repairs and restoration

 i had a chat with a friend about 'repairing things' recently ... 

we have done several repair projects, for several different clients, 

and after our chat, i sent him this link ...

it takes you here ... 

click the images to enlarge them

 there are 34 separate posts on my blog about us repairing stuff.

it is an interesting and often fun and rewarding part of our business.

after i sent the link off i actually took the time to cruise through

the various projects, some of which i scarcely remembered.

these projects tend to come and go quickly.

and below are some excerpts from other writers' take on the process ...

so true here

below from a new yorker article on the 

new restoration department at the whitney in new york

below are some images selected from the link above

 'antique repairs and restorations' 

showing some of things we have fixed in the last 40+ years ... 

rereading these posts this rainy afternoon has been quite a trip for me ...

chance to be a hero

it's a long story

with a happy ending  

and how about this one?

we didn't have to do much, but it sure was fun having it here for a bit

someone spent some time on this one

and we spent some time on the one below

one of the finest writing arm windsors i have seen

all the original pieces were available

tah dah!  all in, all done

one more ...

we had to reattach the top to this 'papier mache' tilt top table

with the little scraps of abalone inlays in the oval border ...

who even knew there was such a thing?

ok, last one  scroll down

 

june

where does the time go?  it's almost the first day of summer !!

since my last blog post on may 22nd we have been ripping through

lots of projects including some that were in the works a month ago.

below is a sample of some of the more interesting ones

a nice walnut coffee table .. 40 x 60 x 18 with two drawers

a beautiful job on a king size cherry pencil post bed by trevor

first time running the pencil posts and mortises on the cnc

safe and perfect .. gold star for trevor

 and i got some time in on the lathe for the finials .. 

first time i turned anything in  quite a while ... 

kinda like riding a bicycle, but not quite ... i'm a little rusty ...

 and the metal shop has been particularly busy the last couple of weeks

sam installed this railing high above lake george today .. 16' 7" long ..

and he made some parts for another railing before this one .. 

same  builder, different house

lots of parts

lots of railing too

and tyler did 5 repairs the week before last ..

this chair was a family heirloom and needed some love

like some new front rail tenons

tah dah .. ready for another hundred years

and the cutest little chair about 18" high ... 

it needed a disassemble, reglue and polish 

and we installed vanities 3 and 4 on the vanity project

chris has become the resident vanity expert .. 

danby imperial on site now by bennington marble and granite

ready for plumbing by GSK climate control this week

and we picked up the 'thoreau cabin project' bed from sandy sherman chair caning yesterday

beautiful job by tyler and sandy

and today tyler and i finished the reproduction rocker for the cabin ..

though i have made a lot of windsors over the last 40 years, this one was

the first in this style and the first windsor in about 15 years

talk about rusty for sure .. 

quite the four weeks ...

a cool retro fit

 

well ok, here's a good project ...

this client bought the table above at an auction as 'half of a table', 'several years ago'.

when we got it, it was three pieces, the top, the leaf, and the base below, 

no hinges and no instructions.

so this was the base .. nice carvings! we didn't think much about the hole until after we made some

half size pieces of cardboard and tried to figure out where the pivot point for the main top was.

bingo!  the theoretical pivot point was somewhere in the hole!

so we filled in the hole and attached the top to the base with another circular 'plate' of wood

that was a little larger than the light colored circle in the picture above.

we could see a ghost of where the missing 'plate' rubbed when the top was swiveled.

worked perfectly ..

so then, luckily, we had two pairs of drop leaf table hinges on hand, and they 

were the right size, but the original screw holes didn't line up.

patch the holes, attach the top .. good to go ...

an interesting repair ... 

now if we can just find the mate to it, the client would have a nice dining table

repairs, restorations, saving the past ... stuff we like to do ...

 it's always good to bring a family piece back to life .. 

this one belongs to my friends beth and tom 

it is a family piece from beth or tom's grandfather, i forget which ...

it had, as they say, some issues ... fortunately, and i do mean fortunately, as the pieces fell off , the were scrupulously saved and truth be told, the only one they missed was the big chunk off one of the drawer faces ... 

tom is a retired historic preservation architect, so he was on the same page as us

regarding the restoration process.  'don't make it look new'.  just spruce it up a bit

was what we decided.  tyler had at it, and he did a patient and wonderful job .. 

tah dah ... the hardware had some knd of mysterious coating on it that had

defied beth's efforts to polish it up.  we sed a low speed wire wheel on the grinder and

touched up the shin spots with some antique brass patina chemical .. thebrasses all looked 

pretty much perfect when he was through .. the dark left end and bottom two drawers were like 

that when it arrived and we just polished everything up with a bit of oil stain and some wax.

the interior is all back in shape, everyone of the little gallery tops 

were in the drawer along with a broken off point of one of the feet!!

the drawers are all sliding like a new ... 

we really enjoy doing these restorations and are always up for 

and available to restore/repair worthy pieces

here are a few links to some of our other 'saves' ,, 

this one was my personal favorite best ..

many more photos and process description at this link

 below is another

 more pictures and the whole story on this one at this link

and you can find more posts in the category section on  

'antiques repair and restoration'

20 some posts there .. contact us at 802-867-5541 to schedule your repair ..