Restore a Round Oak Table
Thoughtful finishing and new leaves prepare this classic for the next 100 years. This old table looks like a prime candidate for refinishing. Scrub off the old finish, sand out...
Unexpected Out of the Box Chair Restoration – Part 6
As you recall, a few months ago, I wrote about a beautiful chair made of solid mahogany that we bought and found out that it was sadly damaged during shipping....
Yet Another Rendezvous With Our New but Broken Bamboo Chairs
If you recall, a few weeks ago, I wrote about the unexpected repair job I performed on one of our newly bought solid mahogany chairs (read parts one and two...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Repair Water Damaged Wood
Work miracles on wood with oxalic acid. Watering a potted plant can be disastrous if the plant lives on top of something made out of wood. We’ve all seen the...
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...
