Ron's neighbor Shawna owned a one hundred-year-old chair that had been sitting in her parents' basement for many years. Time, dampness and neglect had certainly taken their toll, but Ron thought the chair was a perfect candidate for a makeover. They brought the chair back to Ron's workshop for a total overhaul. They entirely disassembled the chair, repaired the damaged pieces, put it back together again, and then gave it a much-needed refinishing and new hand-caning.
Click Here For a list of what
you will need in order to complete this project.
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1. Disassemble chair
Begin by removing the seat pad if there is one. In this case, they discovered that original hand caning had been concealed by the padded seat.
To remove the old caning, first snip out the center with scissors and then turn the chair over and remove the remaining caning from the bottom. Cut any remaining pieces away using a utility knife. This is a surprisingly time consuming process requiring a fair amount of patience. |
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| Before taking the chair apart, apply a piece of masking tape to the ends of each part of the chair. When it is time to put the chair back together, you will be very glad to know which piece goes where.
Chairs are generally held together with both glue and screws. After first removing the screws, it may take a bit of force to get the remaining pieces apart. You may have to use a hammer to tap them apart. A soft cloth wrapped around the head of a hammer will protect the wood from damage. If you have one, a dead blow mallet is an excellent tool that has lead shot inside the head and can transfer more force to the wood without damaging the wood itself. |
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| If any of the pieces are too difficult to separate, it is best to leave them alone and not force them. But even when pieces are just slightly loose, they should be gently worked apart so that they can be put back together again more securely.
If you come across any embedded objects like a small nail, a pair of diagonal cutters ground to a sharp point is the perfect tool for removing these.
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| A reversible, adjustable clamp is ideal for separating large, stubborn pieces. Clamps are normally used to squeeze things together but these can be reversed by removing the end and switching it to the other side. The clamp then becomes a spreader, which can be used to push pieces apart.
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2. Repair broken pieces
To repair the end of a broken stretcher or spindle, you will need to create what is called a scarf joint. To create this type of joint, first cut off the damaged end at an angle and then smooth the cut edge on the belt sander. Trace the cut end of the spindle onto a small piece of oak and then cut out the matching shape.
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| Attach or scarf the new wood onto the old by gluing the two pieces together. Before clamping them, drill a hole and insert a small nail to keep the two pieces from slipping as pressure is applied. When the glue has dried, remove the clamp and nail.
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| Using an undamaged spindle as a pattern, create an outline of the shape for the repaired end and then return to the band saw for rough cutting.
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| The final shaping is done with a wood rasp and sandpaper.
To repair a broken spindle that has been snapped apart in the middle, first drill a hole into each of the broken ends.
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| Apply glue to the holes, insert a dowel, and then press the broken ends back together.
3. Reassemble the chair
You will need to work in sections to glue the chair pieces back together again so that each major section can be attached together at one time. This way, if anything isn't fitting well, you'll be able to catch it and make an adjustment before the glue dries.
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| Apply glue to both the holes and the spindles or stretchers that go into the holes. Use clamps to apply pressure to the joints to make sure they form a secure bond as the adhesive dries.
4. Strip old finish
Once the chair has been rebuilt, you can begin the process of stripping the old finish. Use a thick, semi-paste product because it will generally stick to the surface of the wood better than a thinner solution.
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Tip: You don't have to reassemble the chair before refinishing it, but if you were to strip the pieces of wood while they were apart, you would lose the labels and it would be much more difficult to keep track of which piece belongs where.
Also, when you attach the pieces together with glue, some of the glue always squeezes out onto the surface of the wood. It is much easier to clean the excess when you don't have to worry about preserving the new finish.
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| The key to easily removing the old finish is to apply a heavy coat of stripper without over brushing it. You also need to give the stripper enough time to work. Once the surface begins to blister, you should be able to easily lift off most of the old finish using a putty knife. It shouldn't be necessary to do a lot of scraping or scrubbing.
Once you have removed most of the old finish with a putty knife, use medium coarse steel wool to remove the remaining finish from the recesses, carvings and turnings.
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| A soft-bristle brass brush will also work well for cleaning out nooks and crannies. These brushes are available in the paint department.
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| Another tool that can be very useful is a simple piece of wooden dowel that has been sharpened to a point with an ordinary pencil sharpener.
For doing that last bit of cleanup on spindles and legs, a piece of jute twine works perfectly.
The final step in removing the old finish is to wash the wood with lacquer thinner. The wash will remove any residue left behind by the stripper.
Do a quick sanding with fine sandpaper. A lot of sanding should not be necessary because the type of stripper used does not raise or roughen the wood grain.
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5. Apply stain
To apply new finish to the chair, begin with a stain. You might want to try several colors so that you can test and compare them before you make a final decision.
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