Clamps for Delicate Work
Most of the clamps in our woodworking arsenal are designed to produce tons of pressure per square inch. While we use them to hold pieces over the workbench, close joints, or keep glued parts from [...]
Unexpected Out of the Box Chair Restoration – Part 4: The End of the Beginning.
The last two repair remedies this chair needed before its inauguration into productive service life were reinstalling it with the old leg brackets and creating and installing a set of new corner [...]
Unexpected Out of the Box Chair Restoration – Part 3: The Right Honorable Screw Joint.
One of the more disappointing joining methods that miserably failed due to the traumatic fall (or jolt) before the chair had been placed in its shipping box was the leg-to-rail and rails to cross [...]
Unexpected Out of the Box Chair Restoration – Part 2
My course of action with any repair, restoration or conservation is: Do No Harm. That is, I try to deal with the essential structural, finish, hardware, etc. issues without forcing changes on the [...]
Unexpected Out of the Box Chair Restoration – Part 1
A few weeks ago, my spouse purchased two Faux bamboo Chippendale mahogany chairs for our dining table. The chairs were a reproduction of a Victorian furniture style and meant to match the [...]
Fighting Rust with Brass and Bronze
The summer is here in earnest, and with it came the rising humidity. Humidity and ferrous-based metals such as carbon steel and cast iron don’t get along that well, and the result of the [...]
Patching Woodworking Mistakes
A long-time carpenter shares a repair trick to hide the mistakes made by ham-handed apprentices. For more than 30 years I was a traveling carpenter foreman in charge of installation of [...]
Top 5 Chair Repair Mistakes to Avoid
In my furniture repair shop, I repair a lot of chairs. I’ve seen many DIY mistakes over the years that didn’t need to happen. Repairing a chair with loose joints is a relatively [...]
Regluing Doweled Chairs
Bob Flexner walks you through all the steps in repairing an antique factory-made chair that is glued with animal hide glue.
Repairing Veneer on Antique Furniture
Veneer is just thin wood – so don’t be afraid of it. I love repairing old furniture – the older the better. I find repairing more challenging and satisfying than making new because someone else, [...]
Dents and Gouges: How to Deal with Them
If you’ve done much woodworking, it’s very likely that you have experienced some dents and gouges. Both are flaws in the wood. But they are not the same thing, so they should be treated [...]
How To Patch Wood
Every so often I do something dumb. A few weeks ago I was drilling 1/4″ holes to peg the tenons for a table’s apron. I started with a brad point bit but switched to a Forstner after [...]