl ue into it,

pull the trigger, and it dispenses the glue

through its nozzle. The gun takes three or

four minutes to warm up after you plug i t

in, and the glue, basically a polyethylene

adhesive, makes a good bond on most rna-

t er ia ls . . The glue sets firmly in about a

minute.

The gun is great for spot jobs I ike glu ing

broken pieces of wicker together, so the

whole chair doesn 'Icome apart, or gluing



Electric glue guns can be used only in certain

lurniture applications, Here a gun is used to

apply a bead of glue to an edge

Ti le glue sets in less than a minute. so the edges

to be glued must be brought together quickly

alter the glue has been applied,

Once the edges are pressed together, the parts

cannot be separated Or adjusted. Hold tile

pieces together 10Ja lew seconds.

a part of a carving that has come loose ..

H ow ever, the gun is not as desirable for

s tan dard jo in t g lu in g.

The m anufacturers of these guns are

working 10 develop new glues and other

materials, such as caulking compounds

and joint sealants, so watch for them on

y ou r de ale r's s he lv es.

Glue InjectorAnother type of glue gun is the glue in-

jector, sim ilar to a medical hypoderm ic

syringe but made of plastic . The injector

enables you to inject glue deep into a loose

JO int in order to fix the joint w ithout laking

t he f urni tu re apart. In some cases, you can

insert the long, thin tube of the injector

d ire ctly in to th e lo ose jo int. In others, yo u

m ust d rill a Y l6-inch hole near the joint to

gain access. The glue injector does a good

job on temporary repairs, but once furnl-

lu re jo in ts h ave started to lo osen il is in ev i-

table that the piece w ill have to be taken

apart and com pletely reglued.

Sometimes you can reglue lurniture without dis-

manteling it. Here a brush is used to paint glue

into a toose chair joint.

Glue Application

W e have already talked about the basics of

good glue application: apply it in th inc oats ; c lam p il for drying; and allow suffi-

cient drying time. Here are some other

pointers to help you in m aking successful

g lu e jo in ts .

Rough vs. Smooth Glues do not ad-

here well to very smooth surfaces, but

work best when they can grip something.

For this reason, you should roughen

slightly any sm ooth surface before apply-

in g g lu e.

F or e xa mp le , a chair rung has pulled

out, and you want to glue it back in place.

The surface of the rung is probably very

smooth, You can make a better g lu e jo in t

if you roughen the surface of the rung

where the glue is to be applied. Try a few

passes w ith coarse sandpaper or scraping a

little with the blade of your pocket knife.

Then brush on a thin glue coat and reinsert

the rung into its hole .

Clamping Techniques Clamping,

as we have said pretty of len , is essential,

but a careless use of clam ps can create

problem s, A lways use a pad of some kind

Gluing I Clamping 29

A clothesline can serve as a clamp. When wrap-

ping the piece, use a paint paddle as the light-

ener, simi lar to a toumlqust .

Whenever a piece is glued, II must be clamped

securely and left to dry as long as necessary,

This is a strap clamp.

between the clamping surfaces and the

face of the wood, so that you do not dent

or m ar the furniture. Thin little shim s of

wood m ake good pads. This advice is es-

p ec ially ap plic ab le w he n u sin g C -c lam ps.

Cleanup The final jo int should be

neat and clean, Therefore , after selling the

clam ps in place, w ipe away any excess

glue. W atch for any later drips or runs;

wipe these off, too. T here is absolutely no

holding value in glue on the outside of a

joint. The glue does all of its work on the

two butted surfaces w ithin the joint



30 Wood Types

THE D IF FER ENT K INDS O F W OO D

Nearly everyone knows thai there are

hardwoods an d softwoods. Pine, forex-

ample, is a softwood, and oak is a hard-

weed. Softwoods are not as geed as hard-

woods for furniture because they dent and

gouge more easily , and won't wear as

long. Hardwoods are more difficult to

work but they resist denting and gouging.

The hardwoods have a more beautiful ap-

pearance (in fum iture terms, atleast) than

th e softwoods and they accept fin ishes

better.

Th e most common furniture hardwoods

are oak, wal nut, maple, b irch , cherry , ma-

hogany, rosewood gum and beech. The

most common softwoods are pine, hem -

lock, fir, redwood, spruce and cedar. But

in woods, as you w i-ll discov er, h ardn ess is

beth a matter of degree and ef terrninol-

ogy. Maple, for exam ple, is an extrem ely

hard wood that w ill give your saw fits ifyou cut much of it. M ahogany also is rated

as a hardwood, but it is softer and easier 10

w ork than m aple.

The best fu r ni r u r e is m ade of hard w ood,

but you 'll find a let of attractive pieces in

pine. Many Early American pieces were

made in softwoods, probably because

these woods were readily available and

easy to .work, Copies of these pieces today

also are made in these same softwoods.

In addition to the standard furniture

hardwoods, there are hundreds of "exot-

ic" woods such as avodire, ebony, lovoa.

paldao and zebra wood, to name a few ,

that are highly prized for their rich color-

ing and appearance. These usually are

seen in beautifu l in lays and as veneers.

They are very expensive and hard to find

except in specially shops. O ne of the inter-

esting things you can do in restoration is to .

a pp ly th es e exotic woodsin veneer form to

chests or tables, and create beautifu l and

unusual pie ces. V en eerin g is co mplicated

bUI can be fun. It produces excellent re-

sults. W e w ill g ive you the details later.

Here is a rundown of the m ajo r furn itu re

woods, w ith some notes on their uses and

characterist ics.

Ha r dwo o d s

Oak Tough, hard wood with a pro-nounced grain. If you apply a finish with-

out first putting on a wood filler, you can

feel the grain w ith your fingers. In older

furniture it usually is filled; m odern furni-

ture often is fin ished w ithout filler. Oak

doesn 't absorb water easily , has good

bending qualities, and finishes w ell.

Walnut American (black) walnut is

one of the prem ier furniture woods in this

Wood comes in tw o types: softwoods and hardwoods sonwocos dent and gouge more easily than

hardwoods; hardwoeds are more dilticultto work with. This piece is hardwood.

country . S trong, w ith a fine texture and

pleasing grain , it takes finishes nicely and

w ears w ell. It doesn 't warp or shri nk easi-

ly . The raw wood has a gray-brown look

that turns to a rich brown on the applica-

tion of a clear finish Furniture makers

often apply stain to . get a w arm er or darker

color. I f you must strip the finish from a

walnut piece and want to refin ish in the

same color as the origi n a I, be su re to iden-

tify the color of the stain before stripping.

O therw ise, you may not be able to dupli-

cate it.

Che r r y A nother w idely used furniture

wood, cherry resists warping and shrink-

ing. Initially a warm red-brown, it devel-

eps a richer red color as it ages, especially

when exposed to sunlight. Cherry has a

close, tig ht grain, and it doesn 't need

wood filler.

Map l e This very strong wood is so

hard that it w ill dull a saw used to cut it.T he furn itu re v ariety comes from the su -

gar maple tree and is white, off-white, or

amber in color. The red maple look in

furniture is achieved through staining.

C urly and bird seye p atterns found in so me

m aple m ake lovely veneered cabinet doors

an d tabletops. M aple has a f in e g ra in , so . it

needs no. f iller Its toughness m akes it suit-

able for flooring and fer wooden bow ls

~ahogany Mahogany is a very irn-

portant furniture w ood. It comes in three

major types: W est Indian, Tropi cal

American and A frican. The Philippine

m ahoganies and lauan, som etim es inc or-

rectly called a Philippine mahogany, are

not of the same fam ily as the ethers and

are m uch softer M ahogany i.s fine grained

and durable, sherry brown in color. This

weed doesn't absorb moisture easily , so it

resists swelling, shrinking and warping.

In e ld er fu rn itu re , mahogany was fre-

quently stained to. a dark red brown; in

modem furniture , the wood is used more

often in natural calm , or close to it,

R o s ewo o d Most often used as a ve-

n ee r, ro se wo od has a lovely rose red and

black color, and its surface patterns create

unusual con fi gurat ions. Very hard and

difficult to. work, rosewood is close

grained and can be given a very smooth

finish , The wood has a lovely odor. [I is a

choice wood for musical instruments be-

cause its hardness apparently affects the

resonance of the sound, No fi llers a re e ve r

used w ith ro se wo od .

Tea k Teak is another fragrant w ood. II

is often used for decking and rails on ships



Hardwoods 31

WOOD GRAIN SAMPLES

American Beech American Elm

Black Ash

Black Walnut

Sugar Maple

Yellow Birch

Black Cherry

Red Oak

White Oak

Yellow Poplar



32 Manmade and Softwoods

because it resists m o isture and doesn ' I ot

o r d ec ay , It is hard , doesn 't crack easily,

and takes a good finish , Teak is not easy

to w ork.

O th e r H a rd w o od s In addition \0 th e

"fine" hardwoods just lis ted, there are a

number of utilitarian hardwoods. These

h av e g oo d h ar dw oo d c ha ra cte ris tic s as fa r

as strength and durability are concerned,but are plain and uncolorful in appear-

ance. an d so are not rated w ith the others.

Such woods include birch, elm , beech,

poplar, cottonwood and gum . You'll find

these woods used in frames for uphol -

stered furniture , cabinet frames, or other

locations w here (hey are useful but cannot

be seen. Utilitarian w oods can, 0f course,

be stained and finished to l oo k s om e th in g

like the fine hardwoods; th is is what hap-

pens quite of len in less expensive furni-

lure . These woods also are "veneered"

w ith p las tic lam in ates to make table andc ou nte rto ps r es is ta nt 10 n ea rl y e ve ry th in g

from w ater to alcohol.

Man m ad e W oo ds

Partic le board is a manufactured wood,

m ade by binding wood chips, flakes and

sawdust w ith resins, and form ing the m ix-

ture into board shapes. Particle board is

very heavy and dense, and has m any of the

properties of wood. You can dri ve nails

and screw s into it, g lue it, and saw it. Y ou

can 't w ork it on a lathe, how ever, or carve

it. The surface is rough, so it doesn 't lake

a fin ish easily. If you paint it, it acts like a

sponge and soaks up gallons; it m ust be

se ale d b efo re p aint ap plic ation .

There is m ore and more particle board

furniture com ing to market these days.

Y ou 'll find m any sm all cabinets and book-

shelves, at relatively low prices, made of

it. Most of the time, the particle board is

covered w ith a plastic film that has been

photographically produced to look like

walnut or m ahogany, so these pieces look

good - but not as good as the genuine

w oo d p ro du ct. You w on't ever be able to

refin ish this kind of furniture - at least,

not in the traditional ways - and il

shouldn 'Ibe included in your list of furni-

tu re to re sto re .

T h e S o ftw o o ds

The softwoods have a variety of interest-

ing characteristics, some of w hich give

them unusual furoiture values. Cedar,

w i th its d i sri n ctive and agreeable odor, has

been used for generations to make chests

WOOd is identifiable by iis grain and natural, unsiameo color. Learn to identily wood grains so you

can match a piece with mater ials lor replacement repairs.

for the storage of clothes and linens. Red-

w ood is naturally re sistan t to ro t a nd d ec ay

as w ell as attractive in color. and therefore

is used in outdoor furniture. K notty pine,

the wood from the center of the pine tree,

has been recogn ized almost as a spec ies of

wood, and a whole class of furniture and

wal! paneling has been created from it.

V isit a store w hich sells unfin ished fur-

niture and you w ill find a variety of pieces

in pine and fir. S to re s that featu re C olo nial

and Early A merican designs have elegant

replicas of old pieces in these sam e soft-

woods .. W ben you buy furniture in soft-

wood, or decide to restore one of these

pieces, rem ember that in exchange for a

lower price and easy working qualities,

you give up toughness and durability . But

there is a soft, g low ing, warm charm to

this furniture that m akes it attractive de-

s pi te it s li mi ta ti on s.

Id .e n tify .in g T yp e s o f W o o d .

W hen you restore furniture, you don 't have

to worry about selecting wood for your de-

sign. TIle orig inal maker did that. But you

need to identify the w ood so you know the

best way to fin ish it, and what kind of wood

10 bu y ifany o f th e p arts m ust be rep lac ed .If

you already know most com mon furniture

w oods at. a glance, the problem is solved. If

you don't, you can learn in a short tim e by

v isiting s to res w hich se ll to p g ra de s o f furni-

ture. B ro ws e a ro un d the store and check the

lab els an d tags .

L ook for furniture made of a wood

named on the label, then study the wood

for its characteristic grain and color. K eep

in m ind that the color very often is stain,

and not the natural color of the wood. But

after a few hours of th is, you w ill be able

to rec og nize m os t stan dard fu rn iture w oo ds.

In stores w hich sell low er-priced furni-

ture, you w ill see pieces fin ished to look

like a fine w ood, but actually made of one

of the lesser hardwoods, These are worth

studying, too, in part to see what call be

done w ith stains and finishes, and also to

discover what. each wood looks like w hen

treated w ith different stains.



4

Sanding, Doweling ,

Jo in e ry T ec hn iq ue s

Words like dado and phrases such as

mortise and tenon worry people who

haven't been around woodworking. These

are descriptions of popular wood joining

methods, but they have a complicated

ring. They make the joints they describesound difficult when they actually are not.

To begin with, there are only eight ba-

si c joining methods in woodworking

Through the centuries, woodworkers have

tried various ways to join pieces of wood

so the joints would be both durable and

attractive, and only eight basic joint for-

mations have survived. Five of these are

commonly used in furniture making be-

cause they have proven their value. As one

venerable master cabinet maker told us,

"These must be good, because we have

been working on them for 6,000 years."The basic methods for joining wood

pieces are: (I) the T-joint; (2) the L-joint;

(3) the crisscross joint; (4) the lap joint; (5)

the butt joint; (6) the dado; (7) the dove-

tail; and (8) the mortise and tenon. Any of

these joints can be reinforced by means of

added dowels. If you refer to the accompa-

nying drawings as you read the following

descriptions, the basic join! types should

be easy to understand.

IDENTIFYING JOINT TYPES

Anyone doing a simple restoration must

bother with an understanding ofjoints be -

cause if you are going to talk to furniture

people, and perhaps buy and sell furni-

ture, you should be able to handle the jar-

gon. In addition, you probably wiIIfind it

necessary to make some of these joints

yoursel f, as replacements for broken

Joints on the furniture you repair.

The eight basic woodworking joints are

detailed below. There are variations on all

of these, but once you can identify the

eight, the variations will be evident. Inci-

dentally, because some types listed are

quite similar, some woodworkers class

them as one type. Also, some woodwork-

ers classify certain variations as specific

types in their own right. The mitered joint,for instance, is of len called a basic type.

So i f you read other books, the number of

basic joint types may vary. Don't be con-

fused. While classifications may differ,

the names and the way in which the joints

are made remain the same.

Overtap T joint

In an overlap T Joint, the two pieces of wood are

not cut. Lay one piece over the other; secure

with wood screws.

The T·joint

The end of one piece of wood fits against

the side of another piece of wood, forming

a T_Fasteners are driven into join the two.

This is a simple joint with very little

strength, most of which comes from the

strength of the fasteners used. It is used in

good furniture only where the Joint will

suffer 1)0 stress.

The L-joint

Just about as simple as the Tsjoint, the L-

joint is used to make corners. The end of

one piece of wood is lapped across the end

Doweled mitre JOints

IA mitre joint creates an attractive finished cor-

nero One way to reinforce Ihe joint is to insert

dowel pins betore g!uing.

of another piece of wood, and fasteners

are driven through to hold the two togeth-

er. The L-joint is stronger than the T-joinr,

but. not much. Simple wooden boxes are

made this way, with the sides lapped over

and nailed to the ends. An important vari-

ation of this joint is the mitered joint,

where each of the ends to be joined is cut

at a 45-degree angle before being fitted

together. Most picture frames are made

with mitered corners, which have a neat

appearance but can't take much stress.

The Crisscross Joint

Lay one piece of wood across another to

form a cross or an X, drive a nail through

the two, and you have II simple crisscross

joint. This is a weak type of joint, seldom

used in furniture at points where stress is

expected.

The Lap Joint

Exactly the same as the crisscross joint,

except that the pieces overlap each other



34 Lap Joints / Dado Joints

Full lap jolnl

A lull lap joinl looks neat and finished" Only the

receiving piece 01wood is cut; the cross rail iils

into the opening.

Gauge line

A hall lap joint requires care. Mark a gauge line

indicating half the thickness 01the end to be cut.

Then mark the width 01 the cross rail onto thereceiving piece.

Join the Iwo pieces The lit should be snug.

Then glue the two, making sure thai the shoul-

der lines are Ilush. Once the glue dries. trim

away any excess

al their ends instead of their cen ters . For.,obvious reasons, this basic joint is called

an overlap.

Two variations are very good jo int

types, frequen tly seen in furniture . O ne is

the/ulilap, in w h ich a notch is cu t in One

piece o f w ood to receive the other. In th is

type, you avo id having one piece ly ing on

to p of (he other, so it is neate r and stron-

Hall lap joint

A hall-lap joint males two pieces of equal thick-

ness. Both pieces are cui; the crossrall then "IS

into the mating piece .

2

./)

Work within the inner edges 01the gauge marks.

saw two cuts on each side and one in the center

Chisel away the waste WOOd.

ger. The o ther is the half-lap, where

notches are cu t half w ay in to both p ieces

of w ood and the w ood is jo ined by fitting

the notches together. Th is is also neat

an d st rong.

The Butt Joint

W hen tw o pieces o f w ood are fitted to-

gether, end to end o r side to side, they are

said 10 b e b utte d. Glue rhe b utted sid es

together and you have a butt jo in t. U sed

chiefly 10 jo in boards together, as to m ake

a larger board fo r a counter or tabletop,

it is w eak unless the bu tted p ieces ar e

supported .

The Dado

A dado is a groove,and the dado join t is

m ade by cu tting a groove of th e righ t size

in one p iece of w ood to receive the end o f

Now CCiI the cross rail to the required depth

(shoulder l ine). Again, CUI just inside lhe gauge

l ine: rernove the waste wood.

Through brIdle JoInt

This is an example 01 a T-Joining or a through

bndlejoint. Divide the edge 01 each board in

thirds. Cut away the wood with a backsaw, cop-

ing saw or chisel.

Dado jOint

A dado is a groove cut into a receiving piece. A

second piece then slides into the groove. Adado joint is often found supporting drawer bot-

toms or cupboard shelves.



A rabbetjoint combines pieces at a corner Thegroove lits the mating piece. Set brads at anangte to secure the joint.

You often find a combination rabbet-dado jointholding a drawer back. 'The rabbet slides intothe dado in each drawer side

another piece of wood. You can make the

groove with a mallet and wood chisel or a

router, This simple but strong joi nt often is

used in furniture. Note: you will frequent-

ly run across the terms, rabbet and rabbet-

ed joints. A rabbet is a groove or slot cut

into a piece of wood, and any joint em-

ploying a groove is a rabbeted joint. For

our purposes here, a rabbet is a kind

of dado.

The Dovetail

The dovetail is a strong, neat joint used to

join pieces of wood at right angles. A typi-

cal use in furniture is the joining of drawer

sides to the drawer front.

A dovetail essentially is a set of f ingers

Dovetail Joints 35

Through dovetail Blind dovetail

Through or blind dovetails make a strong corner joint. If you start from scratch, use a dovetailtemplate 10 create the ratio of 1 :6 for softwoods and 1: 8 for hardwoods.

Toachieve the correct spacing for dovetails ona new drawer side, trace the pattern on eachside of the new piece 01wood.

Place the old piece on the bench as a guide_Then carefully chisel out the dovetail along thetraced llnes. Remove a small amount at a time,

and cutouts in two pieces of wood which

interlock when fitted together. The fingers

can take a number of different shapes -

rounded, for instance, or cut wider at the

end than at the base. While dovetails look

Use the backsaw to cut the sides of each dove-tail to (he proper depth. Hold the work in abench vise (not visible here), The vise isessen-tial for work like this,

To smooth the joints. use a fingernail emeryboard. It isjust the right size to tit into the open-ings and smooth the edges.

complicated, they are easy to make. The

secret is to measure and mark both pieces

of wood carefully, and then make all cuts

exactly 10 your measured marks. You can

make dovetails with a router, with a cop-



36 Repairing Mortise and Tenon Joints

1 This chair back is joined 1 0 the side with a

mortise and tenon Joint, and the tenon is

cracked. II can be repaired by making a new

tenon, or by using dowels to replace the tenon,

4 Now the broken tenon is sawed off flush with

the end 01 the rail.

2 I I you Cl100S8 to replace the tenon, the Ii rst job

is to disassemble. the chair.

5 We need to remove the pieces 01 broken

tenon remaining in the mortise. The easiest way

is to dril l a series 01 holes into the mortise. using

a drill bit the same size as the width 01 the mor-

t ise, here 'JIs in.

:3 The back of the seat has now been removed,

6 Using a V 2 in. wood chisel , we remove the rest

01 the tenon. Work with the Itat side of the chiselblade againstlhe wall 01 the mortise.



--. ~-

----------- . -

7 To clean out the ends, use a narrower chisel

(here V . in.) and drive the chisel down at either

end of the mortise, then pry upward. This should

bring up what remains 01 the tenon.

10 Now the tenon is coated with glue and driv-

en down into the mortise.

8 Here is the mortise with the tenon removed.

11 We found that not only was the tenon

cracked, but the chair back rail was cracked

through the mortise

Repairing Mortise and Tenon Joints 37

9 Cut a tenon from hardwood of the right thick-

ness and dimensions 10 Nt snugly into the mor-

tise. Test fit the new tenon belore gluing.

12 Repair of the crack is a simple glue-and-

clamp procedure. Don'! attempt to reassemble

the chair until all glue has dried thoroughly.



38 Repairing Mortise and Tenon Joints

1 The second repair method tails for the use of dowels to replace the

broken tenon The repai rwon't be as.s trong as the original work, but it canbe done quicker and will be satisfactory in most uses_ The f irst step IS to

make a hardwood plug and drive it into the mortise. When in place, it

should be flush with the sur face.

2 Now drill holes for 'Is in. dowels. The dowels are at a slight angle here.

S0 the dowel Jigcan't be used. Dr ill the holes down the cenrsr of the tenon

plug at the necessary angle.

-

~_ L.

~<-'.",.~

3 Use dowel centers in the holes drilled in the leg to mark the position 01

holes to be dri lled in Ih.eback rai l. Then dril l the holes, coat the dowels With

glue, 21M drive them into the holes. You can now reassemble the chair.

1 If you have a toose and worn tenon, you sometimes can avoid making anew one by expanding the old one to fit into the mortise. Cut a slot

tengthwise down the tenon with a backsaw



2 Now whittle. a wedge Irom hardwood anddrive it down into the kerf (sawcut) until the

lenon has expanded sufficiently.

:3 Saw off the protruc ing part of the wedge flush

with the end 01 the tenon.

Repairing Mortise and Tenon Joints 39

4 The chair can now be reassembled. Be sure to clamp lightly, lorcing the repaired parts into Ught

contacL



40 Mortise and Tenon Joints

Make the initial cuts for a blind dovetail by saw-

ing at a 45" angle with the backsaw, Do not saw

past the guide marks.

Finish the dovetail with the wood chisel. Shave aliUle away at a time so that you don't cut beyond

the guidelines.

ing saw , or with a m allet and chisel and

a b ac ks aw .

One way to distinguish good furniture

from poor is to check the way the drawers

are m ade. In good furniture , the sides of

al l draw ers are 'd overaned to th e d raw er

front; in cheaper furniture, the sides are

l ap j oi nt ed 10 the front and fastened w ith

n ails o r stap le s.

The Mortise and TenonA tenon is a tongue, and a m ortise is a slo t.

In the m ortise-and-tenonjoint, a longue is

formed at the end of one piece of wood,

and a slot of the same shape is made in the

other piece of wood. Then the tongue is

inserted into the slot co m ake the joint.

Use an open mortise-and- lenon (at left) to join pieces when the seam between the two is not visible.

In a closed joint (at right) the tenon fits into the rouowed-out mortise. The tenon in both types is cut

into the shorter piece. the mortise into the longer.

This is one of the m ost im portant of the

furniture joints , very strong and w ith ex-

cellent appearance. You can cut tenons on

the ends of wood pieces using a backsaw

or a router. Use your w ood chisels \0 makethe m ortise. Good measuring technique

and careful control of the chisel are im por-

tan t in m ak in g a good m ortise and tenon.

There are m any inventive variations on

these joints, but if you know the basic

joining m ethods, you should be able to

identify most w hen you see them . An ex-

ample of a variation would be a double

tenon, On the end to be joined, the maker

form s two tenons instead of one. On the

joining piece, he makes two individual

mortises instead of one. In o th er w ord s,

tw o tongues and two holes or slo ts are

made instead of one. Y ou won't see many

double tenons. The draw ing above shows

variations made on the basic jo int.

ANALYZING THE SITUATION

Y ou are trying to sal vage a fractu red chair,

The side rails ar e jo ined to the back posts

and front legs w ith m ortise-and-tenon

joints, a ty pic al s itu atio n in c ha ir c on str uc -

tion. But whoever smashed this chair did a

thorough job, and after disassembling it,

you now hold a side rail in your hand w ith

the tenon on one end broken off. The

tenon is still in the mortise in the back

post. What can you do? Here are som e

lo gic al s te ps to fo llow . First ,exam i ne the

tenon. C an it be rem oved from the m ortise

in one piece? If so , you may be able 10

re jo in it to . the side rai [ and sa ve the day. If

[lo t, carefully chisel it out of the m ortise ,

taking care not to damage the m ortise as

you do so .. Now exam ine the side rail an d

recognize the possible solutions. A s a first

ste p, y otl can cu t o ff th e fractu red stump

of the tenon, using your backsaw . Now

there appear to be several ways to mend

I he d am ag e.

!. Buy a piece of hardwood of the proper

wood and size and make a new chairrail. Cut tenons on each end of the new

rail after trim ming it to the right size;

then fit the new tenons into the existing

mortises.

2. Another and probably more practical

m ethod is to m ake a tenon to replace

the broken one. This is best because

you can reuse the orig inal chair rail.

You obv iously can 't cut a new tenon on

the end of the old c hai r rai I, but you can

chisel a m ortise into the rail to match

the mortise in the back post. Then,

shape a hardwood tenon to fit in to both

mortises to make a kind of super dow -

el This m ethod does work.

3. A I hir d possiblity occurs: you could fill

the m ortise in the back post by cutting a

plug o f h ard wo od io fill it. G lue the

plug in place, Now join the rail and the

back post w ith d ow els .

Use a chisel to remove a broken tenon from its

mortise. Scrape out the old glue. Then glue in anew mortise plug.



T his ex am ple d escrib es a v ery co mm on

occurrence in furniture repair and pro-

vides you w ith tw o insights; (I) you m ust

be prepared to analyze repair situations in

order to c on sid er all p os sib le s olu tio ns ; (2)

you need enough woodworking skill and

knowledge to make the basic jo ints. The

joints you should learn to make are the

dowel, m ortise-and-tenon, the dovetai I,the m iter, the dado and the full an d

h alf lap s.

To m ake these w ith hand tools, you w ilt

need good sharp wood chisels, a back saw

and a coping saw , as well as a good small

steel ru le. The job is easier w ith power

tools, including a router and an electric

scroll saw . To make m itered joints by

hand, you should have It m iter box, a

wood or m etal box w ith slots already cut

in its sides. The hacksaw blade fits

through these slots. The work to be cutgoes into the box, and the slots guide your

saw so that you make even cuts at th e

r eq uir ed an gle

Doweled Joints 41

The making of each of these joints is

covered here in step-by-step photographs

and draw ings. Refer to these every lim e

you must make a joint until you become

fam iliar w ith the techniques. By all

means, make som e practice joints out of

scrap hardwood before trying to repair a

good piece of furniture. Gain som e confi-

dence in your w oo dw ork in g ab ilities first;then go to work.

TH E ART OF

MAK ING A

DOWELED JO INT

A dowel is a

round length of

hardw ood used to

join two pieces of wood. Doweled joints

are strong and. because the dowels are

in vis ib le w he n thejoint is finished, neal in

appearance.

. -"1'\

< s : : , ,

A butt joinl is easily relnlorced with dowels. t Ilhe

dowels break. you must route out the old stubs

and insert flew dowels.

D o w e l J o in ts

The dowel joint can be used in many re-

p a ir s it ua ti on s . It often can be used to re-

place other more com plicated joints, a s

was pointed out earlier in this chapter.Good dowel joints can be used at points of

stress on furniture because the joints can

take pressure from all sides.

, Dowel joints frequently can be used to

rejoin the pieces of broken and fractured

parts. For instance, dowels can rejoin the

two pieces of a wooden chair seat thai has

cracked and broken apart. Sometimes a

dowel can be used to join the parts of

broken rails and rungs, so that you need

not go to the trouble or m aking an entirely

new part.

If you find that a piece you want to

salvage is poorly m ade, w ith weak joints

or perhaps w ith parts held together with

screw s, you can increase its value and use-

fulness by literally rem aking it. Use dow -

els to replace the screw s and weak joints.

In the same manner, you can im prove the

quality of a piece of inexpensive unfin-

ished furniture by taking it apart and

rejoining the poorly joined parts w ith

dowels.

You can make your own dowels or buy

them at some home centers and most

woodworking specialty shops. The dow -

els you buy have circular grooves already

cut. in them to take care of the glue. You

can find them in various diameters and

lengths.

Ad v an ta g es o f a D ow elin g J ig

With the aid of a doweling jig, most peo-

pie can make joints w ith precision, and

end up w ith a professional-looking joint.

W e have been making doweled joints for a

long tim e an d can tell you that there is

really no good substitu te for a d ow elin g

jig. II makes the job sim ple and easy.

You can use dowel centers and other

ways of lin ing up the dowel holes, bUI no

other method or fool does the task right

every lim e.

The fundam ental purpose of the dow el-

ing jig is to force you to drill the two

needed holes in exactly the right places -

precisely opposite each other - so that

when you insert the dow els, the joined

pieces fit exactly as you w anted them .

To use a dowel jig, align the two pieces to be doweled Use a square 10 make lines across the

positions for the dowels, marking both pieces at once.



42 Doweled Joints

Clamp one side of the work and fit the dowel Jig

on it. There are a number of good figs on the

market, and each is slightly different. This jig is a

Stanley.

You position the drill guide by measure-

ment, so be careful in making these mea-

surements, [f your measurements aren 't

precise, the jig can't help.

Creating the Doweled Joint

Carefully follow these steps for a success-

ful d ow eled jo in t.

Step 1: Aligning the Pieces Th e

first step is to clam p the tw o pieces togeth-

er , a s s how n in t he a ccompany in g photo-

graphs. Use a pencil and a rule to d ra w a

straight Iine across both pieces, al the

pain! where they are to be doweled. Now

take the clamp off.

Step .2 : Aligning the Jig Put th e

doweling jig on the first piece, clamping

the jig in place after sighting the penciled

l in e t hrough it, There is a graduated m ark-

ing on the jig to help you w ith .this

positioning.

Step 3: Drilling the Hole I ns ert y ou r

drill bit in to the drill guide onthe jig and

dril! a hole that is slightly deeper than half

the length of the dowel. Repeat the pro-

cess on the other piece of wood Most

dowel jo in ts have two or three dowels, not

just one, so do the same task as many

tim es as nec essary.

Step 4: . ,Inserting the Dowels Coat

each dow el w ith glue and insert the dowels

into the ho l es in one of the pieces. I f your

The jig comes with a set 01 metal tubes that

serve as drill guides. Place the correct size In

the Jig.S ight through it 10see tbe guide line and

acjust the knobs untll lhs jig is positioned ..Then

l ighten the adjustment knobs,

The holes have been dril led in both work pieces.Because Ihe jig was set over the guid.elines.

each hole is exactly opposite its mate. Try Ihe

dowels, to make sure [hey fit properly.

jo in t has three dow els, insert all three into

the sam e side.

Step 5: Finishing the Joint Fi t th e

other piece over the protruding glue-

coated dowels, and use your rubber m allet

to lap the piece u n t i l the joint is light.

W ipe off any excess glue around the joint.

Then apply a damp to hold the joint tight

until the glue dries.

Using a drill bit of the right size, make the dowel

hole by drilling down through the drill gUide If

necessary, use a depth guide to control the

depth of the hole.

After coating the dowels with glue, msert tnem,

then tap the two workpieces with a rubbe r mal let10 drive Ihem together. Here rounded edges

emphasize the joint. Otherwise it would be near·

Iy Invisible.

Repalr,jng a Broken Joint

In restoration work, you may have 10

make new dowel joints and you also m ay

have 10 repair broken dowel joints. In

most repair situations, you must drill out

the old broken dow el and replace it. W hile

yo u can drill out an old dowel by eye-

balling the work as you go, we don'(

recommend it. Y Oll can do a better job by



clam ping the dow eling jig over the old

dowel pieces. checking the position of

your drill through the jig , and drilling.

almost as if you were drilling for a new

dowel.

Making Dowels

You can m ake y ou r o wn dowe Is by bu Y j ng

a hardwood dowel rod of th e right diame-te r at your home center, an d cu ttin g o ff

dowels of the needed length . However .. a

dowel fits very snugly into the hole you

drilled for it. So snugly, in tact. that as the

dowel goes in , it may force glue to fill the

bottom of the hole . The resulting hydrau-

l ic p re ss ur e can prevent the entry of the

dowel.

To remedy this, put Y O l l r newly m ade

dowel in a vise and us e the backsaw to cut

one or two slots, VI!> inch deep, in th e

dowel's side. The slots allow the excess

glue to exit from the bottom of the hole as

th e dowel goes in . Finish making th e dow-

el by sanding the ends to round them

slightly for easier entry.

Another method for alignmg dowel holes is tile

use of dowel centers - small metal pieces wilh

sharp points on one end. You can bu'y' Ihese in

sets 01different sizes

To make your own dowels, purchase hardwood

doweling of Ihe diameter you need. Clamp the

doweling and cut oll dowels oj tile lengtll

desired.

Doweled Joints 43

Glue must be able to escape as the dowel is

inserted into its hole, so cut one or more saw

slots in the side oj each dowel lor this purpose.

Then sand the ends round.

To use dowel centers, f irst dril l dowel holes Inone workpiece. Then insert the dowel centers in these

holes, as shown nere

Use a rubber malietlo lap the two pieces logether The sharp points will mark the opposite piece.

Cenler your drill bit exactly on Ihe pinpoint mark or the dowels Will not li t exactly



44 Mitered Corners

SECURING MITERED CORNERS

_ jacksaw

\Miter box

To cut an accurate mitered corner, you

must use a miter box. Be sure the plece is

aligned with the correct miter slot.

Guide block

A spline In a groove can atso reinlorce acorner. In a vise, support the piece with acomplementary guide block as you cut

the groove with a router.

Turnbuckle

,, Cord

Glue the entire piece. To clamp, use a

web strap or clothesline. Protect the

piece at the corners. The diagonal mea-

surements will be the same il the piece is

square.

Small brads Willstrengthen the joint. Hold

the work in a vise so the nailing doesn' tshifl the corner out of square

If you plan 10 dowellhe corner, mark the

positions on one piece wilh small brads.

Press the piece against its mate to pick

up an impression oi the position.

Sometimes a strip at veneer. inserted in a

Slot cut perpendicular to the corner, is

used 10 secure the corner. Plane off the

excess from the corner inward.

Dril l the holes carefully Cover the dowels

with glue. The chamfered end allows

easy insertion. The groove provides an

escape route lor any glue tra"pped below

the dowel

A picture frame clamp can aid in both construction and restoration projects The

exact corners and interior bracing assure perfect 45" corners every time.



SANDPAPER lf you expect 10 gel

AND SANDING truly fine finishes on

TOOLS your furniture, you

must [earn to sand, which is easy an d

quick (0do once you understand what fur-

niture sanding is all about. The only road-

block is the preconceived notion most

people have acquired about sanding, They

th ink of it as a re moval process, They sandto remove old finishing materials, or to

remove rough wood after sawing, or to

remove rust.

Sanding Equals SmoothingAdjust your thinking now, and consider

sanding as a smoothing and polishing op-

eration. ln fu rni lure restorat ion, you usu-

ally don't want to remove very much of

anything. You just want to make the sur-

face as smooth as possible before any

finishing material is applied. Between

coats of finishing materials, you wantto remove any little bumps or imperfec-

tions Finally, after all finishing coats

have been put on, you want to give your

masterpiece that rich hand-rubbed look.

Thus, you want to learn to sand with a

delicate touch, 1O achieve a smooth feel

and rich appearance.

Most furniture surfaces are already rela-

tively smooth. When you run your fingers

over a newly stripped furniture surface,

you feel only a slight roughness and, de-

pending on the type of wood, some raised

grain. More importantly, yOll don't want

to remove much of {he surface in furni-

ILIre Old well-aged wood has acquired a

patina that doesn't go very deep. and

which you want to preserve. And if you

are working on veneered wood, you must

remember that the veneer itself is only

about ifJ2-inch thick. It doesn't lake much

sanding with a coarse paper to cut through

it and expose th e wood underneath.

There are three important aspects to

sanding: selecting the right abrasive pa-

per: performing the correct sequence of

sanding operations; and, using the 'right

sanding techniques and tools,

Selectlng the SandpaperTechnically, there is no longer an item

called sandpaper. Today, these gritty

sheets are called abrasive sheets, because

they are made of abrasive materials other

than sand" Five kinds of abrasives are

used: flin t, garnet, sil icon carbide, alumi-

num oxide, and emery. The cheapest pa-

pers LIse flint. They neither cut as fast nor

SandpaperBas~s 45

Number Grit Name When to use

SANDPAPER

Manufacturers grade their abrasive papers by one of three methods, and there are

no national standards to serve as a guide. Some give their papers a name (fine,

medium, etc.); some rate them by grit number (30,180,400, etc.), referring to the

abrasive part icle size; and yel others use a numbering system (3 /0 , 510 , 8 /0 ), the

oldest of all grading methods. The chart below shows all three methods in relat ion to

each other, so that no matter which rating is used, you can buy the paper you need,

1010

910

600, 500

400 Superfine

360

Last sanding of a new furniture finish; linat

sanding of hne woods; hand rubbed linish

Same as above

Sand between coats of paint or varnish

Sand hard and softwood belore and after you

stain, seal, or apply a priming coat

Remove deep scratches in finish; removerust,

Do shaping o f parts or rough sanding

Wood removal, shaping, rough sanding, paint

removal

To remove multiple paint coats, fast wood

removal

Remove heavy rust, paint, varnish

8 /0

7/0

320, 280 Extra line

240

6/ 0 2 00 ,. 2 20 Very fine

51 0

4/0

3/ 0

210

180, 150 Fine

120,100

1

o110

1/ 2

80, 60 Medium

50

40, 36

30

Coarse

3

3 ' 1 2

24, 20 Very

Coarse

4

4%

18

15

Extra

Coarse

last as long as the better papers. if you

expect to do much sanding, it will pay you

to buy better papers coated with one of the

other abrasives.

Thic1kness Abrasive papers come in

haifa dozen thicknesses. The thinner pa-

pers are good for working in tight places

because these weights fold easily, Howev-

er, they are not as good for use in sanding

blocks or on power sanders because the

paper will tear. The heavier papers feel

very stiff and may crack when folded, bu t

they stand up longer in the power and hand

sanders. You should have some of each

weight.

Grains There are two kinds of papers,

open grain and closed-grain. The open-

grain type has only a light coating of abra-

sive material, made that way so that paint

or other material being sanded doesn't

New sandpaper is stilf: soften il to make it last

tonger by running i t back and forth, face up.

across a table edge,



46 SandingTechniques

ding to th e ab rasive granu les and d og th e

paper. This is the best for rem oving fin-

ishes. The dosed-grain type has a dense

co ating o f abrasiv e m aterial an d do es its.

w ork m o re q uic kly , F or g en er al fu rn itu re

smoo th in g a nd fi ni sh in g, th e c lo se d- gr ai n

t yp e is .b es t. B uy s ome l ig ht-w eig h! p ap er s

for san ding in an d arou nd co rners, bu t bu y

m ostly heavier papers for their longermileage.

The Grit Numbers No one has ever

ac tu ally stan dard ize d th e m eth od fo r in di-

catin g th e coarsen ess of g rit for abrasiv e

p ap ers. S om etim es y ou se e p ap ers m ark ed

with superfine, fine, medium an d coarse.

O ther papers are m arked in grit num bers

ran ging fro m 2 0 to 600. w ith 2 0 being the

v ery co arse an d 6 00 b ein g the su perfin e.

A n d s til l o th er p ap er s u se a g ra din g s ys tem

w ith num bers of 1 01 0 and 210.

T o c lar ify th e situ atio n b efo re y ou g o to

th e sto re ) c he ek th e ac co rn pan yi n g c hart,w hic h sh ow s th e re latio nsh ip b etw ee n th e

different grading system s and tells the

m ost com mon use for each type of abra-

siv e paper. T he grad ing m etho d tells y ou

noth ing about paper thickness, type of

a br as iv e, o r g en er al q ua li ty o f th e p ap er . I t

o nly s pe cifie s th e size o f th e ab rasiv e p ar -

ticles on th e paper.

W a te rp ro o f S a n dp a p er In addition

to standard abrasive papers, you can buy

wa te rp ro of s an dp ap er . T hi s i s u su all y s ol d

only in the finer grits and is m ade to be

used w ith water or o il for the final rub-do wn in h and fin ish ing .

Abrasive Clo ths Abrasiv es g lu ed to

cloth last m uch lo ng er th an th e paper ver-

sions, bu t are expensive and availab le

only in a lim ited selection of grits . W ith

one exception we don 't find abrasive

c lo th s u se fu l in fu rn it ur e r es to rat io n.

The one exception is important. To

sand rounded legs and rungs, and espe-

cially to san d in to g ro ov es o n th ese ro un d-

ed su rfac es, y ou g an c ut strip s o f ab rasiv e

cloth 10 a c on ve nie nt w id th , w rap th e c lo th

aro un d th e le g, o r rung , and pull back and

forth on the ends. This does a better job

th an reg ular abrasiv e pap ers. T he n arro w

st~ ip o f ab rasiv e c lo th g ets in to th e g ro ov e

on a turned leg m uch m ore easily and suc-

c essfu lly th an th e le ss flex ib le p ap er.

S a n d ingBlocks

A sanding block , in its sim plest form , is a

rectan gu lar blo ck o f w ood aro un d w hich

yO ll w rap a piece of abrasive paper. A

typical sanding block is about 2 inches

To make your own sanding blocks in any size or shape, you need a wood block, contact cement, a

felt or loam rubber pad, and sheet sandpaper.

Make the block the shape needed for the workat hand. Glue pieces of wood together if neces-

sary. The advantage of homemade blocks IS

their custom shape.

When the cement dries to the touch, carefully

place the cemented sides together. As soon as

they touch. they bond permanently.

Coat the wood block with contact cement; atlow

to dry. Repeat on one side of the padding ..

Cut the sandpaper sheet so the piece is as wide

as the sanding block and tong enough to wrap

around the block.



wide and 4 to 6 inches long , For sm aller

w ork, yO ll c an m ake sm aller blocks. Hold-

ing the sides of the b lock, you apply one

face of ir to t he s ur fa ce to be sanded, and

work the block back and forth w ith

straight-line m o tions. The job is m uch

sm oo ther if a sm all felt pad is placed on

Wrap the paper around the block tlghlly A.s

paper becomes worn, shift the wrapping to ex -

pose new sanding surtaces.

Here is the finished block, ready for work, Hotd

the paper 1 11 place as you w ork , o r use a rubber

band as an anchor,

These are typical hand sanders that you can buy at your home center Select models Ihat work best

for you

When using any type of power sander, always sand with the grain Don't press 100 hard on the 1001;

just guide it back and lorth slowly and let It do tile work,

Sanding Techniques 47

the block before the paper is w rapped

around it. This cushions the paper and pre-

v en ts u neven sanding .

Purchased Blocks It takes only a

few m inutes to m ake a sand ing b lock , but

yo u wi II fi nd several ty pes of hand sanders

at your hom e cen ter that are both conve-

nien t and inexpensive. A ll have som e type

of clam p to ho ld the abrasive paper inplace, b uilt-ill fe lt padding, and (u sually)

a com fortable gripp ing surface that m akes

them easy to control.

Techn i qu es Whethe r you buy one or

make one, you certain ly should own a

sanding block and use it in the great m a-

jorit y of your sand ing work. A s a m atter of

principal, always use a b lock when sand-

ing nat surfaces. A b lock is necessary

w hen you sand up to the edge of a table top

or w hen sand ing a square runner or nm g.

By holding the block abso lu tely level on

the surface, and providing even p ressu reon it, you keep the edge square, If you use

a folded-paper pad and finger p ressu re,

you w ill lend to sand too much at the very

edge, and w ill end up w ith a su rfac e th at

dips downward right at the edge.

Us.ing P ow er S an de rs

In the chapter on too ls, w e d iscussed pow -

er sanders, and pointed ou t that the best

kind to own is an asci llating sander - one

w ith a front-to-back sanding m otion. In

these sanders, the shoe on wh ich the paper

is fitte-d m oves back and forth , traveling

only a fraction of an inch but doing it

quickly .. The right w ay (0 use one of these

is to le t the sander do the work. Your job is

to guide it in a straight line w ith the grain

of the w ood, to m ove it slow ly over the

surface, and to apply light pressure, In

other w ords, don 't try to use it like a hand

sander, and move it back and forth by

hand . S tart at one end of the area to be

sanded and slow ly m ove it toward the oth-

er end, Then go back to the beginning and

run the course again" Do this until the

s an d in g is fin isb ed .

Because orbital sanders leave circular

m arks on the surface, w e don 't recorn-

mend them . Sand ing disks m ounted in

electric d rills are w orse than o rbital sand-

ers because you cannot apply even pres-

su re to the pad as it sp ins, and are lik ely to

get uneven results. The pad used in th e

drill, 'how ever, is good for sanding rungs

and other round work because only a sm all

part of the spinning disk touches the w oo d

at anyone m om ent.



48 Sanding Techniques

HOW TO SAND Sanding is easy

WOOD SURFACES to do if you are

FOR FINISHES aw are of the basic

techn iq ues. F ollo w these instru ctions w ith

care.

1 . A lways sand w ith the g rain o f the

wood , not across the g rain .

2. Use a straight back and forth move-

rnent of the sanding b lock. Don 't us e a

c irc ular o r irre gu lar motion.

3. A pply even pressure 10 the top of th e

sanding block. D on't lean m ore heavily

on the front or back of it. The pressure

shou ld be light, flO! forced.

4. When sanding a flat surface. be espe-

cially careful as you approach the edge

There is a tendency to lean on the block

at th is tim e, w hich resu lts in heavier

pressu re near the edge of the w ork.

Keep the sanding su rface level and the

pressure even to avoid tapering the

w ork surface dow nw ard.5. Tap the sawdust o ut o f th e s an dp ap er al

regular in tervals. The sawdust clogs

the paper and prevents the paper from

cutting p roperly . You can use a sm all

brush (an old too thbrush w ill do).

Using a Tack Cloth

When you finish the sand ing, w ipe the

saw dust from the surface of the w ork w ith

a tack cloth . (Y ou can bu y lack clo th s

already m ade at your hom e center, or you

can m ake one by moisten ing a cloth w ith a

m ixture of one part tu rpentine and three

parts varnish .) The advantage of a tack

cloth over a regular dust rag is that the

saw dust clings to the tack cloth and

doesn ' t fly in to the air, on Iy to settle on the

w ork again in a few m inu tes.

When using a hand sander , also sand with Ihe

grain_ Apply even pressure "sanding is 100

slow, use a coarser grade: Ihen change to a fine

grade to finish the job.

Clogged sandpaper wan" cut. Use an old tooth-

brush to clean IIout occasionally so thai it con-

tinues 10be abrasive

After sanding, wipe the surface wilh a lack cloth to remove aillhe line sanding dusl You can either

buy inexpensive leek cloths or make your own.

HOW TO SAND Furniture sanding

FURNITURE is a little d iff er en t

FOR A FINE from ord inary

FINISH sanding: in furni-

ture sand ing the objective is a po lished

finish. To get th is polished fin ish , you fo l-

low a step -down procedure. Y ou beg in

w ith a coarse paper, then step down to

finer and finer papers u n ti I the su rface is as

sm ooth as you can m ake it.

Work Sequence

In m ost cases, the coarse paper to start

w ith is rated as fine on the sandpaper

chart. It would have a grit rating of any -

where from about 2 00 to 1 00, o r a number

ratin g o f fro m 5/ 0 to 2/0. A fter sanding the

entire surface w ith this grade of paper,

move down to a very fine grade. and then

to a fine grade. For the last sanding before

applying the fin ishing m aterial, add one

m ore step and go over the surface w ith a

superfine grade of paper.

The Finishing Process LeI each

coat o f fi nish m aterial dry com pletely (an d

we m ean completely). Then lightly sand

the surface before applying the nex t coat.

A very fine g rade works best here . 00

easy on this sanding. Y ou don 't want to

take off any of the fin ish you just applied .

Y ou on ly w ant \0 elim inate the tiny bum ps

in the surface and at the sam e tim e to

roughen the surface slightly to give the

nex t coal a "tooth" on wh ich to cling.

The tiny bumps are caused by dust parti-

cles on the surface, dust in the brush, and

im purities in the fin ishing m aterial itself.

They com e off easily . Y ou should be

able to feel them w ith your fingertips be-

fore sanding. A fter sanding, they should

be gone but the new surface should still

b e in ta ct.

Hand-rubnlng The final hand-

rubbed finish is achieved after all coals o f

fin ishing m aterial have been applied . and

they have dried hard. Then you use a su-

p er f! n e p ap er (400-600 grit) to go over the

entire fin ish . The aim is to knock off the



One type ot hand- rubbed finish is ac hieved by a

linal sanding with superfine paper and water

Begin by sprinklmQ a few drops of water on the

surface after the varnish has dried for several

days We use a ctothes sprinkler bottle

Next we load superfine wet-or-dry sandpaper

into a hand sander and carefully sand With the

grain. Do not oversand or you may remove the

new finish.

Some say the very best hand-rubbed finish isdone-with oi l and a superfine

waterproof paper First. sprinkle a little pumice powder (we keep ours in asalt shaker) on the surface.

Mount a thin felt or cloth pad in a hand sander to rub the pumice and all.

Work back and forth with the grain. Do not remove the finish, but polish it:

remove the gloss and t iny imperfections.·

Sanding Techniques 49

Alter sanding. wipe the surface dry wilh a clean

soft cloth Complete the job by applying either a

lemon oil polish or a good carnauba furniturewax

Next, apply a few drops of very light oil (bicycle oil, for example, or lemon

oil). Use enough to make a light abrasive paste of the pumice. If neces-

sary, add more pumice to achieve a good consistency.

Wipe the finished surface Iree of oil an d pumice with a clean sott cloth.Rub sufficiently to gel rid 01 any oi ly feel .

The last step after th is final sanding is 10

apply a thin coat of top-quality paste car-

nauba w ax.

glossy look that alw ays com es wirh a new

finish and to gel rid of any last dust

bum ps. This hand-rubbed finish can be

achieved w ith n orm al dr y paper, or with

w aterp ro of p ap er.

Using w ate rp roo f p ap er. YOll sprinkle a

little water on the surface and then sand il.

You also can lise a v ery lig ht machine oil

(racing bicycle oil is best) in place of th e

water. W hen the sanding is done, w ipe the

surface thoroughly with a dean dry cloth ..

Practice is Necessary

Sanding, as with all refinishi ng tech-

niques, takes a lirrle practice to perfect.

Bu I ou get the hang of it in a few m i nu tes.

W e esp ecially re co mm en d that you try the

final h and -ru bb ed finish on practice wood

before working on a new ly finished piece.

A s you sand and apply fin ish co ats to

th e furniture, also do it to an extra board

you ca n lise fo r practice Then, before you

do any final sanding steps on t he furn i tu re,

first d o it 10 the practice board. This will

give you confidence w hen you approach

th e f ur nitu re . Th e practice board takes

only a few ex ira sec ond s of work, and it is

worth it



5

C o sm e tic S u rg e ry fo r fu rn itu re

This chapter deals w ith most of the re-

pair problem s you are likely to encounter

in restoring furniture and suggests step-

by-step ways to make these repairs. Be-

cause there often are sev eral p ossib le

m ethods of repair. alternates w ill be cited.

Garage sales are good sources for old furniture, but some of the pieces require a lot 01work. This

rocker needs an arm repaired and caning redone. as well as slmple restoration,

However. knowing how to make these re-

pairs is really th e second step. The first

step. as w e indicated early in the last chap-

ter, is to analyze the damage.

D.IAGNOSING THE PROBLEMS

Look ing at a dam aged chair. you are rnuc 1 1

like a doctor in his office w ith a patient.

He m ak es a n e xam in atio n. then diagnoses

th e problem. Then he prescribes !I course

of rued ic i ne . h o sp it al izat ion. diet - what-

ever he believes will bring about a cure,

A s a furniture doctor. your firs! step.

too . is II detailed exam ination. Look first

a t <111pa rt s 10 find cracks .. broken wood,

loose joints, and broken or m issin g hard -

ware. Do the casters work ..and do they fit

properly. Or do they fall from their holes')

Is there severe denting or gouging. par-

ticularly at ed ges o r co rners? I f th e piece is

veneered. has the veneer lifted from the

substrate wood in any place? Are pieces or

chips of veneer missing? Look closely at.

edges and corners lor veneer damage,

If there are carvings (chair backs. dress-

er and chest fronts or elsewhere). are the

carvings intact or damaged? Pullout the

drawers an d exam ine them for tightness of

jo ints, m issing glue blocks. m issing sides.

backs or bottom s,

A well-stocked home ceriter will carry special-

ized items. such as preformed dowels.



Look. \00. for signs of o ld rep airs.

Have pieces been nailed Or screwed into

place"! Can you se e ol d crac ks (h al were

carelessly g lu ed '! Ex am i 11(' the le gs. e sp e-

cial Iy th in leg s, !O look for signs o r s pl it

wood. Look at ria! surfaces such as tab le

an d dresser tops fo r ev id en ce o f sp lillin g

or warping. Check all hi ngcs to se c if they

have been bent or sprung.Finally . look at the rinish. Does it ap -

pear to be in rc ason abl y good sha pe. or

can you see so much dam age that a com-

plete refinishing is necessary? You can'(

really m ak e 11 f in al d ec is io n on th e f in ish

un til y ou h ave clean ed 0 IT all th e 01d DCCU-

mu Iaw l wax and dirt. bu t ira cons iderable

amount o r damage 1 0 the finish is plainly

visible before clean ing. you can assume

you have a problem .

If the damage is extensive. it is a good

idea to make a written list because it is

easier to establish w ork p rio rities from th eI ist [hun from yourhead,

How to Clean Wax and Dirl From Your Furnilure 51

Decision Time

With the exam ination completed. you

have several decisions to m ake. First. is ir

worthwhile 10 spend lime and money re-

s to ri n g t he piece? You now ha ve a good

idea or the work involved. and must weigh

this against your projected value of the

piece. Only you can make the decision.

and now is th e 1 imc to do it. befo re in vest-in g. tim e an d energy.

Assum ing that you have decided to go

ahead. the next decision is whether Of no t

1 '0 disassem ble the piece. If it is w obbly

an d lo ose in al l rh e jo ints. the n you s hou I d

disassemble it. O ld glue may beco me b rit-

tle and lose its holding power. The wood

may have dried (Jut and shrunk. causing

loose joints. O r ...so many parts may have

to be repaired or replaced that disassem bly

w ill make the job easier.

Samet i rnes yo u fi nd you rse If wit h a

mixed situation: some very loose joints

and some tight ones. The tight ones w ill

probably become loose in a year or so.

S av e y ou rse lf a la te r p ro blem an d reglue

the whole piece now .

So muc h for the exarni na t ion and the

diagnosis. Now the surge!")' begins. In

preparation for the operation .. you must

clean the piece thorough ly.

Before you begin a restoration, browse through

your home center. You'll find a lot of helpful

items, such as these wood carvings.

HOW TO CLEAN

WAX AND DIRT

FR OM YO UR

FURNITURE

The air in your

home is full of

pollut ants, such

as smoke from

cigarettes. cigars and pipes. grease in the

air from tile kitchen and du st. Allor this

attaches itsel r to furniture over a lo ng p eri.

od. Y ou apply polish to lurniture, People

touch chair arms and the oil from their

skin rubs off. These oils mix with the air

pollutants. and the result is a film that

slowly covers the exposed wood parts ..

Th e process is a gradual one that isn't

readily noticeable. You tend to forge 1 th e

ori g inil I color of the wood. and fa iI to see

the dnrkening a~ it ta ke s p la ce .

This film may become much thicker if

Old lurn.turehas layers 01 wax. gri t and grime,

an d the first step in restoring it is to clean the

finish.

the chair j" srored in a basement or artie,

where it g ets an ex tra d ose ofdust a nd d ir t.

The finish may be almost black by the

t ime yo u g et re ad y 10 work on it. We have

seen cases where the buildup of film was

'111 of an inch thick, so thick and black we

couldn't tell what kind of wood was under

II.

A ll that din can hide not only the wood

and the finish, but also cracks and other

serious wood damage. W ith th e dirt

s tr i pped away, you'll see the fu II ex tent 0 f

any damage that must be repaired. and YOl l

may have to revise your original list of

repair's 10 be made.

There are three basic ways to clean fur-

niture. The one you select depends in part

Which cleaner you use depends on how bad the

grime is. Use a product designed to remove

wax, not the kind that actually is a polish.

on your preferences. and In parr on the

furniture itself.

Commercial Wood Cleaners

Y ou'll fi nd these on the she! f at y ou rh om e

center. Some of them have fancy names to

indicate that they "condition" the wood,

so you'll have to read the labels to locate

the product you want.

Y ou want a product designed to remove

old wax and dirt. Mosj of these products

are based on a form ulation using either

turpentine or m ineral spirits. Most refin-

ishers prefer the m ineral spirit formula-

tio ns. M ix tu re s that offer conditioning as

w ell as cleaning properties usually contain

an oil of some type, which is deposited on

You can use warm water and a detergent to

clean furniture. but this is best saved lor enam-

eled furniture.



52 Checking the Finish I How to Take Apart Wood Joints

the wood as it is cleaned . Since you w ant

to clean down to the bare fin ish , you don 't

w an t a conditioner. Skip these products

and select those designed specifically for

w ax and dirt rem oval.

Step 1: Preparing the ProductMost m ineral spirit fo rm ulations w ork

b est w he n the atm osphere is w arm (70 de ,

grees F . or warm er) and when they them -selves have been warm ed a bit. Do not

heat any of these products over an open

flame. such as the burner on a gas stove!

Place the can of cleaner in a container o f

hot w ater for 10 minutes.

Step 2: Applying the Product Fo r

the right way to use a com mercial w ood

cleaner, read the m anufactu rer's d irec-

tions. (Please do i t . .Many people read di-

rec tio ns o nly as a last resort - when the

first attem p t to use the product didn ' I

work.) G enerally , you are told to dip a

soft, clean cloth (cheesecloth is excellent)in the cleaner, and to then w ipe it over the

surface o f the furniture". The idea is to

apply a coat of the cleaner and let it s tand

fo r 10 m inu tes or so , to allow the chem i-

cals do their w ork. A fter the old w ax has

been softened, you w ipe the p iece again

with a cloth dam pened w ith cleaner to re-

m ove th e resid ue.

If the piece is very d irty , you m ay have

to repeat. the process several tim es. Som e

people like to rub and scrub the surface,

but it isn't necessary. The m ineral sp irits

w ill do their work if you let them . Use an

old toothbrush or srna IIcotton sw abs to get

in to co rners and into carvings.

Detergents and WaterY ou can clean old fu rnitu re w ith a m ixture

of w arm water and detergent. M ild deter-

gen ts used for dish w ashing are the least

likely to harm a wood finish , and they do

cu t grease and w ax effectively . H ow ever.

th is p rocedure is best used on fu rnitu re

thai has been painted, enam eled or var-

n i shed . It w ill c au se la cq u er an d s he lla c

fin ishes to turn w hite , because they absorb

water.

Keep in m ind thac w ater is an enem y ofwood . It c an c au se s we llin g, d is co lo ra tio n

and warpi ng w hen appl ied to b are w ood. It

can soften som e glues, and it can cause

veneers to separate from the base w ood .

(O lder veneers w ere laid down w ith non-

waterproof adhesives.) F or these reasons,

you don 't sw ab the detergent-and-w ater

solution generously over the w ood. In-

stead, w ipe w ith a doth m oistened in the

m ixture , and do som e rubb ing . The deter-

gen t needs tim e to soften the grease and

w ax, so leave the surface wet for a while

an d th en rewipe: F inally , go ov er the piecew ith a cloth m oistened in clear w ater to

rem ove the detergent. A llow the piece 10

dry com pletely before attem pting to app ly

any kind of finish or before sanding ..

The detergent-and-water m ethod is flO!

the best, and w e really don 't recommend

it . Bu t if you use it w ith care , il works.

Cleaning with TSPTrisodium phosphate (TSP) is a heavy

du ty cleaner, used by painters 10 clean

m ildew and accum ulated dirt from exteri-

or walls. It can be used on very dirty furn i-

ture, but we would recommend it only on

p ain ted , e nam eled Or v arn ished pieces,

and not on veneers, or shellac or lacquer

fi rushes. It is a "last resort" cleaner, used

when a p iece has been sitting in a garage

fo r 10 years and is in really bad shape.

Step 1: Preparing the MixtureMake a m i x t ur e of 2 tablespoons of TS P to

a quart o f w arm water.

Step 2: Applying the Mixture You

m ust w ear rubber g loves w hen using TSP,

because it is a powerful chem ical. A lso ,

protect your eyes by w earing safety glass-

es. You don 't want a burning chem ical in

your eyes, and any chem ical can sp lash orsplatter, no matter how carefu lly you use

it.

W hatever clean ing m ethod used, allow

the p iece to dry for a good 24 h ou rs b efo re

doing anything to it, and that includes

sand ing . Y ou'll on Iy be able to see the fu II

effect of the clean ing w hen the surface and

the w ood are totally dry.

CHECKING THE FINISH

The day after you clean the piece, look at

the fin ish and decide what m ust be done.

If it is possible , you want to save the orig i-na l finish, so look it over w ith this in

mind. If th e m ajo rity of the fin ished sur-

face appears to be in good shape, but there

are som e dam aged areas, consider just

making fin ish repairs instead of stripping

and refin ishing. (W e cover both how to

strip and how to m ake finish repairs in the

n ex t c ha pt er .)

If you have a jew el of a piece that re-

quires no repair at all, sim ply apply a good

furn iture w ax (paste type is preferable)

w ith a cheesecloth pad , allow it to dry,

and then bu ff it w ith the buffing pad in

your electric drill. O r you can apply a lem -

o n o il polish .

W ith the fin ish clean, you can begin

repairs. The first step is to d isassem ble the

piece if it needs regluing or extensive

repairs.

HOW TO TAKE Furniture is joined

APART WOO~ by a variety of tech -

JOINTS niques. To disas-

sem ble, fo llow the steps carefully or you

w ill dam age the piece.

Glue BlocksG lue blocks are little w ood blocks used to

reinfo rce d raw ers, chair fram es, and o ther

item s. To rem ove them , place a ch isel

n ear the base of the b lock and ta p it w ith a

m allet. The block shou ld pop out. During

reassernblythese should be glued back in

place.

Corner blocks (teft) reinforce joints. To remove glue blocks (above). tap a chisel at one edge.



Corner BlocksThese are large r b locks of w ood, u sed in

chair seat and table construction to rein-

force corners. Corner blocks often ar e

held in place by screw s, and som etim es

g lued as w ell. F irst rem ove the sc rew s;

then ch isel o ut the block if it is g lued , Y ou

m ay find m etal b races also used to rein -

force the corners of tables. These are lo -cated beh ind th e table ap ro n at the c orn ers,

and are held in p lace by screw s.

Wood Joints

Most furn iture parts are jo ined by wood

join ts such as 2 -dow eled butt jo in ts or

m ortise-and -tenon jo ints . These jo ints are

fitted together and g lued . in som e rare in-

stances, they also m ay be p inned fo r secu-

rity . A pin (sm all nail) is in serted th rough

a part o f the jo int to p reven t its w ork ing

loose . To take apart a jo in t like th is , you

m ust b reak or soften the glue bond, re-

m ove the p in if there is one, and pu ll or tap

the jo in t ap art

Step 1: F.inding Pins Look first fo r

any evidence o f pinning. Y ou shou ld be

ab le to see eithe r a tiny metal head in the

su rface o f the w ood , a sm all wood-filledbo le or a larger circle indicating that a

dow el. and no t a p in w as used to p in the

jo int. U se a nail se t 1 0 tap oUI a m etal p in .

To d rive ou t a dow el, u se a piece o f sl ight-

ly sm aller dow el rod, and tap it ag ain st th e

dow el in the p iece. Y ou can also d rill out

the old dow el; if so , u se your dow el jig to

assu re a straight ho le .

Step 2: Separating the Joint If th e

g lue bond is already b roken, separating

You usually l ind metal corner blocks in cheaper furni ture. Here. the corner brace (lower lef t 01photo)

replaced a loose glue joint It would have been better to reglue the chair.

Glue blockjoint

Belore you attempt to disassemble a piece 01 furniture, identify the type of wood joint that holds

corners and crosspieces together. Then loosen or break the glue bond.

How to Take Apart Wood Joints 53

the join t is no problem . Y ou m ay be ab le

to lake it apart w ith you r hands, o r a cou -

ple o f ligh t laps w ith a rubber m allet w ill

break aw ay the join t. lf the glue bond has

not been b roken , the glue m ay be brittle

enough so that tapp ing the jo int apart w ith

the rubber m allet w ill break it. If t he j oi nt

still hold s after tapping, you can so ften the

g lue b y app lyin g a h alf- an d- ha lf m ix tu reo f vinegar and w arm water. A pp ly the

m ixtu re to the join t w ith a s mall c olto n

sw ab. K eep the area satu rated until the

m ixtu re has had tim e to soak in and w ork

at the glue. This m ay take qu ite aw hile ,

depending on the depth and ligh tness o f

the join t Tap occasiona Ily w ith the rubber

m allet to see if the jo int has loosened .

Hidden Screws

C hair rails are som etim es attached to chair

posts by large screw s driven through the

backs of the posts and into the rail. These

screw s m ay be coun tersunk , and h idden

by sm all w ood p lugs fitted into the holes

and glued in p lace. Y ou must p ry the plug

out in o rder to rem ove the screw . The best

too l for th is is an aw l (an ice p ick is a

substitu te). w h ich you tap in to the plug

near one edge. The tapping m ay d islodge

th e p lu g. If no t, then p ress the aw l aw ay

from the cen ter of the plug to p rovide le-

v erag e ac tio n.

Dovetail Joints

B e carefu l in tapp ing do ve tail jo in ts ap art.

Y ou do no t w an t to break any 0 f th e ,. f in-

gers" o f the join t. Tap w ith a rubber m al-

le t again st one jo ined part (a draw er side,

for exam ple) so that it com es straigh t out

and is no t tw isted o r tu rned as it is freed .

Chair buttons or other wood plugs serve more

purpose than just decoration. Remove them to

find the wood screws they oonceal.



54 Disassembling Various Types of Furniture

DISASSEMBLING E very typ e of fu rn i-

VARIOUS TYPES ture piece is differ-

OF FURNITURE ent in assem bly .

Chairs are d ifferent from cab inets , d ress-

ers from tab le s. T he d i s assernbl y process

for each type, therefo re , is also differen t.

W ith the general in structions below , you

should be able to de term ine how each

p iece is assem bled and then lake it apart.There w ill be lim es w hen this w ill p rove to

be im possible . Then you can assum e that

,'h e jo int is so good that there is no need to

take it apart. M ove on to the nex t step o f

disassembly.

Tables

There are several types o f tables Som e

have aprons (those side panels ju st be -

neath the table top), and o thers do no t.

Som etim es the ap rons are attached to the

top by screw s dri v en up from the bo ttom .

L ook fo r the screw ho les in the bottom of

the apron to find out. O n som e table s,

m etal corner b races are screw ed 10 both

the underside of the tab le top and to the

in side of the apron . These are p lainly v isi-

b le under the tab le . Y ou also m ay find Ihal

the top is fixed to the ap ron on ly by glue

b locks. A fter determ in ing how the top is

attached , you shou ld be ab Ie to take it o ff

w ith little tro ub le .

A prons m as! o ften are Joined to table

legs by m eans of m ultip le dow els, m or-

tise-and-tenon joi n ts , o r by steel leg

braces. In the latter case, look fo r a large

lag screw on the in side face of the leg ju st

under the table top . Use a w rench to re-

m ove the lag screw .

Tab les w ithou t aprons have the legs at-

tached to th e u nd er sid e -of the table in a

number o f w ays - usually by som e type

o f m etal bracing screw ed to the underside

o f the table top .. If you rum the table over,

the m ethod is self-evident and rem ov ing il

presen ts no p ro blem .

Dressers and ..ChestsUnits Iike these are called case goods be-

cause they are built like cases. Each un it

usually has a hardw ood fram e 10 w hich the

top-and sides are attached . The back is set

in a rabbet (a g roove in the side panels)

and fixed in p lace w ith a nail. The fram e is

construc ted so that each draw er has its

ow n fram ing m em bers. In the best p ieces,

there w ill be a dust panel (a light sheet of

w ood or hardboard) separating each draw -

er compartment and attached to the fram -

in g m em be rs .

Lapped joints such as these are easy to disassemble. The screws are most olten countersunk.

Remove the plug over the screws and back the screws out. Then break the glue bond.

Haunched and mit redMor tise and tenon iO,nt

The haunched and mitered corner creates a strong joint. Ol!en a tap or two with a rubber mallet isenough to finish breaking the glue bond. Then pull the rail Irom the leg.

Stagger dowels

I

To disassemble a piece held with a hanger boll, unscrew Iheboll and separate the section. To

soften stubborn glue around dowers, try a mixture of half water and hatf vinegar.\

Som e cabine t or case pieces are m ade

w ithout a fram e. In these cases, you ·1 1fi nd

so lid w ood sides jo ined by wood fram ing

m em be rs c alle d s tr in ge rs .

To begin d isassem bly these types o f

units , rem ove the draw ers and look inside.

Y ou can see the type of construction im -

m ediately - either fram ed or so lid sides.

L ook to see how the top is attached , by

g lue blo cks 10 the fram e, o r by screw s

d riven up th rough the fram ing in to the lop .

Remove the glueblocks o r screw s and re-

m ove the lap . N ext, locate the nails, usu-

ally at the bottom, that hold the back in

place. Remove them and slide the back

panel ou t o f its rabbets . Back panels u sual-



Iy are not glued in place, bu t som etim es an

e nth us ias tic r ep air er, h op in g to str en gth en

the p iece, has glued them . Tapping the

gl ue shou ld loosen it, i f th is is the case.

Good fram es arc assem bled using dow -

els o r tenons, w hich usually can be tapped

apart. N ot-sa-good fram es may be held

tog ethe r w ith scre ws and/or m eta l c orn er

Preparing the Furn iture lor Repairs 55

b races. G ood fram es may have quite a b it

of glue block rein fo rcem ent, so look fo r

the blocks and rem ove them befo re tap -

ping the frame apart.

Back

Side

Spline

Case goods are constructed around a frame or wilh stringers. Remove all glue blocks. Remove the top, Ihen the bottom and the back,

PREPARING THE

FURNITURE FOR

REPAIRS

little tim e c le an in g

A fter reduc ing the

piece 10 its c om p o-

nent parts, spend a

the old g lue o ff the

pieces and out of the holes. W e have

found that the best too l for th is is the thin -

bladed pocket knife . U se it to scrape the

glue from exterior su rfaces. Because the

This marble topped dresser dates back to the 1850s. To renovate. we must reglue much 01 the

frame, drawers, replace veneers on the trent, and refinish the entire piece.

glue is brittle, i t usually flakes away easi-

Iy. Insert. th e blade into mortises and other

The worK begins with removal ol hardware, in-

cluding' casters: place in aluminum trays.

The holes under the casters were made 10 hold

the necks of the or iginal casters,



56 Preparing the Furniture for Repairs

cavities to get the old glue oUL Just be

careful in bo th operations to cut or scrape

(lw ay only the glue. L eave all the wood or

the jo in t w on 't f i t when you regl ue It .

Now repair all broken parts, so that

when you reassem ble the piece, it w ill be

sound. Check the Iis r you m ade o f parts to

The base plate wood is sound, but looks bad.

These old square nails were used rarely alter

1890, and not at all alter 1895.

The upper part of the back Irame had a long

crack in it. Using a brush, we put glue into the

lull length 01the cracK.

This frame member is tapped firmly but gently

into the dresser with the lubber mallet Do not

damage the wood as you work.

be repaired and locate those parts. Exam -

ineeach one to see just how you can repair

i t, or whether iIs beyon d repa ir an d n eed s

\0 b e r ep la ce d. In t he p a ra g ra p hs that fol-

low . we w ill te ll you how specific types of

repairs can be m ade. Refer to these as you

need the 111. R e m emb er that there a fte n are

Once sanded, lhe original base plates are re-

glued to the dresser We lind Ihat a '¥. inch brush

is the easiest way 10apply glue.

The newly g:lued crack can now be ctamped for

drying. Wipe the excess gtue trom the surface

as soon as those clamps are in plaCe.

Clamps and more clamps! Every Joint we have

glued must be lirrnlv clamped, which we think is

the Irue secret of successful gluing

se ve ral w ay s to do the job; you m ay even

be able to invent som e m ethods yourself.

The ultim ate goal is to return the part to

usefu lness, make it look like it has never

been b roken, and join it to other m em bers

as successfully as it was joined when the

piece w as new .

The square nails are now hammered into place

as the baseplate IS reglued. Two clamps hold

the plate as Ihe glue dries

Now we must reglue any frame members that

need it, using a brush to apply the glue that has

been squeezed into the aJuminum dish

Here is another view 01the frame of the dresser,

showing how the joints were reglued. Clamps of

various sizes were required . .



HOW TO D raw ers, esp ecial-

REBU I LD Iy large ones, take a

DR AWER S beating in regular

use and so tend to be loose and wobbly

after awhile . Sometimes you simply need

to take them apart and reglue them . In

o th er c as es , a bottom or on e of the sid es

m ay have to be replaced. If you intend to

lise new hardware, the old hardw are holes

may have to be filled an d new ones

drilled. If the drawer is very old , look

closely at the drawer runners, or the bot-

to m e dg es o f the sides. on which th e draw-

er slides. They may have become quite

W Orn. signalling the need for new sides.

Good. plain hardwood is fine for draw -

er parts. Save wal nut, cherry and mahog-

an y for places that show .

D r aw e r C o n s tr u ctio n

ln good d ra w er construction. the sides are

n orma lly d ov eta ile d to the d raw er front,and the back is dovetailed to the side

pieces. The drawer bottom fits into a

groove in the lower parts of the sides and

is held in place by small glue blocks on the

bottom . To disassemble the drawer, first

remove the glue blocks, then slide the bot-

tom all t. F i nail y , tap gen t I Y aga inst Ie

inside of the side panels to disengage the

dovetails.

If the drawer has guides - and most big

drawers should - you w ill see them on

the bottom . The guides are two paralle l

strips of wood in the center of the bottom ,which f i t over a wooden guide rail mount-

ed in the chest or dresser. The drawer

guide causes the drawer to slide straight in

and out. w ith no sideward motion. If yo u

must replace the drawer bottom , be sure

to reinstall the drawer guide on the new

bottom.

R ep la cin g th e D ra we r Bo tto m

Drawer bottom s today are most often

m ade of hardboard, which is a good m ate-

rial for the p urp os e. S tan dar d Ylb- or V~-

inch hardboard is fine for small and rnedi-

u In-S ized draw ers. For very larg e draw e rs,

you m ight need a :V x-inch thickness.

Measure the ol d bottom carefully. and

transfer the measurements (0 the hard-

board. Cut the bottom ou t with a power

saw (3 saber saw is fine if you use a guide

to assure a straight cut). F inish the cut

edges w ith sandpaper. S lide the bottom

into the grooves made for it, .a nd r ep lac e

the glue blocks onthe bottom La hold il in

place.

How to Rebuild D rawers 57

The drawers of the dresser are coming apart and need work. First they must be disassembled, using

a rubber mallet

The original dovetails on the drawer sides were

hand cut and Irregular in shape. They are now

quite broken and worn.

Cut sides for each drawer; we used 1 inch oak.

The bottom fits into a groove at the bottom of

each side; cut this with a router and a '/4 inch

dado bit. Trace dovetails on drawer Ironts.

A router throws a lot of chips and sawdust. so

always wear safety glasses.

The bottoms at each side are broken and se·

verely worn; drawer bottoms are warped and

cracked. We· will reuse the tronts only.

Cut a blind dovetail joint with a jib and a router

holding a dovetail bit Drawer Side is at jig back;

drawer back is in fronl of the jig.

Sides are wider than lhe back because the

drawer bottom must slide past the back.



58 How to Rebuild Drawers

Replacing the Hardware

M ost hardw are is attached to the draw er

fron t by m eans of one or tw o m achine

screw s (not w ood screw s), w hich go

through holes in the w ood 10 n ut s i ns id e

the draw er. N ew hardw are for a draw er

m ay r eq uir e a d iff-e re nt s et o f h ole s, so y ou

h av e to fill th e o ld h oles. D o th is b y in sert-

in g d ow els o f t he ri gh t d iam eter. S an d an d

stain the ends of the dow els so they can 't

b e se en .

C arefu lly m easu re th e d raw er fro nt to

locate the positions of the new holes.

M ark th e ex act p osition b y lap pin g a d en t

w ith th e aw l. T his d en t n ot o nly serv es as a

m ark er, b ut also h elp s th e d rill b it start in

e xactly th e rig ht sp ot.

Replacing a Side or Back.

U su all y a s id e o r b ac k n ee ds to b e re pl a c ed

only when it is broken or the dove tail

jo in ts h av e b ec om e v er y w o rn .. U se th e o ldside or back as a tem plate to cut a new one

from a hardwood board of the proper

th ickness, probably Y 4-inch . Y ou w ill

have to cut new dovetails in each end of

th e ne w p art. S in ce th ese fit in to ex istin g

dove tails , use the existing dovetails as

tem plates; that is , u se the d ov etails o n th e

fron t of the draw er as the pattern for cu t-

ting m atch ing dovetails in the new side.

Step 1: Cutting the Side If t he p ar t

to be rep laced is a draw er side, begin by

m aking a "blank." This is a hardwood

piece of the sam e th ickness as the side itis rep lacing , and of the same overall

d imens ions .

Step 2: Drawing the Dovetails

Place the front end of th is blank against

the dovetails in the draw er fron t, in to

w h ic h it w ill lo ck w h en fin is he d, an d c ar e-

fu lly trace the pattern . Then do the sam e

Drawers are assembted with new side and backpanels and new bottoms made of Y. Inch hard-

wood plywood, ordinary plywood or Masonite.

on the other end of the blank for the back

en d, tracin g th e d ov etail p attern fro m tb e

d raw er b ac k.

Step 3: Cutting the Dovetails Use

the backsaw to cut the sides of each of the

dove tails , m aking straigh t cu ts in from

each end to the depth ind icated by your

tracin g. T hen , u sin g a sh arp w ood ch isel,

cu t the bottom s of the dove tails . S and the

fin ished dovetails sm ooth. A t the sam e

ti m e, sand the top edge of the side so that il

is r ou nd ed . T est fit th e n ew d ov etails an d,

if n ec essar y, u se s an dp ap er o r a sm all r asp

fo r an y ad ditio na l tr imm in g. T he d ov etail

Clamp the job. Check the assembly with a big

carpenter's square. For drawers, installing the

bottom helps to square the work.

Use a belt sander to smooth the new wood and

to sand new joints. A smooth drawer, with all

corners sl ightly rounded, operates easily.

should fit snugly , so don 't cu t aw ay any

m ore th an ab so lu te ly n ec essary . (A n em -

ery b oard , inc id en tally , serv es as_a g oo d

s an din g to ol fo r fin ish in g.)

Other Drawer Problems

If the draw er seem s balky and refuses to

slide in and out eas i ly, look for any of

t he se p ro b lems .

I. The sliding area on the bottom of the

draw er m ay sim ply need lu brication .

S pray it and the fram e on w hich it rides

w it h s il ic on e l ub ri ca nt .

2 . The sides of the draw er m ay have sw ol-

le n d ue to m o istu re ab so rp tio n. S usp ec t

th is especially if the p iece has been

stored in a dam p area. T ry baking a

sm all drawer in a w arm - not hot -

oven (about 1 2 0 degrees for half an

hour) (0 get rid of the m oisture. For

draw ers too big to go in the oven , use a

heat lam p trained directly on sw ollenparts. The m oisture m ay have caused

sw ellin g, w hich d oesn 't g o d ow n w hen

t he w a te r h as e va po ra te d. In t ha t c as e,

sand the bottom edges and low er sides

to r-em ov e th e sw ollen w oo d.

3 . The sliding area m ay be worn from

overuse. Probably the best w ay to

m end th is is to make new sides, bu t

since Ih is seem s like a lo t of unneces-

sary w ork , you can try 10 re bu ild th e

slid ing area To rebuild , g lue a thin

strip of veneer along the bottom edge,

an d th en s an d th e str ip th or ou gh ly afte rth e glu e h as d ried . T he ty pical v en eer,

after sanding , w ill add only about \/]5

of an inch to the bO It'om . If th is isn 't

en ou gh, ad d an oth er lay er.

If you cut the sides 01the dovetails with a.back-

saw, clamp the work securely in a vise. Pad

sides for protection from the jaws.



HOW TO REPAIR The rung on a

DOWELED chair, doweled

CHAIR RUNGS into the fran! and

back legs, may have dried ou t and shrunk,

or been loose for a long time and become

worn. You can't just reglue it, because

glue alone won't make the joint tight. One

way (0 mend it is 10 wrap string tight ly

around th e dowel to increase ir s diameter,

then coal the wrapping with glue and rein-

sert the dowel. However, we don't like

this method.

A better technique calls for yo_uto cut a

slot down the center of the doweled end

Foo(rails

Use a backsaw and clamp the rung in a

vise while yo u saw. Drive a small wedge

of hardwood down into the saw cut, forc-

ing the dowel end to expand slightly until

it fi ts snugly into the hole. Fit the new end

into the hole before applying any glue to

be sure of the fit. Cut the wedge off flush

with the end of the dowel, apply glue, and

r ap th e now-expanded dowel into the hole.

BROKEN DOWEL RUNGS

OR STRINGERS

Especially in chair construction, you find

parts such as round stringers, rungs and

Top

Foouails

The more familiar you are with the names 01 parts of furniture. the more easily you wilt understandrepair discussions. Regardtess of style, the terminology is universal.

You can wrap the dowel of a toose rung with string to increase its size. Thisworks wetl when youcan't take the rungout of the chair to saw it. If the rung size needs to be increased only a litlle, usethread instead of string. To finish, coal the thread or string with glue.

How to R.epair Doweled Chair Rungs 59

rails made so that they are self-doweling.

That is, each end of the piece is inserted

into a hole and glued there, like a dowel.

When these break, repair varies according

to how the break took place.

Another answer to ends 01 rungs thatdo not fitsnugly into their hotes is to saw cut into themiddle of the end of the rung. Then you can

insert a wedge into the end.

After making the saw cut. whittte a small wedgefrom hardwood. Tap it down into the cut. asshown..Coat with gtue before insertion.

Drive the wedge in far enough to expand thesizeof the rungend. but not so far asto split thewood. Then cut off the part of the wedge thatprojects beyond the rung end.



60 How to Repair Doweled Chair Rungs

Dowel Broken Off

In one kind o f break , the part snaps off ju st

at the hole , leaving the dow el portion in

the ho le The rung itself w ill then have a

ragged end , The repair depends on how

much of the body o f the rung w as de-

st royed, I f the ragged end is very near the

part o f the rung wh ich served as a dow el,

you are lucky, Y ou can fix the rung by

follo win g th ese steps:

(I) dig the dow el scrap out of th e h ole ;

(2) fill the hole w ith a hardw ood plug

glu ed in place, flu sh w ith the surface;

(3) clam p the rung in a v ise to ho ld it

wh ile you w ork;

(4) use you r dow el jig to d rill a ho le for a

new hardw ood dow el in to the end of

the rung - the diam eter o f the new

dow el w ill be abou t half or a little

bigger than the diam eter of the rung ;

(5 ) ignoring the ragged end of the rung

First, dig out the old dowel out of the hole in the

rail Fill this with a wood plug sanded to matchthe shape of the raiL

,

-

t

- --- J -r-r

'--

I

IDrill holes lor a new dowel that will be inserted

both into the rung and into the rail. There will be

an open space lett between the two.

I,

wooo P P P \D O iel v' I

I I

I

~ f-\----~------,

- ~ - - - - . . . 1

; I

. - - - - - - - - - ~ - - - ~ ______ J :

R l n q /---:-jHar~woodPIUg/ I

! I

Fill the open space with wood putty or wood

filler, When this dries. sand the putty to match

the shape 01 the rung: then stain,

for now , drill dow el holes in both the

rung and the piece to w h ich it is to be

joined;

(6) in sert a d ry dow el (no g lue) In the

hole;

(7) assem b le the jo in t. m aking sure that

th e flin g is in exactly the sam e posi-

tion as it w as o rig in ally ;

(8) there w ill be som e wood m issing at

the ragged end of the rung - m ea-

su re the pace betw een the ragged

end and the chair leg to find how

much wood is m issing ;

(9) rem ove the rung and use w ood puny

to build up the end of the rung so that

it m eets the face to w hich it is to be

joined:

( 1 0) allow the w ood putty to set;

(1 1 ) sand it to the sam e shape as the rung;

(1 2 ) stain the putty the sam e shade as the

rest of the fu rniture , W hen you insert

the new dowel, the rung shou ld looklik e n ew .

Alternative: Doweling A sim pler

m ethod can be em ployed i f the dow el

crap is still pro jecting from the ho le into

w hich it w as inserted , In th is case, cut off

the ragged wood and then add a new dow -

el, as show n in the photog raphs.

The rung 01this chair has broken off. leaving its

doweled end in the leg like a plug, The easiest

repair method is doweHng

Begin the repair by using a backsaw 10cut olf

ragged pieces of wood flush with the surface.

Do this on both the leg and the rung

Clamp Ihe runq, position the dowelillg jig on il.

and drill a dowel hole. Be careful to drill in the

center of the rung; use tape around Ihe drill bit

as a depth guide,

Next. dnll a dowel hole In the center 01 thebroken rung in the leg,

Coal a dowel with white glue. Insert it into the

hole in the leg, Place the rung over it. With the

rubber mallet, drive the rung tight for a strong,

invisible repair,



To get glue down into a sptit, use a screwdriver

10 hold the pieces apart. Insert a small woodwedge to hold the break open. •

Longitudinal Crack

A nother k in d o f break th at often occurs in

self-dow eled rungs is the longitud inal

crack. In these b reak s, a lo ng c rack d ev el-

ops along the length of the rung, usually

continuing on in to the dow eled portion.

M ore o ften than no t, the crack is so sev ere

that the tung comes out in two piecesR ep air, fo rtun ately , is easy . Just g lu e the

run g tog eth er again, ex actly as it w as be-

fore. I f y ou c lam p it p ro pe rly d urin g g lu -

ing , yo u w ill h av e a sou nd rep air. I f splin-

te rs o f w oo d are m issin g, fiJI th e g ap s w ith

w oo d p un y. R efin ish th e ru ng to m atch the

res! o f th e chair.

Replacement Rungs

R un gs and strin gers can be so b adly shat-

tered that no su rg ery of an y k in d can m en d

them . Then the only th ing to do is replace

them. I f the p ieces to be replaced aresquare or rectangular or round and un-

shaped in any w ay, you should be able to

b uy h ard wo od o f th e ap pro xi m ate size an d

m ake new ones w ithout trouble. M ore of-

ten than not, how ever, these p ieces have

been turned on a lathe and given some

kind of shape. Then the only way to re-

p la ce t hem is either to sh ape a d up licate

piece on a lathe yo urself o r h av e it d on e by

s ome on e e ls e.

T here is no th in g tech nically difficult

about shaping a piece such as this 011 a

lathe. It is a sim p le, straig htfo rw ard task ,

a snap for som eone w ho ow ns and know s

how 10 u se a w oo d lath e. IIis p ro ba bl e th at

the rung or o ther p iece may have to be

m ad e to m atc h an oth er p art in sh ap e. T his,

too , isn 't a problem for an experienced

lathe operator, using the piece to be

m atched as a guide. The only additional

advice we can add . is that the new piece

should be made of the sam e species of

w ood as the one it rep laces, so that you

can finish it to m atch .

With the break still held open, paint white glue

down into the crack. until all the surfaces are

well covered.

This chair needs regluing!. The glue is too good

for the joints to be taken apart; regluing must be

done with the chair assembled.

With the rungs all in position. firmly drive each

rung deep into its hole, using the rubber mallet

to join the two pieces.

How to Repair Doweled Chair Rungs 61

Two C-clamps, with small wood pads 10 protect

the furniture surface, are now used to lightly

clamp the pieces together.

Paint glue into each of the rung holes. Use a li tt le

muscle power to get the rungs into the holes in

which they belong.

Strap clamp lor pressure on reglued joints: no

other clamps are needed. To lighten strap

("web") clamp, turn large adjustment screw.



62 How to Repair a Loose Tenon Joint

HOW TO REPAIR

CRACKED OR

BROKEN TENONS

saw to cut off the old

The easiest and

strongest repair is

to use your back-

tenon stum p flush

w ith the wood surface. Then chisel out the

old tenon if necessary and make a hard-

wood plug to fill the m ortise. G lue it into

the hole . Be sure the plug is flush w ith the

surface and not above it. Now join the

parts w ith tw o o r th re e d ow els .

Pins orheadless nai ls

To sotten joints for disassembly. paint wilh a

vinegar-and-warm-water mixture. If sli ll f irm, the

Joint doesn't need regluing.

Wi len you f ind it difficult to take apart a chair, you might suspect that the dowel or tenon has been

locked in place with a . small pin, headless nail, or a dowel. Look for a small hole, usually tilled with

wood filler, in Ihe leg. Use a nauset to drive the pin out.

HOW TO REPAIR In a case like this ,

A LOOSE the tenon hasTENON JOINT shrunk and no

longer fits snugly in to the mortise, O ne

solution is t.o rebuild the sides of the tenon

by gluing thin shim s of hardwood to it.

You need very thin w ood for th is work; we

have fou nd small pieces of veneer to be

excellent. You can buy veneers from spe-

cialty houses by m ail and from som e local

fum iture and craft shops, You also can

buy thin sheets of birch at any shop deal-

in g in m odel airplane supplies.

A Disassembled Piece Cut a sm all re c-

tangle of veneer to the exact size of thetenon. G lue this to one side of the tenon

and allow the glue to dry. Sand the joined

edges to m ake a sm ooth fit. Then try the

new tenon in its m ortise. 1 1 should fit

snugly. If the new tenon is a little too

large, use coarse sandpaper to sand the

tenon down. If the new tenon is a l.illie to o

small, apply another shim to the other

side. If you detect an up-and-down move-

m ent after inserting the tenon, you can put

a tiny shim on the bottom .

An Assem bled ' Piece In those cases

where you haven 't d isassem bled the

piece, you can make a sim ilar repair by

pulling the tenon out of the m ortise as far

as \you can, applying glue to the veneer

piece and the tenon. Place the shim in the

mortise next to the tenon. Tap the joint

back together and clam p until the glue

dries. If you think one shim may oot be

enough, fi t the shim s around the tenon and

lap the joint together w ithout glue first. If

the joint seem s solid , tap it apart, apply

the glue, and retap it together.

When only one joint is loose. repair the tenon

without disassembling, the chair. A piece of

wood serves as a wedge to hold joint open,

This tenon has worn too srnairto fit into the mor-

tise, Cement a thin veneer shim 10 the side of the

tenon with contact cement.

Sand the shim down until the tenon is the right

size to fit snugly into the mortise. We made a

small sanding block for the job.

The shim, cut from a sheet of veneer, is also

coated with contact cement. LeI both dry for an

hour, Apply lhe shim to the tenon,



Look for screws in corner blocks, and also I'll the back, holding the seat to the back. Screws

sometimes are hidden under wood plugs. Pry up the plug; remove the screw beneath it

If you damage or break the plug in getti ng it out, you can buy a new plug 10replace it. Be ca relul nO!

to damage the wood frame.

After the glue has begun to soften, use a peri-

knife to dig clots 01g lue out of crevices and to

scrape the surfaces clean.

If all the glue is not removed, the two pieces will

not fit together properly when they ale reglued.

Scrape away all excess glue.

How to Repair Cracked Chair Seats 63

HOW TO REPAIR

CRACKED CHAIR

SEATS

Solid wood chair

se ars , cabinet

sides, and table-

tops sometimes end up cracked or even

broken into two pieces. The best method

for repairing them is to glue the separated

parts back together, using a series of three

or four dowels as reinforcement. I n other

words, create a dowel joint between the

two broken parts. Apply glue along the

whole length of the break. Thenc Iamp the

pieces firmly as the repair dries. This will

join the two parts and make them stronger

than they were before the break.

Once the screws are out, tap with your rubber

mallet to knock the Chair apart.

The oak chair was reglued after the seal broke,

and the repair didn't hold. Apply warm vinegar

and water to soften the old glue.

The first step in repairing this cracked oak seatis to clamp the broken pieces together exactly

as they wil :l be when doweled.



64 How to Repair Cracked Chair Seals

We plan to use four dowels in the repair, so we

now draw marks across the crack at each point

where a dowel will be used,

Add the depln ol the hole (1 inch) to the length of

the jig guide lube. Place the tape's edge this

distance Irom lIie blt bottom

Alter all oowetsare in place in one side. painlagenerous amount of white glue on the protrud-

ing dowels and along the seat edge.

Draw lines across the cracked edge at each

mark on the unclamped seal Hold one piece in

the vise; place doweling jig over lines.

Now each dowel is painted with carpenter's

white glue, and ISthen Inserted in us hole in one

of the seat pieces.

To guarantee correct depth of dowel holes.

wrap a piece of tape around the upper pari 01Ihe dri ll bu as a depth marker.

Gently tap each dowel all the-way into the holes

with a hammer Hall of each dowel will project

from the surface.

Position the other piece of the seat on the dowels Drive it down onto the dowels. Use bar (If pipe

clamps to hold the two pieces firmly together Turn the adjusting screws light. (0 terce the glued

edges into snug. continuous contact When dry. sand tor a smooth seam.



V enee r som etim es acq uires a b ub ble in t he su r-face . O ne w ay 1 0 r ep air it is to fir st c ut an "x" inth e su rfac e w ith a cralt knife.

HOW TO REPAIR The best glue to

DAMAGED use when mend-

VENEER ing veneered

pieces is the rype of contact cement made

f or v ene e ri ng . It is available wherever ve-

n eers are sold. Iy ou c an 't f i nd it, then use

the contact cement you can buy at your

home center. You use it by coating the tw o

surfaces to be mated, allowing them to

dry, and then filt in g th em together. Keep

in m ind that the f i t mUSI b e p er fe ct b ec au se

once the pieces come together, they can 't

b e s ep ar ate d.

Veneer .Edge Repairs O ne commo n

veneer preble m is veneer on a tabletop that

ha s I ifte d o ff o f the su bw oo d. If t he v en ee r

ha s Iifted at the edge of the tabletop and isundamaged, the repair consists simply of

regluing it to the subwood,

Veneer Surface Repairs If the re-

pair must be made in the m iddle 0 f t he to p,

away from the edges, the problem is a

little different. V eneers that have lifted off

the subwood in the m idd Ie of a tabletop (or

other field) seldom can be fitted down into

the sam e place agai n . The veneer seems to

be larger than the place from which il lift-

ed, as if it had stretched. Such lifts-offs

begin as bubbles in the veneer. Then the

bubble breaks, leaving broken and liftedveneer. In your exam ination, you may

find some veneer bubbles which haven 't

broken yet. These should be fixed before

they can b re ak.

Veneer bubbles To fix a bubble of

veneer, use a razor-sharp craft knife guid-

ed by the steel rule , and make an X cut

across the bubble. Avoid making either

CUt of the X directly w ith thegrain of the

wood, Use the blade of the kn i fe to scrape

away any old glue in the r-epair area; then

~:::- --_ . - - --- ~--

»>

Care ful ly I if t t he edges of t he b ubb le . (II i t seemsh ar d to li ft ,m o is te n i t s lig htl y. ) S cr ap e awa y o ldg lu e; ap ply n ew a dh es iv e.

carefully fi t the flaps down in place. 1 f

they make a smooth fit, you can go ahead

and glue them down. Use an artist's brush

to apply contact cement to the underside or

each flap of veneer and to the subwood

Hold the flaps up long enough for the ce-

ment to dry; press them down into place.

Use a veneer or wallpaper seam roller to

secure the repair.

Veneer patch If the bubble has

broken before you begin the repair, the

veneer flaps may be damaged and won't

fit down into place properly. If that hap-

pens .. lise the technique described in the

next paragraph for replac ing missing

pieces of veneer. This entails using a r az or

knife to cut out the damaged area, thenfilling the area w ith a patch of veneer cut

to the correct. shape

Veneer that has lifted and broken,

whether in the center of the table or al the

end, has to be replaced by a patch of new

veneer. In most cases, the veneer w ill

have broken off after lifting from the sub-

strate but no one w ill have th e broken

piece. If th is is your situation, check the

veneer still on the table to see that it ad -

heres firmly in place. Look especially

right around the edges of the break. where

the patch must be made. Determ ine howmuch of it can be reglued and how much

of it must be cut away.

Now buy a piece of veneer of the same

wood species. Remember that the color of

the veneer on the table is the result of

stain ing. so the veneer you buy won't be

the color of the tabletop, If the patch is of

the same species, you will be able to Slain

it to the same color after the repair is

finished.

Use the metal straightedge rule as a

How to Repair Damaged Veneer 65

To s et th e p atc h. I ir mly rol l the area 01 t he b l is t erwith a veneer toner Cov er th e ar ea c om ple te lyand w ipe aw ay any excess.

C over the patch w ith kraft paper and a blocks li gh tl y l ar g er t ha n t he buQ_b te .We ig h t t he b lo ckw ith b oo ks lo r 24 hours.

guide and cut the edges of the veneer

around the damaged area so they are

straight. Make the damaged area in to a

simple shape - square, diamond or rec-

tangle. Remove only as much of the old

v ene er as n ece ssary .

Now c u t a parch of the exact size and

shape as the cut-out area. Cut and trim this

piece until the fit is perfect. Coat one sideof the patch and also the damaged area

w ith contact cement, allow it to dry, and

then place the patchin the damaged area.

Use a veneer roller or wallpaper seam

roller to apply heavy pressure to the parch,

to be sure that it is well seated and [hat the

twa glued surfaces are In good contact.

F inally. stack a pile of books or other

heavy ite rns on top of the repa ir overnigh t,

to hold it in place while the glue sets

completely.



66 How to Repair Broken Edges and Corners

An alternative method 01 repair involves remov-

ing the broken veneer. Cut through to create a

rectangular hole: chisel out.

Give the patch a slightly beveled edge so thai

the bottom is narrower than the top.

From matching veneer, cui a patch that is identi -

cal 1 0 the hole in the veneered surface. A

straightedge helps make straight cuts.Try to fi t the patch. Then use a fi le to produce the

exact lil that you need.

HOW TO REPAIR The edges and cor-

BROKEN EDGES ners of furniture,

AND CORNERS and especially tab-

le tops, o ften take a beating. It isn 't un -

comm on to find w ho le corners broken o ff

of so lid w ood tab letops, or to find a layer

or tw o of w ood m issing from a tabletop

m ade o f p lyw ood or lam inated w ood lay -

ers. A heavy item m ay fall against an edge

and dent il severely . D am age of this type

is most commonly found on tables, bu t

can happen to chairs and cab inets , espe-

ciallylowboys, as w ell.

The prob lem is how to fill the broken or

den ted area in order to resto re its o rig inal

sh ap e an d ap pe ar an ce , If the dent is rela-

tively sm all, you can fill it w ith stick she l-

lac . W e cover that technique in a later

chap ter on repairing fin ishes. If the den t is

large - V 2 inch or m ore - it is best to

m ake a perm anent w ood repair. Y ou w ill

have to lise your ow n judgm ent on which

type o f repair to use.

Adhering a New Piece

If a corner is broken off a so lid w ood tableo r cab inet top and the broken part is m iss-

ing , the so lution is obv ious, Y ou m ust

m ake a new p iece of the right size and g lue

it in p lace, H ere are the factors to consider

as you p lan the repair.

Step 1: Finding the Right Wood

You w ill have to buy a piece of solid w ood

of the sam e species from which to cu t the

new com er. The new wood has to be the

sam e th ickness as the old , and the piece

you buy shou ld be larger than the m issing

piece so you can cut the new corner from

it .

Step 2: Preparing the Area It is

no t likely that the surface o f the tab le edge

w here the com er broke off is even and

sm oo th. S ince it is ex trem ely difficu lt to

cut a new p iece to m atch the irregularities

of the fractu red edge, carefu lly trim the

b roken edge until it is flat D epend ing on

how much wood m ust be trimm ed aw ay ,

you could use coarse sandpaper, a sm all

p lane, or a w ide-b laded w ood chisel. Test

your w ork by p lacing a block o f w oodagainst it. The b lock shou ld contact the

top surface perfectly ; keep trim ming un til

it does ..

Step 3: CuHing the New Corner

Look at the grain of the w ood on the tab le

top, and p lan to CU I the new piece w ith the

g rain runn ing in the sam e d irection. M ea-

su re the corner carefu lly and, to be safe ,

m ake a paper or cardboard tem plate o f the

m issing p iece. Breaks like th is are seldom

sym metrical in shape, and just m easuring

the area w ith a rule w on't g ive you a good

rep lacem en t. Cut and trim the tem p lateuntil it fits exactly into the dam aged area;

then trace it on the replacem en t w ood you

b ou gh t, o bs er vin g thatthe grain runs w ith

that of the top . Cu t along the traced lines.

Step 4: Mat.chlng the Edge Many

com ers and edges are shaped in som e

m anner. The m ost common designs are

beve l, cham fer, cove, bead or Rom an

ogee . A ll o f these shapes can be m ade

w ith a rou ter fitted w ith the co rrect b it.

M ake a sketch o f the edge shape and take

i t to your hom e center, w here you and the

salesman ca n select the right b it. Then go

hom e and p lay w ith the router. Practice

c uttin g e dg es on som e scrap w ood befo re

doing it on the new corner. O nce you have

m astered use o f the too l, c lam p the p iece

to your w orkbench and rou t the edge o f the

new wood patch to m atch the existing

edge of the table.

When only a layer or two of wood has broken off.

cut the patch to shape and depth: glue in place

and clamp until dry - at least overnight.



Step 5: Attachi ngthe New Piece If

the piece to be replaced is small, g lue it

in to p la ce . I f it is larger, use dowels to

reinforce i t , Either way, clamp the repair

overnight after gluing the parts together.

Step 6: Finishing the Patch Once

any corner or edge repair has been m ade,

tile next problem i.s to fin ish the added

piece (0match the rest of the top. Sand the

repaired area, including the new wood,

the joint line and the area near it until it is

perfectly sm ooth. Y ou are now ready (0

stai n the sanded area the exact color of the

res! of the table - a task that can be pretty

tricky.

The best way to achieve a good color is

to fin ish several of scraps of the wood left

over from the piece from which you cut

the repair corners. Use several stains, all

close to the color you believe is needed.

A fter the stains have dried , apply a coat of

the proper fin ishing m aterial. A llow thisto dry; then sand it I ight Iyand com pare the

di fferent colors to the tabletop. Hopefu IIy,

one w ill be a close m atch and you can go

ahead w ith the fin ishing of the patch. If

n one are satisfacto ry , ke ep try ing d iffe ren t

stain colors until you find the right one.

The success of your repair depends on

how close you m atch i t 10 th e o ld ta ble to p.

Chipped Plywood Top

if the top is made of plywood, and only a

layer or two of the plywood has broken

aw ay , fo llo w the sam e procedure as for awhole sol i d wood corner, but do not cut

aw ay that pari of the top which rem ains

unless it is cracked or badly damaged. Use

Missing pieces such as this are a common

problem in furniture repair. If the chip is slill

around, you can Just glue it back on. But since

no one ever seems to save the chip, a replace-

rnent must be created.

How to Repair Broken Edges and Corners 67

it as the base of the repair. Trim the frac-

tll red edge smooth. Make a card board

template of the dam aged area, cut a piece

of wood of the right th ickness to fit in to

the area, and glue the new piece into

p lace . C lam p well.

The lirst step is 10use a broad, sharp wood chisel to remove as much wood as necessary so the

repair area will be smooth and regular in shape.

Now an oversized piece of hardwood is glued in

place Be sure lhe wood piece is large enough

so that it can be shaped to match the contours

of the wood arouodu.

The glue has dried and the wood piece is now

ready for shaping.

As you gel close 10the final shape 01the insert-

ed WOOd, switch to a sharp wood chisel and

carefully carve the prof ile

This is another view of the wood glued 10 t he

repair area. Note Ihal it has been shaped some-what to fi t the opening.

Shape the new wood to match surrounding!

WOOd.One way is to cut away excess wood with

a coping saw, maintaining the correct outline.

Sand the wood using coarse sandpaper on the

sanding attachment of an electric drill.



68 How to Repair Bentwood Furniture

First, soften the wood. Dampen a length of clothand wrap the area. Use a steam iron to heal.

Moisten the cloth as necessary.

HOW TO REPAIR Bentwood chairs ,

BENTWOOD the runners on

FURNITURE many rocking

chairs, and other furniture w ith parts m ade

by bending rather than cutting the w ood,

o ffe r a p artic ular c halle ng e. It i s d if fi cu lt

to m ake ben tw ood replacem ent parts w ith -

out the steam and w ater facilities used 10

bend w ood in furn iture factories. In addi-

tion , bending wood is an art in itself and

requires know ledge and experience. M ak-ing the equipm ent and learning the trade is

neither cost nor tim e-effective fo r the

average person, w ho needs only to repair a

single chair o r rocker. A nearby furniture

m aker or repairm an m ay ag ree to m ake a

new part, bu t for m ost people, s uc h fa cili-

tie s a re n't av aila ble .

There are a couple of op tions. You can

try to g lue the broken parts together, or

you can make a replacem en t part that

d oesn 't require b en ding.

Gluing the Split WoodThe most common use of bentwood is in

light chairs and som e rocking chairs . To

make these, long wooden rods an inch or

m ore in diam eter are bent in to con tinuous

curves. One piece of w ood m ay be form ed

into the back legs and curved back of a

straight chair, or in to the rockers and arm s

of a rocking chair. This kind of bending,

whi le it m akes very strong furniture , puts

great stress along the outside of sharp ly

curved parts . W hen trouble occurs, it usu-

Bend the split in place and, remembering to

protect the wood, clamp down, You can use

either C clamps or automotive hose clamps.

ally does so at one o f these sharp curves,

where the stretched outside wood fibers

sp lit aw ay from the m ain body.

To repair a split like this, i t i s n e ce s sa ry

to so ften the wood w hich is stand ing aw ay

from the m ain body, then bend it downinto its orig inal position. Som etim es just

gluing the so ftened strip dow n is enough,

but if the tension is very high , glue may

no t be enough to hold it Then insert a

dow el through the strip into the m ain body

of the w ood.

Step 1: Softening the Split WoodBegin the repair by painting water on the

split w ood over and over again , until it is

w ell soaked. O r w rap a cloth soaked in

w ater around the part for 1 5 to 30 m i cures.

Y ou can increase the softening action by

applying heat - a hot iron or a heat lam pw ill do it - to the w et cloth until it

steam s. A fter the w ood has becom e pli-

able , bend the split wood down in to its

orig inal p osition an d clam p it until it dries.

The idea is to reform the broken wood to

its orig inal shape before app ly ing g lue.

Clamping Devices Clamping this

type of fracture requires som e ingenu ity .

Y ou can use several C sclam ps, padded

carefu Ily c o preven t m arks on the w ood, or

a couple of large spring clam ps. Use

enough clam ps to fo rce the w ood to curve

properly . A 4-inch sp lit, for exam ple,

probably shou ld have at le ast th re e clam ps

to obtain the proper curve.

Step 2: Gluing the Split Remove

the clam ps after the w ood has dried thor-

oughly. Use a sm all brush to paint glue

into th e crack. Reclamp the fracture unci!

the glue dries. A s alw ays, give the glue

m ore than enough tim e to dry.

Step 3: Inserting Dowels If you be-

lieve that the glue alone won't hold the

repair together, insert a sm all dow el near

A deep slit needs 'Va.-inctJdowels to remain in

position. The angle of the holes should not be on

the same plane. Shape the tops to fit.

the outer end o f the repair as additional

holding help . If the repair is fairly long,

you should consider a dowel every two

inches.

W hile the clam ps are in place, drill

th rough the glued-dow n lab into the w oodunder it. Use j/s-inch dow els for the w ork,

and don 't drill all the w ay through the

wood piece. Make each hole at a d ifferent

angle to increase the holding power of the

repair. Cut the dow els an inch o r so longer

than needed , coat them w ith glue, and lap

them into the holes. L ater, when you take

the clam ps off, trim the dow els flu sh w ith

the su rface. In th is way the dowels w ill

fo llow the angle of the curved surface.

Step 4: Finishing Edges Reglued

ben tw ood often doesn 't f it sm oothly back

i n place, so once the repair has dried , youm ay have to use a wood putty to fill in the

edges of the repair. W hen the putty has

d ried , sand it sm ooth and then r-efin ish the

area.

Repair for FracturedBentwood ArmAnother type of prob lem you can encoun-

Our old rocker had two problems: the bent wood

at the bottom of the arm was broken, with a chip

missing from the wood at the point where the

aim joins the back of the chair.



ter is broken wood at the bottom of the arm

of a bentwood chair. The accompanying

photographs detai lone creari ve answer to

this wood working difficulty.

~-.._ - ~- - ._ .... .. .. .1"

1 The arm is fastened to the chair seat bymeans of a batt. The wood around the bolt has

been fractured, which means the repair calls lorsome creative woodworkillg.

2 The arm W3,S made in two pieces, which were

joined by a mortise-and-tenon Joint The bolt

holding the arm to the chair went through this

ioint, resulting in a weak joint that broke,

3 To remake arm's broken mortise, we made a

series 01 %-inch deep saw cuts, '/.:inch apart, in

top and bottom of the good wood just ahead 01

the broken area (saw Guts shown in top)

How to Repair Bentwood! Furniture 69

4 A wide wood chisel removes wood between the saw cuts, This creates areas on the lop and

bottom of the stub into which the repair wood can be ('itted to [arm the new mortise.

5 Now pieces of oak 'Is- inch thick are cut and inset into the areas just prepared, In this process, the

arm is reassembled and the new wood is glued both to the 'Old lenon and the newly Cui sections of

the arm. To bend the wood to shape, start clamping at one end and add a clamp at a time. forcing

the wood to the proper curve, Oak is flexible and will take the pressure

6 After the glue had dried, the repaired arm is

sanded smooth. Wood filler is used to fill the

edges of the repair area.

7 A new hole must be drilled to take the boll

used to hold the arm on the chair.



70 How to Repair Bentwood Furniture

1 Most rockers are oak bent to shape under pressure during steaming. This requires special

equipment and experience. By laminating curved pieces from Ilat stock, we made replacement

rockers without bending wood. To begin Irace the shape on the new wood, using the unbroken

rocker as a guide.

2 The locker consists of three parts laminated

together . The core is 3/,· inch oak, and two side

pieces are of V4-inch oak, Clamp so core grain

runs a different direction than the side pieces.

Replacing a Rocking Chair Runner

Rock ing chair runners are m ade in threew ays. In som e chairs , th e runner is cu t

from hardw ood and ben t to a cu rved

shape; in others, it is cut from hardw ood in

the cu rved shape, so no bend ing is re-

quired In yet others, the runner is m ade

by lam inating three cu rved pieces togeth -

er. If you must rep lace a runner, u se the

third m e thod; lam ination w orks best be-

cause il requ ires no bending and at th e

sam e tim e produces a strong unit.

Step 1: Cutting the Pieces First

make a patte rn from the side of the ex ist-

in g rocker runner or from the p ieces of theb roken runner. N ex t, trace th is pattern

three tim es on hardw ood boards each of

w hich is one -th ird the th ickness o f the run -

ner. (U se V 4 - o r h-inch boards for m as!

Ttl n ne rs ). P lac e the pattern on each board

so that the grains of the cutouts do no t all

run in the sam e direction. W hen the th ree

are lam inated, the criss-cro ssing grain s

w ill prov ide strength and pro tection

a ga in st b re ak ag e,

Step 2: Gluing! the Runner Coal

3 The core and two side pieces are gtued to-

gether and tightly clamped until the glue dr ies.

This gives us a rough new rocker that musl be

given a final shape.

4 The 9 lu e has dried and the rocker is ready for

shaping. Use a wood chisel 10 level high spots

and to make the rocker shape you need.

5 After Cl,Jtting 10 the general shape you want

with a wood chisel. use your drill with a sander

attachmenl and coarse paper to continue the

shaping. Ctlange to finer grades of paper as

you work until the rocker is snapec, smooth and

ready for f inishing.

the faces o f the cutouts gen ero usly w ith

glue and clam p them together for d rying.

L a clam p ing toge ther long p ieces such asthese , you can get a mo re e ve n d is tr ib utio n

of clam pin g pre ssu re by plac ing them be-

tw een long b locks o f w ood . Use m ore than

just tw o or th re e c la mp s.

Step 3: Finishing Off W hen the glue

has dried , rem ove the clam ps and c lamp-

ing boards and sand the new runner tho r-

oughly : Pay special atten tion to (he to p

and bottom of the runner. These should be

sanded enough so that the g lue lines are

n e ar ly i nv is ib le .



.HOW TO REPAIR Large flat areas of

WARPED s olid w oo d, includ-

SURFACES in g tab le tops, drop

leafs and cabinet doors, are subject to

w arping. Parts m ade of plywood are less

likely to warp, but under the right condi-

tions even they can have problem s. Pieces

that have no fram e to support them are

likely candidates. Pieces that have beenfinished com pletely on borh sides have

less of th is trouble because th e finishing

m aterial prevents absorption of m oisture.

Tables w ith unfinished undersides- are an

invitation to trouble T he ultim ate cause of

the problem is m oist air, of course, and i f

you live in a climate that is dry all year,

you don 't need to won)'.

Avoiding Moi.sture Probl.ems

Moisture frequently causes draw er prob-

lem s, but only when the moisture can get

into the wood. Because draw ers are hid-den, they often aren 't fin ished at aIL Un-

fortunately , in a hum id clim ate bare wood

can act like a sponge. The m oral of the

story is: alw ays fin ish drawers, inside and

out, to reduce their ability to absorb m ois-

ture . A s a matter of fact, don 't save th i s

advice for furniture restoration alone.

L ook at the drawers in all of your furni-

ture , and apply a coat or rw o of lacquer or

shellac to prevent binding, swelling and

sticking.

H ow to R ep air W arp ed S urfa ces I How to F ix o r Replace Casters 71

Removing a Warp

Correcting the warp requires radical sur-

gery and great care. If the piece is valu-

able, th ink tw ice before doing it. The

repair may cause considerable loss of val-

ue in the antique m arket.

Step 1: Kerf;ng the Underside

Make a series of paralle l saw cuts (kerfs)

on the back or underside of the warpedpiece. Use a radial saw to m ake the cuts

about 1 1 / 2 inches apart. Set the saw to cut

about Y 4 inch less than the thickness of the

wood. Begin the cuts an inch from one

side, and make them all across the piece

an d for its fu !l len gth .

Step .2 : Removing the Warp To get

rid of the warp, place the piece 00 a flat

surface, w ith the side w ith the kerfs in it

facing upward. Dampen the wood w ith a

fine spray from a plant sprayer, or use wet

cloths. Do not drown the piece, but at the

same tim e be sure that moisture g ets d ow ninto the kerfs .. T hen pu t heavy w eights all

over the piece and allow it to dry. The

hope is that the moisture and the weights

w ill flatten the piece against the surface on

w hich it rests. If at first you do not suc-

ceed, try again , us i nga little more

moisture.

Step 3: Preventing Reoccurance

After the warp is gone, prevent its return

by tapping and gluing thin shim s into the

saw kerfs. These should hold it flat.

T o b eg in th e re pair, cu t saw k erfs in th e un de r-sid e o f th e p ie ce . D am pe n th e to p: th en tu rn th ep ie ce o ve r and fo rce it Hat.

T o p re ve nt th e r etu rn o f th e w ar p, in se rt n ar ro ws him s in to th e k er fs . T he se w ill lo rc e th e w oo d toi ts o r ig in al n at s h ap e .

HOW TO FIX Nothing is quite as

OR REPLACE annoying as a cast-

CASTERS er that drops out of

the leg every time you roll or Iift th e fu rn i-

ture - and few furniture problem s are as

easy to solve. You probably won't even

have to buy new casters .

Collar Caster Construction

The casters, w hich drop out of sockets in

the b ottom s of' legs, are of sim ple con-

struction. Understanding their construe-

lion w ill help you to fix them . Looking at

the bottom of the leg, you see a collar

around the hole . This collar has teeth that

have been tapped into the wood to hold the

collar in place. Up inside the leg, attached

to this collar, is a tubular socket. The sides

of th is socket have been split in to three or

four w ings. The stem of the caster has a

slightly bulbous end, and- when it is

pushed all the w ay into this tube, it forces

the w ings apart. Then they close just under

the bulbous end and prevent the caster

from falling out.

Repai!ring the Caster W hen a caster

does drop out, it usually m eans that these

w ings have become bent outward, so they

no longer grip the bulbous end of the cast-

er stem . The repair consists entire ly of

bending those w ings back together again .

To remove the socket from the leg so this

can be done, pry up the collar on the bot-

tom of the leg to loosen it. Then grip it

w ith a pliers and pull. U se the pliers to

bend the w ings on the socket. Put the

socket back in the hole and tap the collar

in to the wood, The caster now w ill stay in

the leg.

Replacing a Caster Replacing the

old casters w ith new ones, if that should

be necessary, is equally as sim ple. Just

pull out the old sockets and insert the new

ones. Only one caution: Be sure the new

sockets are the same diameter as the old

ones.

T o fix casters th at d rop o ut o f i heir so ck ets, liltout the socket w ith an aw l and a ham mer. Thecollar 0 1 the socket has teeth em bedded in thele g. D riv e th e aw l b etw een th e te eth .



72 How to Fix or Replace Casters

Uft the socket slightly with the awl. then, use a

pliers 10turn and lirt it.

Plate Caster Construction

The plate caster differs from the s ty le d is -

c us se d ab ov e, It consists of a caster w heel

attached to a m etal plate or a m etal co llar.

The metal plate is attached to the bottom

of the leg by means of f ou r s cr ew s , and th e

legs using plate casters usually are fairly

large. The type that employs the metal

collar is m ost often used on smaller legs,

and the m etal collar must be the right size

to fi t over the bottom of the leg. It is

lapped in place and held there by smal l

nails or screw s.

Repair Method The major problem

with a p late caste r is s plittin g of the w ood

around the screws. To repair this, remove

the caster and fix the split leg - usually

by gluing it back together, or by gluing

and inserting a dowel for added strength .

One good way to reinforce legs that have

been broken in this m anner is to replace

th e p late caster with a m etal-collar caster ,.

since the m etal collar helps to prevent fur-

ther splitting of the wood.

Caster Wheels

If the casters appear to be in good shape

bu t won't roll properly , exam ine th e

w he el s haft. Ru g fibers and threads often

w rap around these and act as little brakes.

Clean out the debris and the caster w ill

work.

Look also for a ben! shaft or belli m etal

sides. If yo u find either problem, buy new

casters Try to lubricate casters on a regu-

lar basis. W e suggest si l icone lubricant, or

any type that doesn 't conta in an o i I th at

might Slain carpeting.

The end 01 the socket is slitteo to lorm several

"wings" Bent inward, these wings hold the

caster up in the leg. Those shown have bent

outward and no longer grip the caster Use a

pliers to bend them inward again.

Reinserllhe caster socket. Drive h all the way in,

lhe teeth on the socket collar will dig into the

wood of the leg.

Put the caster back in its socxst.

A plate caster is one that SCrews to the bottom of the turni ture instead of being inserted mto a socket.

A small shalt fits up into a hole m the leg to hold Ihe caster steady

Here, the caster is in place on the boltom 01our 1852 dresser. Three screws will be driven up

through (he plate into the leg to keep the caster in a firm, steady posulon



RECONSTRUCT- This is th e g old en

ING AN oak chest pictured

OAK CHEST on the cover be-

fo re w e went to w ork on it. T he h isto ry o f

th is p ie ce is d esc rib ed in detail on page 4 . .

T his series o f p ho to grap hs presents the

r es to ra ti on wo rk carried o ut o n th e fin ish ,

b all leg s an d hardware.

The dramatic dilfemnce between before resto-

rat ion (above) and after (right) shows the results

01careful work.

'Reconstructing an Oak Chest 73

Our f irst job was 10make a lisl of repairs, which

included restoring this spli t bal l leg. The originalwood was long gone. We began the repair by glUing new wood, cut to the size needed, to the leg "collar."



74 Reconstructing an Oak Chest

N.ext, using a Dremet Ftex-Tool with a high-

speed carving bit, we carved the new wood to

match the original shape.

The new wood then was carved to the shape of

the ball, using a sanding disc that was mounted

on a portable electric dr ill

The first step in the edge repair is to cui away

the splintered edge with the router: using a 'i<-

Inch rabbetting bit

This is the new coliar, carved and ready for

sanding and staining in order to produce a

smooth surface to match the existing WOOd.

ThiSis.the restored leg, stained lor photograph-

ic purposes. It will get a final sanding and stain-

ing later, when we finish the chest.

Here you can see how the edge of the door was

rabetted. The splintered, wood is gone, and Is

ready to receive a hew piece of wood,

New wood was glued 10 the ball of the leg,

roughly culling il to size before applying it . Apipe clamp was used as the glue dries.

Second on the llst o f repairs-on the oak chest is

the edge of the door, which had been splintered

when pried open during the burglary.

This piece of new oak, cut to f i t , is fi tted into the

rabbeted edge, We took pains to make suremeasurements and fit were exact. .



This is the array of clamps used to hold the new

edge as the glue dried, Spring clamps hold the

piece down, while pipe and bar clamps applypressure across the door,

It bothered us [hal the drawers did not have

drawer guides, so we Installed some by gluing011 [hi ll strips 01 wood.

If the hardware had been only dirty, we might

have skipped the wire brushing and simply

cleaned it with a good metal polish.

A test patch of the finish indicated thatthe origi-

nal Slain was in fair condition, so we removed

only the old finish, using Formby's Refinisher

and steel wool pads,

Most of [he drawer slops had disappeared, so

we added new ones. You can see the reHnished

wood's pleasing appearance,

Aller bringing the brass to a lovely glow, we

sprayed each piece With clear lacquer to pro-

tect it Irom dirt and hard use.

Reconstructing an Oak Chest 75

This drawer has been stripped of the old finish,

The old stain IS sound, but it had laded, so we

applied a new coal of slain to bring up the gold-

en oak color .

Refinishing the hardware earne next It was solid

brass, but in bad cononion Each piece was first

polished on the wire brush wheel.

These little pieces were too small to hold in our

hands for spraying, so we set them up on hails

that served as steady supports .



6

Sav in g th e O ld F in ish

Don't strip away the old finish on a

piece of furniture unless you absolutely

have 10. That's the sound advice we have

had lim e and tim e again from professional

f ur nit ur e r es to re rs .

There are a number of good reasons be-

Mosl furniture you buy today is distressed in

some way. This chair, aboullwo years old. was

given a distressed appearance by (Iecklng the

finish with darker stain and by blushing distress

marks on.

Here you can see slashing brush marks across

the arm diagonally. Further distressing could

[lave been done by strikinq a heavy chain a lew

times on different areas 01 the chair [0 make

irregular dents

h in d th is ad v. ic e. For one th ing, you

become involved in a messy job w ith h az-

ardous chem icals. For another, the final

result can depend on what type of stain

was used and how it affected the wood. If

it was a water stain and soaked deeply but

irregularly into the wood, it may be im -

possible to rem ove [he stain in those areas

where i t went deep. In the places where it

d id not soak i n , the stain may come off,

leaving a patchy look that w ill be difficult

t o r es ta in 10 an even color. O ther types of

stains w ill com e off, but mos t p rof es si on -

als feel that stripped wood - and espe-

cially wood that has been stripped by

harsh hot rank m ethods - is never quite

th e sam e.

Perhaps this is just their love for good

w oods com ing to the fore . O r perhaps they

are ju st m ore fu s sy th a n necessary. Blit we

ha v e com e to feel the sagle way. W e don 't

take off the old fin ish unless it is absolute-

l y n e ce s sa ry .

THE BEAU TY O F AG ED W OO D

Pa t i na

One of the nice features of old furniture is

the lovely patina that develops, A s a piece

ages, it m el low s. The wood dries. The old

fin ish deepens in color. The surface wood

under rhe fin ish deepens in color. G oodwood and good finishes age w ith grace.

The entire effect is a rich , w arm , m ellow

look. W hen you strip away the old fin ish ,

the mellow look disappears. No matter

how good ajob of refin ishing is done,(ile

new finish is still new, and looks it. The

agi n g process mu st s ta rt a ll ov er ag ai n .

D is tre ss ed W o o d

Most people say they want their furniture

to look new , but in fact they don 't. Furni-

ture m anufacturers know this, which is



w hy the greater m ajority of fine fu rnitu re

offered in the show room s today has been

"distressed" to one degree o r ano ther.

D istressing is a fine art that gives new

furn iture an old , w arm look . One sales-

man, w ho described this look as "loved

and lived w ith ," cam e close to the truth .

Distressing Techniques Distress-

ing consists of prem aturely aging the fur-nitu re . O ne technique is to splatter the fin-

ish w ith "fly specks" of dark coloring.

L ook closely at furnitu re sold in the shops

and you w ill see the tiny dots applied in

this m anner to the surface. Y ou can do this

yourself by d ipping a toothbrush in dark

stain , holding the brush a foo t or so aw ay

from a furniture surface, and flicking the

fly specks on the fin ish by runn ing your

finger over the bristles.

A nother technique is chaining. An ex -

pert at the factory attacks the fu rnitu re

w ith a leng th of chain , jud iciously denting

it by just the right am ount. Too much

denting ru in s it; the right am ount gives the

piece that lived -w ith look . This is not done

as often as splattering, but it is done.

A third technique is shading by m eans

of glazing, to give the appearance o f age

and w ear. During the fin ishing process, a

colored glaze is applied (by hand w iping

in expensive furniture, and by spraying in

less-expensive p ieces). The glaze is ap -

plied to edges and outer areas and careful-

ly feath ered into the lighter orig inal fin ish

to provide highlights. The general effect is

that norm al w ear has worn away the

darker fin ish - or conversely , that an ac-

cum ulation o f d irt has darkened som e

areas.

A ll of th is is carefully and expertly

done, so that the new piece takes on a

sim ulated patina of age, but doesn 't look

old and beat up. Th is is a carefully m adedistinction. The furniture m aker has 10

judge how much distressing is too m uch.

The im portan t point is that the m aker un -

derstands his custom ers. They want som e

of the glo ss and perfection of the new

p iece rem oved. They w ant the p iece to

have som e of the character that com es

w ith m atu rin g.

The decision is very subjective, and one

that is hard to give advice about. Som e

fin ishes, of cou rse, w ill be in such bad

condition that the decision is easy. Bu t

many w i I I.be borderl ine cases. O ur feel ing

is that you should lean toward saving the

fin ish . M ake the necessary fin ish repairs;

apply the final coat of wax or lem on oil;

then put the p iece into use. A fter a few

w eeks, you 'll know whether the decision

i s r ig h t or not. You can st i II s tr ip a nd ref n-

ish the furniture if you feel it i s n e ce s sa ry .

Finishes That Should Look NewThere are som e o ld fin ishes that should

ha ve a pol ished look o f perfection. A shel-

lac fin ish . and particularly the so-called

Identifyingthe ExistingFinish 77

French po lish fin ish , is typical. The Chi-

nese lacquer fin ish is another o f these.

And so is the deep-gloss varnish fin ish ,

m ade w ith a number of coats of dear var-

n ish and polished to a m irror fin ish . (This

is the fin ish you see in TV commercia ls

f o r f urn it ur e wax. The cam era show s you

the reflection of the user in the tab le top

an d p oin ts out th ai no com petitiv e productcan produce th is degree of shine.)

S uc h fin is he s u su ally are n ot d istre ss ed ,

and the owner hopes they w ill be just as

polished and m irror-like on their hun"

dredth b irthday as' they were when new .

Y ou m ay be restoring such a piece. If so ,

you still should save the old fin ish if possi-

b le , but you m ay no t w ant the natural dis-

tressing that h as o cc ur re d In th is case ,a

to tal refin ishing m ay be the answer.

REPAIR SEQUEN.CE

You should be able to m ake most fin ish

repairs using one or m ore of the tech-

niques presente-d in this chapter. To sim -

plify your problem s, look on each blem ish

as a separate prob lem , and finish one-

problem before going on to the next. Take

care of a foggy or alligato red fin ish first.

Then work on dents and gouges. Next,

work on scratches and m inor blem ishes.

A nd finally , rem ember that you r repairs

need not be absolutely perfect, A certain

am ount of d istressing is not only allow -

able , bu t even desirable .

IDENTIFYING Ask yourself: H ow

THE EXISTING was it done? W hat

FINISH .materials were

u sed? A re th ese m aterials availab le today?

Can you successfully repair th is k ind of

finish?

T he chief reaso n for id en tify in g th e fin -

ish is that when you m ake repairs on it,

you should use the sam e finishing m ateri-

al, If you apply a varnish to a lacquer, orlacquer to shellac, strange things m ight

happen because o f the incom patib ility of

the m aterials . Y ou m ight get b listering, a

'sticky fin ish th at never d ries, or som e odd

colorations. W hat happens depends on

which chem icals w ere used in m aking the

fin ishes, but as a general rule you can as-

sum e that nothing good w ill com e o f mix-

ing ty pe s o f fin ish es .

Types of FinishesIn identifying the kind of fin ish on fum i-

ture, it helps to know a little h istory abou t

the types of fin ishes.

Shellac Shellac was developed as a

furniture fin ish abo ut [800, an d for th e

next S O years, JUS! abou t every m anufac-

tured (as opposed to custom -m ade) piece

of furniture w as fin ished in shellac . Its use

c on tin ue d fo r an oth er 70 years, but during

this tim e, o ther fin ishes also w ere used . If

you know the p iece w as m ade between[800 an d 1850, you can be pretty sure the

fin is h is sh ellac.

Lacquer After W orld W ar I, there

w as a g reat m ovem ent to im prove the

m anufacture of furniture- irnproveu,

that is , from the v iew point of the m aker.

Before -the war, furniture assem bly lines

had been developed. But in the five to ten

years after the w ar, the process w as speed-

ed up .

O ne of the m ajor events in this speedup

was the developm ent first of com mercial

lacquer (an offshoot of am mun itions m an-

ufacture in W orld W ar I) and later of

lacquer that could be sprayed on. These

products cut the long drying tim es needed

fo r earlier fin ishing m aterials . A s a resul t,

most of the furniture m ade after the m id -

1 92 0s was fin ished in lacquer,

Synthetics Beginning in the m id -

1 9605 , paint chem istry look some new

quantum leaps w ith the development ofsynthetic varnishes and new lacquer for-

m ulations. If your fum iture piece w as pro -

duced after that tim e, itcould have one of

these new er fin ishes.

Testing for FinishTo determ ine what the fin ish is befo r-e be-

ginn ing to w ork on it, you can conduct

tests em ploying two solvents, denatured

alcohol and lacquer th inner.

Denatured Alcohol Pain t stores car-

ry denatured alcohol for use in th inning



78 Testing and Repairing the Soundness ol the Finish

shellac. Find an inconspicuous spot on the

fum iture (th e u nd ers id e of a runner or

rung) and clean off al.1 w ax, i f yo u haven't

already done so. Now moisten a small cot-

ton swab or a soft cloth with denatured

alcohol and rub the area. Rub for at least

1 0 m inutes, rem oistening the applicator

regularly. I f the finish is shellac. it w ill

soften. You wi II see some 0 fit on the

applicator, and it will lend to spread over

the surface you are rubbing. If it. d oes no t

soften, then you know you have another

kind of finish - possibly varnish or

lacquer.

Lacquer Thinner Next, apply lac-

quer thinner in the same manner. (Be sure

to use the denatured alcohol first, then the

lacquer thinner. Denatured alcohol will

not affect a lacquer finish, but lacquer

thinner m ay soften shellac.) Lacquer thin-

ner will readily soften a lacquer finish, but

will nO I affect a varnish.

Varnish By apply ing these two tests

yo u go through a process of elim ination,

and discover whether the finish is shellac,

lacquer or nei ther. 1f th e <In swer i s n ei t he r,

you probably have a varnish. Not much

factory-made furniture was varnished be-

cause varnishing is a slow and delicate

process, but the piece may have been cus-

tom-made, or it m ay have been refinished

at a later date by someone like yourself

w ho used varnish.

.Bare Wood There is on e other older

finish to look for - bare wood finished

w ith nothing more than linseed oil or wax,

If the piece appears to have no finish coat

at all. this could be what you have. Some

of these pieces were stained, and some

weren't. The final finish was oil or wax,

applied generously and rubbed in, Many

such pieces have a heavy buildup of fin-

ish, and i f th ey h av en ' Ibeen cared for, an

equally large collection of surface dirt that

h as clu ng to the oil or wax.

This finish presents problem s. Because

no new fin ish wi IIadhere to the wax or oi I,

the old finish must be completely re-

m oved. Use m ineral spirits or remove the

wax, and a paint remover to take off the

Iinseed oil. If the oi I or wax has soaked

into the wood to any great depth, removal

m ay be very difficult.

Modern Finishes There is a whole

spate of modern synthetic varnishes and

resins, and they all have one outstanding

cha rac te r is t i e. They are tougher than th ei r

earlier cousins and wear very well in nor-

mal, everyday use. However. some of

them , such as the penetra ti r ig resin s, so ak

down into the wood and can be nearly

impossible !O take off.

Because of their toughness, these fin-

ishes are much more likely 10 be in pretty

good shape, so you probably won't have

to remove them . Not much manufactured

furniture i s b e ing finished in th es e s yn th et-

ics; lacquer is still the favorite. But the

paint chem ists are at work on ways 10 ge t

these products to dry faster. As th e d ry in g

time decreases, more manufacturers w ill

use them .

TESTING AND Before starting to

REPAIRING THE heal those visible

SOUNDNESS wounds such as

OF THE FINISH dents, w ater stains

and cigarette burns, make sure that the

present fin ish is sou nd. I f not, it m US ! be

removed, procedures for which are dis-cussed in the next chapter. Once in a

w hile, you'll find a finish that looks pretty

good, but actually has become dry and

brittle and will flake away from the wood

under any kind of pressure. O r it has ab-

sorbed dirt and skin 0 1 1 and has become

gummy. The latter defect is found on the

arms of wood chairs, People have sat in

these chairs w ith their hands and arms

resting on the surface and their skin oil has

penetrated the fi n i sh .

Brittle FinishesTo test fo r brittleness in a finish, draw the

bottom of a spoon bowl across the surface.

Press the bow l down fairly hard as you do.

Ifthe finish is adhering properly . you w ill

see a mark left by the spoon, but the finish

w ill stay in place. If the finish has become

brittle, the pressure of the spoon bow l w ill

cause the finish to flake and break away

from the surface.

W hen you observe flaking, you know

that the finish w ill have problems in the

near future. Normal everyday wear will

To determine the brirtleness of a finish, press

hard on the bowl of a spoon as you draw it

across the surface. If the finish is brittle it w iltcrack and flake along the line you draw.

soon cause a sim ilar flaking and you w ill

be faced with refinishing [hen. The best

choice is to remove the old finish now and

apply a new one before the trouble starts,

Sometimes only partial areas on the piece

w ill be subject to this flaking, while (he

remainder is still sound, This could be

caused by a tabletop being exposed 10 th e

sun for a long period, or the side of a

dresser spending some years next to a

heater.

How Much to Remove Ascertain

just how fa r the brittleness extends, and

remove only the dried finish on that part.

Perhaps you w ill have to refinish the to p of

a table, but won't have 10 to uch th e ap ro ns

and legs. O r in the case of a dresser or

chest, you may need to refinish only oneside.

However , to keep the repair from being

too obvious, always refinish a whole side

or top, even if the brittleness occurs only

on a part of it. W hile the new ly finished

section may be slightly different in color

than the rest of the piece, a visitor won' (

usually see it. I f you refinish only a part of

th e top or side, the difference in color may

be very obvious.

Gummy Finishes

Use your fingernail to test for a gummy

finish. The gummy area usually is darker

than the rest of the finish, and if you

scrape the dark area w ith your fi ngernai I,

you will plow a tiny furrow through it and

pick up gum under your nail. A s we said,

this problem usually occurs on wood sur-

faces that come in contact w ith parts of the

body .:

Cleaning Away the Gum If you

used mineral spirits to clean the wax from

the piece, some or all of the gum may have

already come off. if you didn't do i t be -



fore, clean the area w ith m ineral spirits or

other wax remover now . Moisten a cloth

with the solvent and rub the area clean.

W hen the gum is all gone, you 'll find the

edge of the old fin ish. That is, the old

gummy finish w ill come away from the

wood, but at some point, the orig inal fin-

ish is good enough to adhere. A t this

point, you w ill see the edge of the oldfinish.

Some refin ishers sand this edge, feath-

ering it in to the bare w ood, and then coat

the entire segm ent (the chair arm , Tor ex-

How to Remove Stains and Blemishes on the Surface 79

ample) w ith new finish . This works if the

bare w ood under the gummy finish hasn 't

d iscolored. If i t has, and this procedure is

follow ed, you end lip w ith a visib le discol-

oration under the new finish coal.

If the Wood is Affected When the

w ood in the clean area is darker thanthe

rest of the arm , try to restore the color

before applying a new finish coat. Onew ay is to sand the bare area w ith a very

fine abrasive paper, rernovi ng a tiny

amount of the wood surface. If the discol-

oration is only on the surface, this w ill

restore the old color. H ow ever, it also m ay

rem ove som e of the stain and lighten the

color too much, so do this carefully: sand

a little, then w ipe the area clean to observe

how m uch change is occurring.

Complete !Removal Another solu-

lion is to remove the old fin ish from the

entire arm , then refin ish the arm , taking

care to match the color of the other arm asclosely as p ossib le .. M an y p eo ple find this

easier than patching, and get better results

because they achieve an even color on the

refin is he d arm .

HOW TO REMOVE Some stains an d

STAINS AND blem ishes don 't

BLEMISHES ON penetrate the fin-

THE SURFACE ish, but remain on

the surface. You also may find foreign

substances adhering to the surface, such as

flecks of paint or glue. These can be re-

moved by gentle scraping w ith the blade

of a small pocket knife .

Scrape w ith care . You do n "r want to dig

down into the finish . but simply want to

dislodge the foreign substance. D on 't ap-

ply downward pressure to the blade, but

use a horizontal m ovement instead. Most

of the lim e, the foreign m aterial w ill flake

aw ay, leaving the fin ish beneath i t intact.

Stubborn Substances If the sub-

stance has bonded itself to the fin ish and

refuses [0 flake away, it m ay be removed

by abrasion. Use an abrasive sw ab, m ade

by w rapping nne steel wool around the

end of a toothpick, or shape a very sm all

pad of find abrasive paper for the job.

W ork on the blem ish itself, not the entire

Another handy tool for making repairs in a finish

is the abrasive swab - a small wad of steetwool wrapped around the toothpick.

surface of the furniture . Remember that

you want [0 keep the fin ish whole. so

don 't rub hard enough to wear through it.

Just work to remove the foreign sub-

stance. This isn 't always easy, but i t ca n

be done ..

Another method is \0 rub the area w ith a

fine abrasive such as pum ice and oil. Pour

a few drops of fine bicycle oi Ion the blem -

ish; then sprinkle the oil w ith powdered

pum ice. Rub the m ixture over the stain

w ith your bare finger or a sm all pad.

Check frequently to see if the stain is dis-

appearing, and stop rubbing as soon as i t is

gone. If you continue rubbing 100 long,

you w ill rem ove the fin ish.

There are dark surface stains on this tabte teaf. They look tike old paint or similar substance. The

blade of a sharp pocket kni Ie is the best tool for removing this kind of stain. Simply scrape across the

sur face and lilt ofi the stain.



80 How to Remove Siains That Penetrate the Firnsn

HOW TO REMOVE Some of the repair

STAINS THAT techniques we are

PENETRATE going to suggest

THE FINISH are quite simple.

while others take some practice and expe-

rience. W e suggest that you practice on

scrap wood w ith any technique. A fter a

few sessions on the scrap material. you

ca n undertake th e actual repair on yourproject .

You can't always tell whether a stain

Once you have patched an area. stain It to

match the existing stain Sometimes a small art-

ist's brush is the Ideal tool for the lob.

has rem ained on the surface or penetrated

the finish. To be on the safe side, first try

the scraping technique discussed under

"Surface S tains" above. If th at d oe sn 't

work . the stain probably has penetrated

the fin ish and perhaps even gone into the

wood Itself. The only solu tion then is to

apply mild abrasion unti I th e s ta in disap-

pears. ThIS means rem oving the fin ishfrom th e u rea.

W ork the abrasive (pum ice and oil, o r

fine sandpaper) until the stain is gone.

Then exam ine the area to see what has

happ en ed. There are tw o possibilities.

Shallow Stain You have removed

both the finish and the objectionable Slain

but have scraped down [0 the wood. The

co loring of [he wood . however, is still

good. To complete the repair. clean away

all abrasive material and apply a coat of

the sam e finish (varnish, shellac, lacquer)

material. Use an artist's brush for th e jo b,

and brush out the edges of the pa ten so th at

the edges won't create ridges when {he

patch dries. Use several coats. and allow

each to dry thoroughly before apply ing the

next. A lter the fina I coat has d tied, sand

th e area w ith su perfin e abrasi v e p ap er (8/0

to 10/0 grade), blending the patched area

into the rest of the finish. Once you have

cleaned away the abrasive residue and ap-

plied a coat of wax, the patch is fi nished.

Deep Stain You have removed the

finish and the ob jectionab le stain, bUI find

that the coloring stain is also gone, and the

exposed wood is its natural color. The so -

lution is to r es ta in t he w ood , then refinish

the patch as described in the preceding

paragraph. The tricky part is to find the

right color of stain .. Use a scrap of the

sam e kind of wood, and try different col-

ors, coating each w ith finish material.

W hen the finish has dried, match these

co lors to the furniture, and use the closest

one. Keep in m ind that the 01 d wood won't

lake the slain in exactly the sam e way as

the new wood; the stain probably w ill be

darker on the old wood.

HOW TO REMOVE.A cigarette burn is

CIGARETTE an ugly thing that

BURNS mayor m ay not be

a serious repair problem , depending on the

depth of the burn .. In the best cases. the

burn damages only the finish itself. In the

worst cases, the burn goes down into the

wood and produces a charred trenc h.

Surface BurnsIn this case, the repair is the same as for a

surface blem ish or stain. Scrape or sand

away the damaged fi n ish. I f the wood un-

der the finish has not been dam aged or

discolo red, you can refin ish the spot

successfu Ily.

Oeep BurnsA deep burn extends beneath the finish.

A cigarette burned the edge of this table leaf to

make a black char about ¥. in. long. To repair it,

scrape with the sharp blade of a pocket kniie.

The wood near the surface usually is

charred black, and the charred wood must

b e re mo ve d.

Step 1 : Removing the Char Use

your pocket knife b lade to carefully scrape

the char aw ay . Keep at it un til undamaged

wood appears (You also can use a little

hand grinder for this work , w ith an abra-

sive wheel in the chuck.)

Step 2 : Filling in the Area When

you have removed the char, you w ill have

an indentation, som etimes fairly deep.

The remainder of the repair consists of

fi II ing th is indentat ion and then refin is h -

ing {he surface .. I f the indentation is shal-

low , you m ay be able to use varnish, shel-

lac or lacquer as the filler. If it is.d eep , y ou

should use stick shellac, stick lacquer or

o th er fi l Ier.

A shallow dent To fill the shallow

dent, pain t coat after coat of the finish

material (the sam e material the piece is

now finished w ith) in to the inden tation .

Use an artist's b rush, and allow each coat

to dry before apply ing the next one. This

is a slow process, and you could apply

severa I dozen Inyers . ..but the resu Iti s

w orth the effort, Note thai this w orks best

when all the blackened area has been re-

moved . I f any black rem a ins, it may show

through the patch.

A deep dent To fill a deep indenta-

tion , use the sam e techniques as for any

dent or gouge, described below .

The scraping takes longer than you might think. The surface char comes off easity. Then. keep

scraping until al l s igns of black discoloration are gone. In most cases, a l itt le stain restores the color

after scraping. If the char is very deep, use stick shellac to iiiI the crater.



Working on the 1852 Dresser 81

WORKING ON This m arb le-

THE 1852 topped 1 852

DRESSER dresser req u ires

ex tensive restoration w ork . Much of the

frame needs reg l u in g, so me o f th e d ra w e rs

need to be rebu ilt, veneers on (he fran !m ust be rep laced, and the en tire piece

needs 10 be refinished.

2 Next we took off the casters. There is a hole

under each, indicating thaI these were not the

ones used when the dresser was new. The hole

accommodated the neck of the or iginaL We will

try to lind substitutes lor the old ones.

1 The work begins wilh the removal of the hardware These drawers are in excellent condition.

3 One of the most important problems. (hat this

dresser has is the missing veneer strips along

the sides of the drawer openings. We must find

replacement veneer that is of the same kind of

wood.

4 Before restoration can begin we must disas-

semble the dresser. After removing the screws

beneath the marble top. we can lill off the sec-

lion. The marble pieces need minimal work.

Project continued on next page



82 Working 011 the 1852 Dresser

5 Inspect a piece carefully so you do not overlook necessary repairs . These small drawers and their

glides need only to be refinished. Some drawer stops, however, will have to be reglued or rep laced.

6 The base plates look bad. Should we replace them? We decide that the wood is sound, and only

the appearance is bad. It is important in restoration to retain as much of the original wood as

possible, hence the decision to sand and replace these base plates. Note the old square nails, a

good clue to age. These nails were no used much after 1890, and not at all after 1895

7 The old square nails have been left in and are now hammered 10 10 place as (he base plate is

glued back on the dresser.

8 Now we reglue those frame members which

need it, using a brush to apply the glue that has

been squeezed Into the aluminum dish.

9 We need a variety of clamps to glue the

dresser [olnts toqelher Notice the small woodpads that protect the finish 01 the dresser fromtile jaws of the c lamps.

10 Clamps and more clamps - every joint we

nave glued Is firmly clamped, the real Secret 01

successful glUing



REPAIRING The m ost com -

BROKEN mon repair of

VENEER v en e er ed s ur fa ce s

is rep lacem ent of areas, usually near an

ed ge, w here th e v en eer has b ro ken aw ay .

Y ou seld om h av e th e o ld p ieces to reglue.

Instead , you m ust use new veneer.

1 Buy veneer of the same wood. To aid inmatching the new and old wood, we fust stripIhe tinish otl tne area to be repaired sowe cansee the actual color of the old veneer.

2 Stripped 01 its old finish. the veneer near therepairarea shows its true color - the color wemust attempt to match. Note that while westripped away the varnish, we used refinisherand thus did not remove the stain.

Repairing Broken Veneer 83

4 The broken area has irregular edges which must be trimmed away USinga metal straightedgeand a small craft knife, we trim the patch to a rectangular shape.

3 We applied stain to a comer 01 the new ve-neer to match it 10 the old. As youcan see. thecolor is a very close match 5 The old veneer within the rectangular cut is removed by lifting with a sharp wood chisel.

Ptoiec! continued on nea page



84 Repairing Broken Veneer

6 The repair area is now ready for new veneer. II

is a clean reclangle in shape and all the old

veneer has been removed.

7 The next step is to cut a small cardboard pattern. Cut and fit until the carcboaro is an exact lit inthe repair area. Use the pattern to cut out the patch. Move it around the veneer sheet until you find an

area where the grain of the new veneer closely matches that 01 the veneer remaining on the old

surface, Now use a slraightedge and either a veneer saw or a craft knile 10 c uI out the patch,

carefully lollowing the cardboard pattern as you cut.

8 Check the veneer patch lor size by placing it

in the repair area. When it is perfect. coat the

area to be repaired and the underside of the

veneer patch with contact cement. Allow both todry lor at least an hour,

9 After the contact cement has dried for at least

an hour and is no longer sticky, place the patch

in the repair area and roll it down. Apply plenty

01pressure as you roll.

10 After the contact cement has set for a couple of hours, you can apply stain to the patch and the

area around it . This is a demonstration project. If you were working on this table insert, you would

have stripped the entire surface, and now would stain the whole surface so that the color would be

even allover,



Repairing Broken Veneer 8S

11 The patch is difficult to see To hide it further, a second light applicat ion of slam might be necessary after the first has dried. Finish by lightly sanding,

then apptying varnish or lacquer.

12 Another common veneer problem is when

the veneer lilts Irom the base wood, as it has

here This table leaf was soaked during a flood

and now must be restored.

14 The linal step is to clamp the repair area,

using two long, l Iat boards and C-ctamps. TIght-

en the clamps as much as possible. Wipe off all

glue which is squeezed out with a damp cloth.

Don't allow any to remain on the surface as it will

interfere with later refinishing,

13 Examination shows the veneer to be lifted for only an inch or so in from the edge. The repair

consists 01working white glue into the opening. Use a brush. Hold the work vertical and apply plenty

of glue so thai it can run to the depth needed.

15 Once in a while, veneer will bubble up in the center of a veneered piece. Many times. a simple

repair can be achieved by applying a hot iron 10 the bubble. Place a dry wash cloth on the bubble

and press the iron to the area. Be careful not to hold it too long, as it may affect the finish.



86 Removing Stains by Bleaching

REMOVING In those cases

STAINS BY where the objec-

BLEACHING tio nab le stain p en e-

trated bo th the finish and the wood, you

must sand or cut away wood to get rid of

it. This w ill leave an inden tation that you

don't want. In the case of a deep stain,

bleach ing may com e in handy , because

instead of destroy ing wood to elim inate

the deep stain, you may be ab le to bleach it

ou t and save the wood.

SAFETY PROCEDURES

You can use several bleaches-> common

household bleach , full-strength am monia

or oxalic acid , They are all hazardous to

som e degree, so take precautions. A lw ays

wear rubber gloves, and always wear safe-

ty glasses. Th is may be a nuisance, but it

m akes very good sense. You could bum

your skin or lose your eyesight if any of

the bleach accidently splashes, and evenexperienced hands have accidental spills

a nd sp la sh es

W e don't recommend ammonia be-

cause its strong odor can overcom e you.

W e do recommend a regular chlorinated

household bleach. If that doesn't work,

you can progress to oxalic acid , keeping in

m ini! that it is strong and can do dam age to

both you and your furniture. Use it accord-

ingly . Follow the instructions on the label

to m ake the oxalic acid solution-s- an d

follow th em exactly .

GUIDELINES

Here are some th ings you must know

w he n b le ach in g.

I.The surface to be bleached should be

free of all wax and other foreign sub-

stances, includ ing the finish coat, so

that the b leach can penetrate evenly .

2. Once the bleach ing is finished, the

bleached area must be neutralized and

all residue removed. O therw ise the

bleach w i ll act on your new finish. M ix

a cup of borax' ina quart of ho t water,

allow the m ixture to coo l, and apply it

to the bleached area w ith a co tton swab.

Blot the area w ith absorbent paper; then

.apply dear water w ith the swab to,rinse. Blo t again, and allow the area to

dry for at leas! 2 4 hour'S.

3 . If any of the bleach ever comes in con-

tact w ith your skin, rinse it w ith dear

water. Don't w ait. Do it in stan tly . T he

longer the bleach stays on the sk in: the

greater the danger of burning.

4 . If any bleach splashes into your eyes-

1 T he b lack m ark s o n th is su rface w ere cau sed , b y w ater. T hey are in th e w oo d, n ot ju st in Ih e fin ish .T o g et rid o f t hem , y ou n eed th ese m aterials fo r b leach in g: a two-part w ood bleach you can buy at

y ou r h om e cen ter; so me v in eg ar; a lo t 01 co tto n sw ab s; an d th ree lillie c up s. T he cu ps w e u se cam efrom a photo developing k it and are numbered. This makes it easy to rem ember where eachc hem ic al is .

2 B eg in b y a pp ly in g C he mic al A f rom t he kit. as d irected . R em em ber th at th ese are p ow erfu l an dd an ge ro us c he mic als ..W e ar ru bb er g lo ve s a nd ey e p ro te ctio n (in c a se o f a cc id en ta l s pla sh in g) and

fo llo w th e m an uf actu re r's d ir ectio ns e xa ctly a s w ritte n.

3 A fte r t he s pe cif ie d tim e, u se a c otto n s wa b 10 a pp ly C he mic al B fr om th e k it. T h er e w ill b e a w hitef o am i ng e ct ion .



4 As a linal treatment, apply vinegar and water to the spot to neutralize the other chemicals. Use a

mixture 01two parts water and one part vinegar. Aller a few minutes, blot up the vinegar and allow

the spot to dry.

5 Here ist l"1espot af ter drying. Youcan see that ti le black marks nave disappeared. There was stain

on this surface and il. too. is gone. Your first refinishing step will be to stain this spot lirst to bring its

color level up, Allow it to dry, then appfy a coat of stain to Ihe whole top.

6 We think a flower pot made this semicircular mark. We used the bleach here, too. and on some

other spots on tile top. It worked nicely wherever it was used.

Removing Stains by Bleaching 87

even the tin iest drop---- wash them out

immediately with clear water in an eye

cup. Then go directly to your doctor or

hospital emergency room . Do no: take

any chances. The danger may be slight,

bu t you can't judge it. L et a profession-

al take care of i t .

5. Do no! sand any wood thai has been

bleached until the bleach has been neu-

tralized and rinsed away. This is be-

cause the sanding dust w ill contain fine

partic les of the bleach that you w ill in-

hale-- and you certainly don't want a

powerful bleach-at work in your nasal

passages and lungs

6. 1f any bleach gets inside of your rubber

gloves or splashes on your clothing,

lake the glove or clothing off quickly

and rinse the skin area w ith clear w ater.

The fabric may make the danger of

burn greater by holding the bleach

against the skin like a poultice.

Bleach in Stripping

The use of bleach to lighten the color of

wood in a small area has been described.

Bleach also is used to lighten the wood

color of furniture that has been stripped of

the old fi n ish . It can get rid of stai n that the

stripping did not remove, and it can light-

en the color of wood that may have been

darkened in the stri.pping process. How-

ever, bleaching an entire piece of furniture

is quite different from bleaching a small

patch .. The job is a lot bigger, and you use

much more bleach. Because you hand le so

much bleach, the big job is more

hazardous.

7 Here are the newly bleached areas. Bleach·

ing also can be used to remove stains which

have soaked deeply into the WOOd.




88 Removing Stains by Bleaching

8 Now the lop is ready for refinishing. First sandthoroughly, Since it IS already reasonably

smooth, use a fine paper and don't sand too

much.

9 Following sanding, wipe the surface clean

with a tack rag Lean on the rag so that it digs the

sanding dusl out 01 the grain.10 We decided to use a gelled stain here. Gelled stains are the easiest to apply and control Useclean cheesecloth as an applicator

11 Apply the stain like shoe polish Use a thin coal and spread it pretty well by rubbing it out, You can keep the color even Simply by not applying 100

much in anyone spot If a place looks too dark. rub it out with a ctean cheesecloth pad, removing excess stain Wait fifteen minutes after covering the

whole surface; then wipe again to pick up stain which has not been absorbed Allow the surface to dry overnight, If you want it a shade darker, apply

another coat lhe next day.



STAINING AND

FINISHING. A

RESTORED

PIECE

Once a piece is

completely re-

stored, i t is time

to work on the

finish, There are several methods to use,

but th e order remains basically the same.

You must remove the old finish, restaln (if

necessary), refinish and hand rub.

1 Using a furniture refinisher (Formby, Hope,Squaw Alley brands) and 0000 steel wool, we

strip away the old finish, leaving the originalstain and the wood's patina.

2 After taking off the old finish, Ihe piece issanded with fine paper. Old wood is dry andsands quickly, so don't overdo it.Watch the sur-face as y'ouwork 1 0 check progress.

3 Removeanuaces 01 sanding dust by wipingwith a tack rag. Press hard toget all dust out ofthe wood grain, and keep wIping until the tackrag slays clean when you wipe an area.

Staining and Finishing. a Restored Piece 89

/

4 Wechose a liquid wiping stain lor this job but could haveused a jelled stain.The first step is toapply a light coat of stainto each part of the piece aM allow it 10 stand lor ten minutes.

5 Next, wipe the stain thoroughly to expose the grain 01 the wood and achieve the proper color.Allow the Slain to dry overnight belore putting on the final finish.




90 Staining and Finishing a Restored Piece

6

6 Sand the surface before apptying varnish.This should be a light Ireatment. Then cleanaway the dust with a tack cloin.

7 Withlight onopposite sideof the surface,youcan observe how the varnish is going down,and spot areas your brush has missed.

8 Varnish is laid down with the brush, not

brushed out. Youwanta good coat, fairlyheavy.evenly applied across the surface.

7

8





92 Restoring an Old Seth Thomas Clock

RESTORING AN This old Seth

OLD SETH Thomas clock has

THOMAS CLOCK been sitting in a

sunny window for years. Heal and light

had reduced the finish to a maze of tiny

cracks and alligatoring. The top appeared

to have no finish at all.

1 Before attempting to refinish. we must deter-

mine what kind 01 finish Is on it. The testingprocedure is to try a small area first with dena-

tured alcohol , then with lacquer thinner. Alcohol

here is applied with a colton swab.

2 Arter about two minutes, the finish appears to

be softening. A cheesecJoth pad is rubbed

across the area to test it

3 The denatured alcohol has softened the fin-

ish, which indicates that the f inish isshellac. If it

had been lacquer or varnish, the denatured al-

cohol would not have affected il.

4 Reamalgamalion is a technique for repairing scratches and alligatored surfaces in shellac and

lacquer finishes. Here, the old clock is reamalgamated by saturating the surface with denatured

alcohol and keeping It wet for a few minutes, until the old finish melts. The alcohol is applied by

means of a soft pad.

I

5 As we apply the denatured alcohol to the top of the clock an interssnnq event occurs. The top

looked like bare wood. Now, however, Ihe old finish reappears as alcohol is applied 10 it



6 The line between the dried out finish and the

reamatgamated area is clearly visible. The clock

is beginning to look more like its old self

7 The reamalgamation is continued on the front

of Ihe clock. Reamalgamation is useful lor elimi-

nating scratches on shellac and varnished sur-

faces. Genlly treat the scratch with solvent, us-

Ing a cotton swab to Ii rst sotten and then spread

the finish.

B We have decided that time (some 75 years)

and the reamalgamatlon have resulted in a lin"

ish til at is too thin. We decide to apply a new

shellac finish. We first sand the old Imish With

line paper to remove any blemishes.

Restoring an Old Seth Thomas Clock 93

9 Shellac will nil sandpaper quickly so keep a toothbrush handy to clean the paper frequently.

10 When shellacking, use a top quality brush and gently lay the coating on. Don't brush it out as

you would with paint. Here, a 3-pound cut of shellac is used straight from the can. and we plan on 4

coats, II you use a ior 2-pound cut, increase the number of coals.



94 How to Build a Piece of Unfinished Furniture

1 Furniture kits arrive at your house neatly packed in cartons. This one is the Heathkit Buller's Table,

and the box contains all wood parts, hardware, stain and varnish, beautifully detailed plan and

instruction sheets, and even such items as drill bits, drill bit depth gauge, and sandpaper

2 The most important task in finishing linewood kits ( this one is in solid mahogany) is the sanding.

Each face of each piece must be thoroug:hly sanded, first with 220 grit and then wilh 280 grit

sandpaper. This can be done by hand, but il would be a long job. The sander we used is a "finish"

sander, made especially for lurni ture finishing. It issmall . square in shape, and orbits at' 0,000 rpm.

You can use a regular oscillating sander for most of the work,

3 To sand the small grooves on the front cor-

ners of the legs, we made a sanding block and

did the job by hand. The sanding block is a

piece 01wood that fits the grooves,

4 Al l of the table joints are mortise-and-lenon.

Alter you have finished sanding all parts, the

base is assembled dry. During this assembly,

you probably will have to sand the tenons a bit to

make them fil,.Note that we have placed a soft

bath towel on the workbench to protect the

sanded parts. as we work.

HOW TO BUILD In recent years,

A PIECE OF unfinished furni-

UNFINISHED rure kits featuring

FURNITURE fine designs and

h ar dw o od c on st ru cti on have becom e m ore

and m ore popu lar. The kits com e com -

plete w ith all the tools and with instruc-

tions. A ll that is requ ired is patience and

care to create a fine piece of furniture forthe ho me.

5 Sand each tenon carefully so as not to

change its shape or the face of the adjoining

wood, then fit it into its mortise.

6 Assemble the table base without glue. Here

the last side rail goes into place alter the tenon

was sanded to fit,

'~I

7 Now each leg and rail is numbered, so thai

when they are reassembled for gluing, you will

get each tenon in the mortise.



How to Build a Piece of Unfinished Furniture 95

8 To glue the pieces of the base together, a thin bead 01glue is applied to the side walls of each

mortise. No glue is put on the tenons. Be careful not to use too much glue, and do not allow it to get

on the surface of the wood,

9 The rail is fitted into the mortise after glue was applied. If necessary, tap the rail in place with a

rubber mallet. If any glue squeezes out. wipe it immediately wi th a well-dampened cloth. A better

way is to allow the squeezed out glue to dry, and then trim it away with a single-edge razor blade.

The best way is to use only enough g'lue so that none squeezes out.

10 When the base has been assembled and glued, place it on an absolutely level surface and

apply a web clamp. Let the glue dry overnight.

11 Now place the table top face down on the

towel on the workbench and position the base

(with the glue now dried) in the center. Measure

the distance from the edge of the top to each rail

to be sure the location is correct.

12 Using a soft lead pencil , draw a line marking

the inside dimensions of the base on the table

top. Be careful not to move the base during this

operation or you will have to stop and remea-sure its posit ion.

13 Now inserl a scribe. a long nail or any other

sharp, thin tool in each of the screw holes in

each rail. Tap the scribe enough to make anindentation in the table top.

14 Lubricate the screws by rubbing each in a

bar of face soap before driving. Place the tip of

lhe bit in each indentation on the table top, wilh

the depth gauge in pface. Holding Ihe depth

gauge with a pliers, drill straight down as deep

as the gauge will permit. When the drilling is

finished, you have pre-drilled Ihe holes for the

screws which will hold the top on the base.



96 How to Build a Piece oi Unfinished Furniture

. " . ,~'),...,

15 Next place the side leaves 01 the table on the

bench beside Ihe top and fit the brass hinges

into the cutouts. The fil will be snug and you may

have to try a hinge several limes to find a cutout

that is right for it

1.8 Remove the base from the top and with the

top still on the work bench, place a thin line of

glue around the table about ;V a in. from the pen-

cilline you drew. The glue bead should be thin,

continuous and the COrrect distance hom the

guide line.

21 The pasie stain is wiped on with a clean,

soft, lint-free cloth. Stain an area about a 1001

square at a time, Wipe the stain on, rub it in for

no more than 30 seconds, then use a clean clolh

10 wipe any excess stain from the area.

16 Once all hinges have been located, use the

scribe to scratch a number on the back 01 each,

and pencil a corresponding number on the

wood of the cutout.

19 Now the screws are driven through the holes

in the side rails and inlo the holes which had

been drilled into the top earlier, These screws

must be turned tight to pull Ihe top inlo close

contact with the base.

22 The staining has progressed nicely. We

found it handy to have a small brush to work

stain into corners and grooves. A cloth around

the end of the brush handle is used for wiping

these areas after staining.

17 Again using the deplh gauge on the drill bit,

drill a hole for each hinge screw. There are 6

holes per hinge, and 8 hinges.

20 Whenever you prepare to apply finishing

material to any part which has been sanded,

wipe the entire piece with a tack cloth to elimi-

nate all dust. To be thorough, wipe it twice, us-

ing different tack cloths. You will be surprised at

how much dust comes off on the second wiping.

23 After the base has been stained, turn the

table over and begin work on the top. The pro-

cedure is the same as before. I' the color of thepiece is not as dark as you want, apply a second

coat 01 stain before varnishing. but only alter the

first coat has dried, A good feature of paste

stains is the color control they provide. You keep

applying stain until you get the color you want.



HOW TO REPAIR Most of the tim e,

DENTS AND the best w ay to re-

GOUGES pair a serious dent

or gouge is to fill i t. T h er e ar e a number of

filler fo rm ulations now availab le fo r u se

on w ood, and each type has its advan tages

a nd d is a dv a n ta g es .

TYPES OF FILLERSThe first d isadvantage you w ill d iscover is

one of term inology . Every form u lation

has its ow n nam e, they all sound alike,

and none tell you very m uch abou t w hat's

in the can . So you m ust read each label.

The nam es include such terms as w ood

dough , w ood fiIier, w ood patch o r w ater

putty . M ost are prem ixed and ready to

use, but a few are powders that you m ust

m ix w ith w ater. There seem to be tw o

basic fo rm u lations am ong the ready-

m ixed varieties, one based on acetone and

the other on la tex. There ar e variationsw ithin these fo rm ulas, too.

What Type Do You Use?

W ood dough, w ood fille r and w ater putty

are best used in areas that aren 't v isib le , or

in fu rnitu re w h ich is to be painted . S tick

shellac or lacquer is best on fu rn iture

w h ich is lacquered, shellacked o r var-

n ished , and w here the repair is in a visib le

spot. W ood dough is best for deep holes

(sc rew holes, for exam ple), w hile w ood

filler is best for shallow den ts. Bo th can be

used to fill cracks. W hatever filler you

em ploy, u se a co lor that is close to the

fu rnitu re fin ish to start w ith . D on 't dep en d

on later co loring to m atch the fin ish .

Wood Dough

Marketed under nam es such as Plastic

W ood and Duratite , w ood dougb is m ade

by m ixing saw dust and a cellu lose acetate

cement . It dries quick ly, can be sanded

and d rilled , and can be so ftened by lacquer

th inner. D on 't forget th is if you are w ork -

ing on a lacquered p iece. The dough w ill

so ften a lacquer fin ish if in con tact w ith it

for very long. A lso , don 't apply [he th in-

ner fo r these form ulations to the surface o f

a patch on a lacquer su rface. Y ou w ill

m ess up the fin ish .

W ood dough com es in a variety of co l- I

ors, and m ost o f the b rands can be stained .

after they have d ried . 1 1 is handy stu ff for

filling o ld screw holes, bu ild ing up sm all

sections o f corners w hich have broken o ff,

filling deep den ts, and repairing carv ings

on furn iture . A fte r a little p ractice , you

becom e fam iliar w ith its characteristics

and can use it effec tively .

How to Use It As it dries, w ood

dough she! nks, If you fill a deep dent (V4-

to V 2-in ch ) w ith it, the dough w ill sh rink

during drying and leave a depression. Fo r

deep den ts, app ly tw o or th ree layers, al-

low ing each to dry be fore putting on th e

next one. A lw ays app ly a little ex tra in the

last application, so that the top is slightly

rounded . Som e of th is w ill shrink. The

rest is sanded down once the dough has

dried .

Som e of the w ood doughs cannot be

sp read very thin o r feathered at the edges

of a patch. O thers are cream y m ix tures

and w ill feather very w ell. Those that

don 't feather are better fo r filling holes;

those that do feather can be used in shal-

low surface den ts.

Wood FillersW e are app lying this nam e to the latex

fillers. Read the labels to find products

w ith a latex form ulation. These are

sm oo th m ix tures of the consistency of

cream cheese. T hey sp read easily , fea ther

nicely and are shrink resistan t, w hich

m eans they shrink less than the w ood

d ou gh p ro du cts .

Disguising the Patch None of the

fillers exh ibit a w ood grain , and when

used to repair furniture w ith a pro min ent

grain , they w ill be visib le . A fter sanding,

you can d isgu ise the repair by d raw ing a

sim ulated grain across the patch w ith a

c rayon or w ith artist's colo rs and a very

fine brush . Jo in the g rain Jines on either

side o f the patch , so that they appear con-

tinuous. Then give the patch a coat of

Slain, if needed , and a coal o f final fin ish .

M ost fillers com e in a variety of w ood

and furn iture co lors, so you m ay be ab le to

buy the exact shade you need . They also

can be stained if the exact colo r isn 't avail-

How to Repair Dents and Gouges 97

ab le . H ow ever, you shou ld alw ays test a

patch o f the filler w ith stain befo re apply -

ing it to your p ro ject. A ll fillers take stain

differently from wood, and you probably

w ill h av e to use a s lig htly d iffe re nt c olo r

o f stain on the filler than on wood 10

ach ieve a m atch w ith the surround ing

area .

Water PuHy

You buy w ater pu tty in powder fo rm and

m ix it w ith w ate r to a c re am y c o ns is te nc y .

The m ixtu re hardens qu ickly w ith very lit-

t le s h ri nk a ge . Thereare dry pow dered co l-

o rs you can add to it, to m atch the w ood

being repaired . It, too , has no g rain ap-

pearance and w ill show when used to re-

pair prom inen tly grained w ood .

O ne excellen t u se for th is p roduct is as a

filler after you have repaired fractured

w ood. A pply the putty to the edges o f the

crack and use it to rep lace any m issingw ood shreds. Y ou can rebuild the b roken

part to its o rig inal shape and , after refin -

ish ing , you p robab ly w on 't be ab le to see

t he f ra ct ur e.

S tic k S h e l!la c

This is a specialty filler product, nO I sold

everyw here. W oodw ork ing and craft sup -

p ly houses have it. W hat you buy ar e

sm all stick s of colo red hard shellac . There

also are stick lacque rs and stick sealing

w axes available . These stick s m elt w hen

heated, and the softened m aterial is u sed

to fill holes and den ts.

Color Cl'1oi'ces The lacquer and the

shellac can be purchased in bo th opaque

and transparent form s, and you should be

able to buy a colo r very clo se to the one

you need. The best w ay is to buy sets o f a

dozen o r so co lors in both transparent and

opaque. The sealing w ax com es only in

the opaque. W e Ike st l ck shell ac bu I m any

refin ish ers prefer stick lacq uer.

T o r ep air s plits a nd d en ts , tr y l ate x w o od lille r- p ro ba bly th e e as ie st r ep air p ro du ct o n th e m ar ke t.It accepts stain w ell, does no t shrink m uch , and can be sanded w hen dry.



98 Repairing a Dent Using Stick Shellac

REPAIRING A We alw ays advo -

DENT USING c ate p ra ctic in g w ith

STICK SHELLAC any m aterial be fore

using it on your p ro ject. and stick shellac

is no different. You c an le ar n its c ha ra cte r-

istics and then use it to you r best

advantage.

Step 1: Preparing the Surface To

repair a deep den t, c lean out the bo ttom of

the dent first If th e b otto m is smooth,

scratch i t a little w ith the knife blade, to

give th e shellac a rough su rface to w h ich

to a dh er e.

Step 2: Heating the Stick Then

hold th e sh ellac s tic k d ire ctly o ve r th e dent

an d app ly a ho t kn ife blade or so ldering

iron to it . The shellac w ill m elt and d rop

into the den t. A llow enough she llac d rip[0

Because the wood at the bottom of the gouge is white, we begin by dabbinq it with stain the

approximate color of the surface. This is necessary because the stick shellac is transparent.

Select the color closest to the color of Ihe finish. Lig hI a can of Sterno or use an alcohol Iamp to heat

the blade 01a spatula. (Do not heat by candle lIame. as this will deposil carbon on tile blade which

wil l discolor the slick shellac)

m ore than fill the ho le , so that the repair is

a little ro un de d.

Step 3: Smoothing the Patch

W hen the den t has filled , use a sm all flex i-

ble spatu la, heated in a flam e to sm ooth

the su rface. To heat the b lade, use the

f lame from a gas stove or S terno canned

heat. D on ' Iuse a cand le because carbon

w ill gather on the blade and w ill d isco lorth e p atc h.

Step 4: Trimming the Patch After

the shellac has coo led, use a single-edge

razo r b lade or a very sbarp w ide-b laded

ch isel to carefu lly trim the rounded top

down to the level o f the surface .. The last

step is to bu ff the surface w ith an 8/ 0 or J 01

o sandpaper.

App.ly the hot spatula blade to the stick 01shel-

lac as you hold it over the repair . Allow the shel-

lac to drip into the repair or lift some of the soft

shellac with the blade.

Use the spatula blade to smooth out the shel lac.

On all edge repair, also use it to shape the

shellac to the same shape as the edge.



You wil1 have to hold the spatula blade in lhe

flame of the Slerno several times during the

shaping to reheat it. When the blade cools, il willnot work the shellac, which hardens quickly.

Keep heating the knile and smoothing the sur-

face of the stick shellac as fong as necessary.

You want the surface of the patch smooth and

level with the area surrounding it.

How to Repair Water IRings 99

Finally, finish the lob by sanding the surface of

the patch with a 400 grit sandpaper. You can

apply lacquer, varnish or shellac over the patch

if necessary.

HOW TO STEAM Som etim es a shal-A SHALLOW low dent can be

DENT steam ed out of the

wood, or even m ade to sw ell back to the

o rig in al sh ap e b y an ap plicatio n o f w ate r.

T his te ch niq ue is p ar tic ularly u se fu l if th e

d ent is lo cated in th e m idd le o f a tab le top .

Water Swelling

A pply w ater to the dent w ith an eye drop-

p er and let th e w ater soak in to the w ood . If

th e w oo d is p orou s and sw ells w hen w et, it

m ay now sw ell enough to elirrunate the

dent. If the bottom of the dent is covered

w ith unbroken lacquer or varn ish, use a

pin to prick the surfaces in a number of

places. T his allo ws the w ater to get 10 th e

wood.

Steam Swelling

S te am u su ally d oe s a b etter jo b o f s we ll in g

the wood than water alone, To steam a

dent. apply w ater to the dent as in the

previous paragraph, Then place a verym oist do th on the dent and touch the lip of

a h ot iron 10 it. H old the iron in place long

enough to create steam not only in the

clo th but also down in to the wood. This

should cause sw elling of the w ood. O ne

application m ay raise the dent, but you

p ro bab ly w ill h av e to r ep eat th e p ro ce du rese ve ral tim es. O ne p ro ble m th is te ch niq ue

som etim es creates is" b loom ing," a

w hite are a w her e w ate r h as so ak ed in to th e

fin ish. T his pro blem is solved in the sam e

w ay as the rem oval of w ater rings. w hich

is d esc rib ed n ex t.

One way to fix a shallow dent is to steam it. Apply water to the dent; cover with a moist cloth. Touch

the cloth with the iron so thai the steam can gel down into the wood.

HOW TO REPAIR A guest p laces a

WATER RINGS g lass on a lo vely ta-

ON FINISH.ES ble top, and later

you find a w hite ring w here the bottom of

t he g la ss r es te d. It i s a d is co ur ag in g s ig ht .

The whiteness is called c , b lo om i n g ,"

w hich occurs b ecau se the fin ish abso rb s

th e m oisture fro m th e bo tto m of the g lass.

L acqu er and shellac fin ishes bloo m read -

ily. S om e varn ish es w ill b lo om , bu t no t as

easily. B lo om ing also sh ow s u p as a m ilk y

look on the fin ish of furn itu re that has

been stored in a m oist place.

M ost bloom ing takes place on the sur-

face of the fin ish and doesn't go very

deep. To get rid of bloom ing , you must

rem ov e that tin y fractio n of the surface of

the fin ish w hich has clouded. The best

w ay is by m eans ofa m ild abrasive. A ny

of the follow ing, rubbed gently in to the

b lo om u ntil it d isap pears, w ill w ork :

(I) ro ttenstone m ixed w ith m ineral

spirits:

(2 ) pum ice and fine oil;

(3 ) fin e 4/0 g rad e steel w oo l;

(4 ) p owd er ed d en ti fr ic e;

(5) cigar ashes used as an abrasive.

If the b loom goes very deep , the rub-

bing w ill take som e tim e, and you m ight

have to sw itch to a harsher abrasive - to a

3/0 steel w ool, for exam ple. But longer

ru bb ing w ith a m ild abrasive is better th an

q uic ker ru bb in g w ith a h arsh ab ras iv e, b e-

cause you w ill do less damage to the

surface. Y ou w ant the repair to be as un-

n o ti ce ab le a s p o ss ib le .



100 Fixing a Small Blemish or an Alligatored Finish

FIXING A SMALL

BLEMISH OR AN

A LL IG AT OR E D

FINISH

The techn ique in-

v olv ed in r ep airin g

lacquer and shellac

fin ishes is called

"ream algam ation." In it, a solvent is ap-

plied to the fin ish 10 cause the fin ish to

soften and spread over the su rface. The

tw o m ost im portan t uses o f th is technique

ar e in the repair of sm all fin ish blem ishes

an d in the restoration of fin ishes that have

alligatored.

Small Blemishes

If yo u have repaired a cigarette bum on a

tab le top , the last step in the repair p rocess

is to refin ish the surface. [f the fin ish is

either lacquer or shellac , you can rearnal-

gam ate instead of applying a new COal of

fin ish m aterial to the repaired area. The

advantage of rearnalgam ation is that you

don 't need to worry about color m atching

the old fin ish , because in this process, YOll

literally "m elt" the old fin ish on the sur-

face ad jacent to the repair , and cause it to

flow over the repair.

Alligatoring

W hen furn iture has been exposed to th e

sun for a long tim e, the surface m ay craze

- becom e criss-crossed w ith cracks so

that i t looks som ething like the hide of an

al J igator .. Such fin ishes can be restored by

ream algarnation because the crazing dis-

appears w hen the fin ish is m ade to reflew

over the surface.

Solvents

Ream algarnation for lacquer and shellac is

the sam e, excep t that the so lven t is differ-

ent in each case. W ith lacquer, u se lacquer

th inner. W ith shellac , use denatured

alcohol.

each case, beg in by m aking sure the fin ish

is free of all wax and dirt. To p reven t

stre ak in g an d 10 perm it the solvent to stay

in place w hile it softens the surface, rea-

m algarnation should be done on a horizon-

tal surface. The solvent w ill run on a verti-

cal surface and becom e uneven.

Step 2: Applying the Solvent

Then apply the solvent, u sing either a

brush or a soft pad . Brush application is

the easiest. U se the brush gently to avoid

excessive brush m arks. M ino r ones w ill

B efo re r ea ma lg am alin g a p ie ce , id en tify th e fin is h o n w hic h y ou a re w or kin g F ir st u se d en atu re dalc oh ol to te st lo r sh ellac; th en u se lac qu er Ih in ne r to tes t lor lacquer

Pretesting the Finish

If your lacquered furniture has ever been

refin ished - given a new coat of clear

lacquer - you m ay have a situation in

w hich the top coat is clear and the subccat

is colored. In som e cases, a clear coat m ay

have been applied over a color coat at the

factory. W hen you have two different

coats like this, rearnalg am ation m ay cause

streaking as the tw o lacquers blend. O nce

stre ak in g h as o cc urr ed , it cannot be cor-

rected and you w ill have to rem ove the

entire fin ish and start over. For th is rea-

son, test ream algam ation on a hidden area

before go ing to w ork on visib le surfaces. A pply Ihe solvent W itha brush or a soh pad. The l in is h will soften and sp read out T he d ark lin e o n

Step 1 ,: Preparing the Surface In this clock m arks the dillerence betw een treated and untreated sections.



level out during the drying process. Make

continuous applications, keeping the sur-

face w et until the softening starts, At that

point, the fin ish material w ill begin to

flow over the surface. W hen you see an

even film over the whole surface, stop ap-

plying the solvent and allow the fin ish to

dry. Make the last application in the sam e

direction as the grain of the wood.S te p 3: Finishing the Jo b To com -

plete the reamalgamation, apply a new

coat of shellac or lacquer over the entire

Foggy Finishes! How to Repair Scratches on the Surface 101

fin ish , al l ow it to dry, and then fU b it dow n

with 4/0 steel wool or 8/0 sandpaper.

Step 4: Buffing. the Surface

Although these surfaces dry to the touch in

a short tim e, they should be allowed to set

com pletely before the final buffing .. To be

safe, w ait until the next day. Then buff

w ith very fine steel wool.

Hints and Cautions

W hen the surface is soft, it can easily pick

up lint and dust. For that reason, use lin t-

free cloths and work in an area where dust

is nOI a problem . Both shellac and lacquer

dr y quickly, so the surfaces do not have 10

be protected for long.

For reamalgamation of shellac, us e

only pure denatured alcohol. Som e alco-

hols are cut w ith water, and the water in

these m ixtures w ill cause the surface to

turn white. In addition, w ork w ith shellacon a day when the hum idity is low or in an

air conditioned room , since high hum idity

also can cause bloom ing.

W HAT TO DO O ld furniture, and

WITH A especially old fur-

F O GG Y nirure that has been

FINISH stored for a long

tim e, som etimes looks as though there

were a haze over its surfaces. This hale

m ay rem ain even after thorough cleaning.There are dozens of reasons for th is, from

absorption of m oisture to exposure 10 th e

sun. W hatever the reason, the haze m ust

be rem oved. Sometimes you can do it, and

som etimes you can 't. If you can 't, then

the best procedure is to strip the old fin ish

away and apply a new one.

Fog on Lacquer T ry re am alg am a-

tion, or try applying a new coat of clear

lacquer, w hich w ill have the same effecta s rearnalgama t ion .

F og on SheUa.c Try r eamal gamat io n

or a new coat of white shellac .

Fog on Varnish Rub the surface

down w ith fine steel wool, on the theory

that the problem is on the surface itself and

that the fin ish under the surface is still

sound. A fter the rubdown, apply paste

wax to a sm all area and observe how the

fin ish looks. If the fog rem ains, you can

assum e that the fogging has gone deep and

that a new finish is required. See chapters

7 , 8 and 9 for instruction.

HO W TO R EPA IR There are tw o kinds

SC RATC HES O N of scratches that

THE SURFACE can plague you in

furniture restoration. The first is the deep

sera tch, us uall y caused by someth i rig

shall? dragged over the surface. The sec-

ond is a collection of fine scratches, com -

monly caused by normal daily use, w hich

create a m atte or dull area on the surface.

Lacquered or Shellacked Finishes

Ream algarnation can cure both problem s

on furniture that is lacquered or shel-

lacked. If the deep scratch goes through

the fin ish to the wood, and has caused

some of the fin ish m aterial to flake away,

you m ight apply a thin coat of new finish

m aterial to the scratch. Use an artist's

brush and carefully place the clear lacqueror shellac in the scratch w ithout getting

any on the surrounding surface. A llow this

to dry. Then ream algam ate. The new ma-

terial w ill serve as a filler during the rea-

m alagam ation process, and rearnalgam a-

tion w ill cause the colored fin ish m aterial

to flow over it and blend in w ith the rest of

t he s ur fa ce .

V a rn is h ed F in is h es

Fine scratches on varnished surfaces often

can be rem oved by buffing w ith 8/ 0 or

1010 sandpaper. D eep scratches m e tough-

er to handle, since varnish can 't be rea-

m algam ated. You may be able to use the

artist's brush to paint a number of coats of

varnish in the scratch, gradually build ing

it up to the sam e level as the surrounding

surface .. F inish the repair by rubbing it

w ith fin e sand pape r.

Much of the success of th is repair de-

pends on the color of the varnish . The

original varnish m ay have been colored,

or it may have discolored since applica-

tion. Begin the repair w ith clear varnish

and observe what happens . You m ay have

10 sw itch to a colored varnish , and then the

problem becomes one of selecting the

right color. W e suggest you increase the

intensity of color slightly w ith each suc-

ceeding coat and keep ..careful w atch over

t he r es ult .

A surface covered wit'h scratches need not be total ly refini ·shed. Before you lake drast ic measures,

try reamalgamation. Apply new varnish to lhe scratch, Then reamalgamate.

























































































































Documents

Furniture Repair And Restoration - (Malestrom)