(Pictures are on ABPW.)
This bureau came to be in my shop when my wife's Aunt moved into an
assisted living facility about five years ago. She's about ninety and
all I know is that it was in her parent's home before it was in hers.
She thought, "Tom might be able to do something with it."
I don't know for sure but I figure that it may have come from one of
the old furniture stores in Philadelphia, rather than straight from a
maker's shop. There are no maker's marks or tags on the piece. It
shows some handwork in the drawer dovetails and carving. The primary
wood is mahogany and the secondary is mostly poplar. There are no
dust panels and the drawers simply ride on cleats, of which few are
left.
It has a white marble top, flecked with gray, which is not shown in
the pictures.
My best guess is that it was constructed somewhere between the 1880's
and 1920 but that is a flat out guess.
I finally got around to giving it a lookover this morning and the old
thing has been through some hard times. Some of the molding detail
has been broken off or abraided. The drawer runners are either gone
or worn down to nothing. The bottoms of the drawer sides are either
hollowed out or broken off.
It does have an interesting burl veneer on the drawer faces, which
doesn't show much, due to the condition of the finish.
The essential joinery appears to be solid.
The wheels on the bottom fit to the feet with tapered shafts, almost
like a Morse taper.
This isn't a piece that I am particularly attracted to on the merits
of its design or execution. My real interest in it is in fixing it up
for my daughter to have some day, simply because she would be the
fourth or fifth generation of her family to have owned it.
If it weren't for that, I'd probably toss it.
My question is: How far should I go and what methods should I use?
My WAG on this is that it would take about fifty shop hours to bring
it back to pretty much how it looked when it was purchased.
I don't think it has any historical value, except in the family sense
but I could be wrong about that.
Years ago I worked on some furniture that did have historical value
and I would make my repairs in such a way as to be reversible and so
as to be obvious that they were repairs. I'm not sure that's the way
to go with this piece.
My initial thought is to make the repairs as nearly invisible as
possible, so as to have it look the way it did when it was new.
I thought to knock the sides off the drawers, trim off the hollowed
out bottoms of the sides, put a quarter inch maple rub strip on and
sand the old and the new together - then shellac, rather than leave
them raw, as they are now.
I figured to make new runners out of maple, instead of the original
poplar.
Where surface moldings are broken or missing, I thought I'd run new
ones and blend them in with the old.
I haven't tested the finish yet but I thought to clean it up real good
as a first step and then decide how far to take things. It is either
shellac or a kind of varnish but is certainly not lacquer. I would
like to get that burl to pop.
Anyways, these are my poor thoughts. I am looking for wisdom and
opinion, which I have often found to be in plentiful supply on the
Hard Wreck.
Regards,
Tom.
Thomas J.Watson - Cabinetmaker (ret.)
tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet (real email)
http://home.comcast.net/~tjwatson1
Took a look at the pics I think it is about turn of the century, I think
there are power ;planer marks and certainly circular saw marks on the drawer
bottom .
Several drawers show either poorly done new or refitted cock beads .I would
either make new or reset them .As mainly short sections of replacement
molding are required these profiles can easily be filed into a piece of
sheet metal, and the profiles scraped out .In most cases you do not even
need a scratch stock to do this. As far as cock beading goes I usually Just
rip pieces of the same material the same thickness and width.
The worn drawer sides can be repaired by first squaring the edges with a
block plane or spokshave and gluing pieces of similar wood to the squared
edges using plenty of clamps to ensure contact is made the whole length of
the drawer side. Make sure the side plus the addition are at least the total
depth of the drawer front . When dry just run the drawers through the table
saw the depth being set a little more than the drawer depth, then clean up
with a couple of strokes of a block plane set fine .
As far as the drawer runners go I would just replace those just making sure
they are NOT glued into the sides of the chest.
After the drawer side and runners are fixed a good coat of candle wax
[paraffin wax]will ease operation considerably.
Pieces like this are often varnished which frankly I have never found a
satisfactory way of restoring. the finish looks pretty crappy offhand ,I
would rub it down with perhaps 180 or even 220 if you want to be picky,shoot
it with a couple of coats of sealer, then a couple of coats of gloss
lacquer. After it has dried rub it out with wool wax [Behlen product] with
0000steel wool dipped in water, this will give it a nice hand rubbed look .
Purists are going to throw their little tiny hands at this, Antiques per say
are items that were produced before 1830, when power machines did not exist
[By the way Tom your folks really did take a pounding at golf today] and
cabinetmaking was for the most part hand done. Besides the lacquer can
always be removed .
One thing I thing would help this chest is to remove the feet ,put them in a
plastic bag and staple it into the bottom drawer just in case someone wants
to replace them at some time .I personally would add a french bracket foot
[you know a regular bracket foot with a little splay to it]
Shoot the inside of the drawers with a coat or two of sealer and Bobs your
uncle and fannys your aunt ,couple of days work and it's done mjh
On Sun, 19 Sep 2004 21:23:40 +0100, "Frank McVey"
<[email protected]> wrote:
At the risk of incurring the wrath of the anti-top-posting wing of the
party (neither far left, nor far right but far out, in my view), I
will make an initial address here, with interlineated responses as
needed.
Damned fine rant, Frank.
>Hell, Tom, you know the philosophy of restoration as well as anyone, I
>reckon. This piece might not have too much merit in your eyes (pretty
>hideous, isn't it!),
Oh Lordy! Ain't it just a little bit!
>but it may well have in someone else's some day,
And therein lies the rub.
>particularly since it is a family heirloom.
More like a "hairloom" to my eye.
> So my take would be that I'd
>give it the same respect as any other restoration job - you don't know its
>historical value or monetary value to a collector, so err on the side of
>caution.
Fuggem. But I take your point about the respect. The guy who did the
dovetails of the bowed fronts into the drawer sides did a damned fine
job, from what I can see. I'm half tempted to knock them apart to see
if they are really workmanlike, or only meet nice in the front (which
I might have been tempted to do on this ugly bitch - but then I have
the benefit of access to epoxy filler.
>
> You already know the following, but in case there's some enthusiastic
>newbie about to take his belt-sander to Grandpa's Chippendale desk, I'll
>list my own thoughts:
This is the really good part and I like it well enough to save it so
that I know who to blame when I'm a hundred hours into this pig.
>
>1. Do the very minimum to the piece to restore its function, prevent
>further deterioration and present a good (_not_ immaculate!) appearance,
>keeping as much original as is possible. Repair a component, rather than
>replace it.
>
>2. Use, where possible, techniques and materials appropriate to the
>piece. And, as you comment, try not do anything which can't be undone at a
>later date - you might have to revisit it in 5 or 10 years' time! This
>rules out modern adhesives, biscuits, some finishes etc. Some of my worst
>headaches have been tenon repairs , where some well-meaning fellow has
>"fixed" a loose M&T by squirting in Araldite then banging in a couple of
>nails to hold the joint together till it cured. Try getting that lot apart
>with causing major damage.
>
>3. Leave minor dings and dents alone - they're part of the patina. Dings
>too large to ignore but too small to warrant an inlaid patch repair (I
>believe you call them "dutchmen") can be filled with shellac stick - it's
>easy to use, non-invasive and is reversible.
>
>4. Where the damage is gross and badly affects the appearance of the
>piece - such as your missing mouldings - any replacement wood wants to be of
>the same type, and, preferably, age. If you need a _lot_ of moulding it may
>be worth having a bit made up to the original profile, but generally it's
>better to stick it yourself - if you don't have a matching moulding plane
>(and few do nowadays) you can do a reasonable job with a scratch stock in
>straight-grained stuff, filing the scraper to match the original profile.
>It won't be perfect, but this very imperfection will help it to blend better
>with the piece than would a perfect strip off a router.
>
>5. Leave as much of the original finish as possible. Go for cleaning it
>up, rather rather than refinishing. A mix of 2 parts soapy water, two parts
>white spirit (mineral spirit to you), one part methylated spirit (denatured
>alcohol to you), gently applied with 0000 steel wool will shift the old wax,
>greasy handling marks and other gunk hiding the surface. Some people also
>like to add 1 part ammonia to the mix. I like to add a couple of parts raw
>linseed, but people on the "Wreck" flame me. Work on a small area at a time
>and wipe it dry as you go - meths attacks shellac/french polish. It's a
>good idea to test it on an out-of-sight area first.
>
>6. If the finish is so far gone that it can't be recovered, then use
>chemical means to strip it, rather than mechanical. Meths will remove
>shellac and french polish. Aircraft dope thinners will remove cellulose
>lacquer. An old oil varnish may be a tougher proposition, so use a solvent
>stripper, sparingly. Don't use caustic strippers, since this may colour the
>underlying wood. I repeat - no abrasives, other than, perhaps, fine steel
>wool. Addendum to that - old varnish wich has gone very flaky and brittle
>can sometimes be removed with a cabinet scraper. Do it gently enough, and
>it won't hurt the underlying wood.
>
>7. The new finish should be of the same type. Whatever you use, cut it
>back lightly with pumice powder, fine scotchbrite or steel wool lubed with
>RLO or mineral oil (you don't want a high gloss) and wax it. Proper wax
>polish with beeswax and carnauba. Silicone wax should be confined to your
>car.
>
>8. The last thing you want is for the piece to look "as new". You want
>it to look as if it's old, but it's been well-loved and cared for. One of
>the most heart-breaking sights I've seen lately is a 300-year old offertory
>box subjected to a ROS. The guy brought it into the pub to show off his
>bargain and his restoration skills. He still isn't really speaking to me,
>after I gave him my views, fuelled by several pints. The bloody thing is
>older than your country, for Chrissake. 12 generations of honourable battle
>scars wiped out in minutes. Twat.
Well said, Druid.
>
>9. The final thing I don't have to tell you is that shop hours don't
>count when it's your daughter.
Sniff.
>
>Well Tom, I guess I haven't told you anything you don't already know, so I
>assume you're looking for some moral support in justifying all those hours,
>or you're seeking to provoke discussion. Either way, it ain't a bad thing.
>Enjoy the job (even if you think it's like trying to spit-shine a turd!)
Yeah, kinda sorta - I don't like throwing a lot of precious free time
into this ugly sumbitch but it's an opportunity to give the child
something that may be important to her as she gets older (Like, "Who
in the hell were these people who bought this ugly shit - and is it
possible that I'm adopted - Please!
>
Thanks for the thoughts.
It helps.
Regards,
Tom.
Thomas J.Watson - Cabinetmaker (ret.)
tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet (real email)
http://home.comcast.net/~tjwatson1
On Sun, 19 Sep 2004 14:57:35 -0500, Lazarus Long <[email protected]>
wrote:
>I'd go the whole 9 yards as it were, to repair this piece for family
>use. I've done that myself for a table my sister gave me to work on.
>She's using today at her home. I think it matters more to her and
>hubby to use something hubby's mom and dad once used.
>
>My repairs, while obvious, are not reversible. I used epoxy. Lots of
>it.
I'm not going to be too much of a purist on this one.
Thanks for the thoughts.
Regards,
Tom.
Thomas J.Watson - Cabinetmaker (ret.)
tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet (real email)
http://home.comcast.net/~tjwatson1
On Sun, 19 Sep 2004 14:31:31 -0400, Tom Watson <[email protected]>
scribbled:
>(Pictures are on ABPW.)
>
>
>This bureau came to be in my shop when my wife's Aunt moved into an
>assisted living facility about five years ago. She's about ninety and
>all I know is that it was in her parent's home before it was in hers.
I've been waiting for the pictures to show up on ABPW, but my
newsserver doesn't have them. Anyway, here's my 2 cents worth.
I would avoid epoxy & other stuff that is not reversible. But more
importantly, as it is a family heirloom, I would document all the work
you do on it as well as the history of the piece, write it on a sheet
of paper, sign & date it & glue it to the underside of the top or
bottom. That way, when your great-great-grandchild decides to restore
it again, they will have something priceless & you will achieve
immortality.
Luigi
Replace "nonet" with "yukonomics" for real email address
www.yukonomics.ca/wooddorking/antifaq.html
www.yukonomics.ca/wooddorking/humour.html
On Mon, 20 Sep 2004 00:09:52 -0700, Luigi Zanasi <[email protected]>
wrote:
>I've been waiting for the pictures to show up on ABPW, but my
>newsserver doesn't have them. Anyway, here's my 2 cents worth.
Don't be eating lunch when you finally get to see it.
>
> I would document all the work
>you do on it as well as the history of the piece, write it on a sheet
>of paper, sign & date it & glue it to the underside of the top or
>bottom.
Cool idea.
> That way, when your great-great-grandchild decides to restore
>it again, they will have something priceless & you will achieve
>immortality.
I've been looking for a way to achieve just that but nothing's panned
out so far.
Thanks Weege.
Regards,
Tom.
Thomas J.Watson - Cabinetmaker (ret.)
tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet (real email)
http://home.comcast.net/~tjwatson1
On Sun, 19 Sep 2004 14:31:31 -0500, Robert Galloway
<[email protected]> wrote:
> If you don't want your daughter to keep it in the basement
>for storage of odds and ends, make it as nice to live with in appearance
>and function as you can
Good thought - thanks.
Regards,
Tom.
Thomas J.Watson - Cabinetmaker (ret.)
tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet (real email)
http://home.comcast.net/~tjwatson1
Tom Watson <[email protected]> wrote in
news:[email protected]:
> On Sun, 19 Sep 2004 21:23:40 +0100, "Frank McVey"
> <[email protected]> wrote:
>
<snip of a good thread, saved to the local disk>
I think the both of you have it right.
The thing to remember about other generations is that tastes sure do
change...
A favorite comment from my father recently, on viewing old family pictures,
had us both laughing. "How did such fine looking people, such as we are,
descend from these homely folk?"
If I had to choose between the dresser, and the sense of humor, as
inheritance from my family, I'd take the humor.
May your daughter receive both. With love from her dad.
Patriarch
If it has no particular value as an antique, I'd go the whole route with
refinishing, replace soft drawer runners with maple, everything you
suggested. If you don't want your daughter to keep it in the basement
for storage of odds and ends, make it as nice to live with in appearance
and function as you can and ignore the risk of ruining it's antique value.
FWIW
bob g.
Tom Watson wrote:
> (Pictures are on ABPW.)
>
>
> This bureau came to be in my shop when my wife's Aunt moved into an
> assisted living facility about five years ago. She's about ninety and
> all I know is that it was in her parent's home before it was in hers.
>
> She thought, "Tom might be able to do something with it."
>
> I don't know for sure but I figure that it may have come from one of
> the old furniture stores in Philadelphia, rather than straight from a
> maker's shop. There are no maker's marks or tags on the piece. It
> shows some handwork in the drawer dovetails and carving. The primary
> wood is mahogany and the secondary is mostly poplar. There are no
> dust panels and the drawers simply ride on cleats, of which few are
> left.
>
> It has a white marble top, flecked with gray, which is not shown in
> the pictures.
>
> My best guess is that it was constructed somewhere between the 1880's
> and 1920 but that is a flat out guess.
>
> I finally got around to giving it a lookover this morning and the old
> thing has been through some hard times. Some of the molding detail
> has been broken off or abraided. The drawer runners are either gone
> or worn down to nothing. The bottoms of the drawer sides are either
> hollowed out or broken off.
>
> It does have an interesting burl veneer on the drawer faces, which
> doesn't show much, due to the condition of the finish.
>
> The essential joinery appears to be solid.
>
> The wheels on the bottom fit to the feet with tapered shafts, almost
> like a Morse taper.
>
> This isn't a piece that I am particularly attracted to on the merits
> of its design or execution. My real interest in it is in fixing it up
> for my daughter to have some day, simply because she would be the
> fourth or fifth generation of her family to have owned it.
>
> If it weren't for that, I'd probably toss it.
>
> My question is: How far should I go and what methods should I use?
>
> My WAG on this is that it would take about fifty shop hours to bring
> it back to pretty much how it looked when it was purchased.
>
> I don't think it has any historical value, except in the family sense
> but I could be wrong about that.
>
> Years ago I worked on some furniture that did have historical value
> and I would make my repairs in such a way as to be reversible and so
> as to be obvious that they were repairs. I'm not sure that's the way
> to go with this piece.
>
> My initial thought is to make the repairs as nearly invisible as
> possible, so as to have it look the way it did when it was new.
>
> I thought to knock the sides off the drawers, trim off the hollowed
> out bottoms of the sides, put a quarter inch maple rub strip on and
> sand the old and the new together - then shellac, rather than leave
> them raw, as they are now.
>
> I figured to make new runners out of maple, instead of the original
> poplar.
>
> Where surface moldings are broken or missing, I thought I'd run new
> ones and blend them in with the old.
>
> I haven't tested the finish yet but I thought to clean it up real good
> as a first step and then decide how far to take things. It is either
> shellac or a kind of varnish but is certainly not lacquer. I would
> like to get that burl to pop.
>
> Anyways, these are my poor thoughts. I am looking for wisdom and
> opinion, which I have often found to be in plentiful supply on the
> Hard Wreck.
>
>
>
>
> Regards,
> Tom.
>
> Thomas J.Watson - Cabinetmaker (ret.)
> tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet (real email)
> http://home.comcast.net/~tjwatson1
Hell, Tom, you know the philosophy of restoration as well as anyone, I
reckon. This piece might not have too much merit in your eyes (pretty
hideous, isn't it!), but it may well have in someone else's some day,
particularly since it is a family heirloom. So my take would be that I'd
give it the same respect as any other restoration job - you don't know its
historical value or monetary value to a collector, so err on the side of
caution.
You already know the following, but in case there's some enthusiastic
newbie about to take his belt-sander to Grandpa's Chippendale desk, I'll
list my own thoughts:
1. Do the very minimum to the piece to restore its function, prevent
further deterioration and present a good (_not_ immaculate!) appearance,
keeping as much original as is possible. Repair a component, rather than
replace it.
2. Use, where possible, techniques and materials appropriate to the
piece. And, as you comment, try not do anything which can't be undone at a
later date - you might have to revisit it in 5 or 10 years' time! This
rules out modern adhesives, biscuits, some finishes etc. Some of my worst
headaches have been tenon repairs , where some well-meaning fellow has
"fixed" a loose M&T by squirting in Araldite then banging in a couple of
nails to hold the joint together till it cured. Try getting that lot apart
with causing major damage.
3. Leave minor dings and dents alone - they're part of the patina. Dings
too large to ignore but too small to warrant an inlaid patch repair (I
believe you call them "dutchmen") can be filled with shellac stick - it's
easy to use, non-invasive and is reversible.
4. Where the damage is gross and badly affects the appearance of the
piece - such as your missing mouldings - any replacement wood wants to be of
the same type, and, preferably, age. If you need a _lot_ of moulding it may
be worth having a bit made up to the original profile, but generally it's
better to stick it yourself - if you don't have a matching moulding plane
(and few do nowadays) you can do a reasonable job with a scratch stock in
straight-grained stuff, filing the scraper to match the original profile.
It won't be perfect, but this very imperfection will help it to blend better
with the piece than would a perfect strip off a router.
5. Leave as much of the original finish as possible. Go for cleaning it
up, rather rather than refinishing. A mix of 2 parts soapy water, two parts
white spirit (mineral spirit to you), one part methylated spirit (denatured
alcohol to you), gently applied with 0000 steel wool will shift the old wax,
greasy handling marks and other gunk hiding the surface. Some people also
like to add 1 part ammonia to the mix. I like to add a couple of parts raw
linseed, but people on the "Wreck" flame me. Work on a small area at a time
and wipe it dry as you go - meths attacks shellac/french polish. It's a
good idea to test it on an out-of-sight area first.
6. If the finish is so far gone that it can't be recovered, then use
chemical means to strip it, rather than mechanical. Meths will remove
shellac and french polish. Aircraft dope thinners will remove cellulose
lacquer. An old oil varnish may be a tougher proposition, so use a solvent
stripper, sparingly. Don't use caustic strippers, since this may colour the
underlying wood. I repeat - no abrasives, other than, perhaps, fine steel
wool. Addendum to that - old varnish wich has gone very flaky and brittle
can sometimes be removed with a cabinet scraper. Do it gently enough, and
it won't hurt the underlying wood.
7. The new finish should be of the same type. Whatever you use, cut it
back lightly with pumice powder, fine scotchbrite or steel wool lubed with
RLO or mineral oil (you don't want a high gloss) and wax it. Proper wax
polish with beeswax and carnauba. Silicone wax should be confined to your
car.
8. The last thing you want is for the piece to look "as new". You want
it to look as if it's old, but it's been well-loved and cared for. One of
the most heart-breaking sights I've seen lately is a 300-year old offertory
box subjected to a ROS. The guy brought it into the pub to show off his
bargain and his restoration skills. He still isn't really speaking to me,
after I gave him my views, fuelled by several pints. The bloody thing is
older than your country, for Chrissake. 12 generations of honourable battle
scars wiped out in minutes. Twat.
9. The final thing I don't have to tell you is that shop hours don't
count when it's your daughter.
Well Tom, I guess I haven't told you anything you don't already know, so I
assume you're looking for some moral support in justifying all those hours,
or you're seeking to provoke discussion. Either way, it ain't a bad thing.
Enjoy the job (even if you think it's like trying to spit-shine a turd!)
Good to see you back, BTW.
Cheers,
Frank
Disclaimer to would-be restorers- the above represents my personal view (I'm
not a professional restorer, although like most long-term woodworkers, I've
done a bit), and is not necessarily comprehensive. Don't seek to sue me if
you fuck up your great-great-granny's Louis Quinze armoire!
"Tom Watson" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> (Pictures are on ABPW.)
>
>
> This bureau came to be in my shop when my wife's Aunt moved into an
> assisted living facility about five years ago. She's about ninety and
> all I know is that it was in her parent's home before it was in hers.
>
> She thought, "Tom might be able to do something with it."
>
> I don't know for sure but I figure that it may have come from one of
> the old furniture stores in Philadelphia, rather than straight from a
> maker's shop. There are no maker's marks or tags on the piece. It
> shows some handwork in the drawer dovetails and carving. The primary
> wood is mahogany and the secondary is mostly poplar. There are no
> dust panels and the drawers simply ride on cleats, of which few are
> left.
>
> It has a white marble top, flecked with gray, which is not shown in
> the pictures.
>
> My best guess is that it was constructed somewhere between the 1880's
> and 1920 but that is a flat out guess.
>
> I finally got around to giving it a lookover this morning and the old
> thing has been through some hard times. Some of the molding detail
> has been broken off or abraided. The drawer runners are either gone
> or worn down to nothing. The bottoms of the drawer sides are either
> hollowed out or broken off.
>
> It does have an interesting burl veneer on the drawer faces, which
> doesn't show much, due to the condition of the finish.
>
> The essential joinery appears to be solid.
>
> The wheels on the bottom fit to the feet with tapered shafts, almost
> like a Morse taper.
>
> This isn't a piece that I am particularly attracted to on the merits
> of its design or execution. My real interest in it is in fixing it up
> for my daughter to have some day, simply because she would be the
> fourth or fifth generation of her family to have owned it.
>
> If it weren't for that, I'd probably toss it.
>
> My question is: How far should I go and what methods should I use?
>
> My WAG on this is that it would take about fifty shop hours to bring
> it back to pretty much how it looked when it was purchased.
>
> I don't think it has any historical value, except in the family sense
> but I could be wrong about that.
>
> Years ago I worked on some furniture that did have historical value
> and I would make my repairs in such a way as to be reversible and so
> as to be obvious that they were repairs. I'm not sure that's the way
> to go with this piece.
>
> My initial thought is to make the repairs as nearly invisible as
> possible, so as to have it look the way it did when it was new.
>
> I thought to knock the sides off the drawers, trim off the hollowed
> out bottoms of the sides, put a quarter inch maple rub strip on and
> sand the old and the new together - then shellac, rather than leave
> them raw, as they are now.
>
> I figured to make new runners out of maple, instead of the original
> poplar.
>
> Where surface moldings are broken or missing, I thought I'd run new
> ones and blend them in with the old.
>
> I haven't tested the finish yet but I thought to clean it up real good
> as a first step and then decide how far to take things. It is either
> shellac or a kind of varnish but is certainly not lacquer. I would
> like to get that burl to pop.
>
> Anyways, these are my poor thoughts. I am looking for wisdom and
> opinion, which I have often found to be in plentiful supply on the
> Hard Wreck.
>
>
>
>
> Regards,
> Tom.
>
> Thomas J.Watson - Cabinetmaker (ret.)
> tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet (real email)
> http://home.comcast.net/~tjwatson1
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Robert Galloway wrote:
> If it has no particular value as an antique, I'd go the whole route with
> refinishing, replace soft drawer runners with maple, everything you
> suggested. If you don't want your daughter to keep it in the basement
> for storage of odds and ends, make it as nice to live with in appearance
> and function as you can and ignore the risk of ruining it's antique value.
But first make _sure_ that you couldn't buy two new houses with enough
change left over for a Learjet with the proceeds from selling it. Probably
be a good idea to get it appraised before messing with it. And it might
turn out to be worth more as firewood than as furniture in which case
there's no guilt at all associated with a complete rework.
> FWIW
>
> bob g.
>
> Tom Watson wrote:
>
>> (Pictures are on ABPW.)
>>
>>
>> This bureau came to be in my shop when my wife's Aunt moved into an
>> assisted living facility about five years ago. She's about ninety and
>> all I know is that it was in her parent's home before it was in hers.
>>
>> She thought, "Tom might be able to do something with it."
>>
>> I don't know for sure but I figure that it may have come from one of
>> the old furniture stores in Philadelphia, rather than straight from a
>> maker's shop. There are no maker's marks or tags on the piece. It
>> shows some handwork in the drawer dovetails and carving. The primary
>> wood is mahogany and the secondary is mostly poplar. There are no
>> dust panels and the drawers simply ride on cleats, of which few are
>> left.
>>
>> It has a white marble top, flecked with gray, which is not shown in
>> the pictures.
>>
>> My best guess is that it was constructed somewhere between the 1880's
>> and 1920 but that is a flat out guess.
>>
>> I finally got around to giving it a lookover this morning and the old
>> thing has been through some hard times. Some of the molding detail
>> has been broken off or abraided. The drawer runners are either gone
>> or worn down to nothing. The bottoms of the drawer sides are either
>> hollowed out or broken off.
>>
>> It does have an interesting burl veneer on the drawer faces, which
>> doesn't show much, due to the condition of the finish.
>>
>> The essential joinery appears to be solid.
>>
>> The wheels on the bottom fit to the feet with tapered shafts, almost
>> like a Morse taper.
>>
>> This isn't a piece that I am particularly attracted to on the merits
>> of its design or execution. My real interest in it is in fixing it up
>> for my daughter to have some day, simply because she would be the
>> fourth or fifth generation of her family to have owned it.
>>
>> If it weren't for that, I'd probably toss it.
>>
>> My question is: How far should I go and what methods should I use?
>>
>> My WAG on this is that it would take about fifty shop hours to bring
>> it back to pretty much how it looked when it was purchased.
>>
>> I don't think it has any historical value, except in the family sense
>> but I could be wrong about that.
>>
>> Years ago I worked on some furniture that did have historical value
>> and I would make my repairs in such a way as to be reversible and so
>> as to be obvious that they were repairs. I'm not sure that's the way
>> to go with this piece.
>>
>> My initial thought is to make the repairs as nearly invisible as
>> possible, so as to have it look the way it did when it was new.
>>
>> I thought to knock the sides off the drawers, trim off the hollowed
>> out bottoms of the sides, put a quarter inch maple rub strip on and
>> sand the old and the new together - then shellac, rather than leave
>> them raw, as they are now.
>>
>> I figured to make new runners out of maple, instead of the original
>> poplar.
>>
>> Where surface moldings are broken or missing, I thought I'd run new
>> ones and blend them in with the old.
>>
>> I haven't tested the finish yet but I thought to clean it up real good
>> as a first step and then decide how far to take things. It is either
>> shellac or a kind of varnish but is certainly not lacquer. I would
>> like to get that burl to pop.
>>
>> Anyways, these are my poor thoughts. I am looking for wisdom and
>> opinion, which I have often found to be in plentiful supply on the
>> Hard Wreck.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Regards,
>> Tom.
>>
>> Thomas J.Watson - Cabinetmaker (ret.)
>> tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet (real email)
>> http://home.comcast.net/~tjwatson1
--
--John
Reply to jclarke at ae tee tee global dot net
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)
On Sun, 19 Sep 2004 14:31:31 -0400, Tom Watson <[email protected]>
wrote:
>(Pictures are on ABPW.)
>
>
>I don't think it has any historical value, except in the family sense
>but I could be wrong about that.
>
>
>I thought to knock the sides off the drawers, trim off the hollowed
>out bottoms of the sides, put a quarter inch maple rub strip on and
>sand the old and the new together - then shellac, rather than leave
>them raw, as they are now.
>
>I figured to make new runners out of maple, instead of the original
>poplar.
>
>Where surface moldings are broken or missing, I thought I'd run new
>ones and blend them in with the old.
>
>I haven't tested the finish yet but I thought to clean it up real good
>as a first step and then decide how far to take things. It is either
>shellac or a kind of varnish but is certainly not lacquer. I would
>like to get that burl to pop.
>
>Anyways, these are my poor thoughts. I am looking for wisdom and
>opinion, which I have often found to be in plentiful supply on the
>Hard Wreck.
>
>
>
>
>Regards,
>Tom.
>
>Thomas J.Watson - Cabinetmaker (ret.)
>tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet (real email)
>http://home.comcast.net/~tjwatson1
I'd go the whole 9 yards as it were, to repair this piece for family
use. I've done that myself for a table my sister gave me to work on.
She's using today at her home. I think it matters more to her and
hubby to use something hubby's mom and dad once used.
My repairs, while obvious, are not reversible. I used epoxy. Lots of
it.
On Mon, 20 Sep 2004 06:54:53 GMT, "Mike Hide" <[email protected]>
wrote:
>Took a look at the pics I think it is about turn of the century, I think
>there are power ;planer marks and certainly circular saw marks on the drawer
>bottom .
<snip of the part I really liked>
>
<beginning of the part that I didn't like>
>[By the way Tom your folks really did take a pounding at golf today]
<end of the part that I didn't like>
Thanks Mike. I'm coming to a feeling about this thing that is sort of
a mix of what you and Frank McVey are talking about - thanks for
taking the time to write - it helps.
Regards,
Tom.
Thomas J.Watson - Cabinetmaker (ret.)
tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet (real email)
http://home.comcast.net/~tjwatson1
On Mon, 20 Sep 2004 03:20:22 GMT, patriarch
<<patriarch>[email protected]> wrote:
>If I had to choose between the dresser, and the sense of humor, as
>inheritance from my family, I'd take the humor.
I did.
I'd have gotten more money for the dresser.
Thanks for the thoughts.
Regards,
Tom.
Thomas J.Watson - Cabinetmaker (ret.)
tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet (real email)
http://home.comcast.net/~tjwatson1