Fixed It

Like an old house, you never where you're going to end up once you 'open the door'. We started out fixing the obvious broken leg in the second photo below, and before we knew it, we had both the back legs and the back splat off, which turned out to be a good thing. We were able to clean and reglue the joinery and the glue blocks and now I feel as if I can actually let the client sit in the chair when he gets it back. Construction was typical of the era, mortise and tenons on the seat rails and legs, a joint that solves the connection problem but also, over time typically develops weakness where the leg is mortised all the way through. It's not like new, but then again, I'm not either and I'm still going ....

We all just loved the face in the top rail

The obvious broken leg

The other back leg

The band clamp pulled it all together ... we'll put the screws back into the glue blocks tomorrow after the hide glue sets up ....