Restoration of an American Windsor Chair | Woodworking How To
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- Опубликовано: 21 июн 2019
- This restoration of a reproduction American Windsor chair shows how to repair through tenons and work with fish glue. This project is more challenging than the average chair repair because of the type of joints and the number of joints to glue together all at once. This chair is a type of American Windsor chair called a continuous-back arm chair.
Windsor chairs developed as casual, affordable chairs in England which were used in rural and cottage settings. As this chair style moved to British colonies in the early 18th century, the American style Windsor chair was developed in Philadelphia. The key difference in the English versus American style Windsor chair is the back. An English style Windsor chair has a pierced back splat and spindles whereas the American style is all spindles.
The Windsor chair style is defined by the seat and back. The seat is made of solid wood that is shaped to make it comfortable to sit on. The back is not part of the legs, but is separate from the legs. The four legs are connected to the seat with mortices. The back is connected to the seat with through mortices, wedged in place. Repairing Windsor chairs takes more skill than many other chairs due to the through mortice joinery.
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The Windsor chair looked wonderful when you finished restoring it. Thank you,
Thank you. I'm somewhat knowledgeable and found myself cringing at the techniques used by a lot of RUclipsrs.
Then I found your videos and everyone is a wealth of useful information. We picked up a very high quality hand made bow-back Windsor at an estate sale that needs some attention. This video taught me everything I needed to know. Thanks again.
Thank you for putting these videos together. I learned so much. I now know we have Windsor chairs, 6 of them. They all have their own variation of looses joints. So I also found the video on reinforcing the legs. Decided to comment on this one. Thanks again.
Thank you so much for demonstrating how to make the wedges
Hi Scott, thanks for the great video. These detailed videos of yours are very useful to me, I am a restorer and refurbisher in the South of England, although my woodworking is very much a work in progress. I have often shied away from attempting spindle and Windsor chair repair in the past as replacing the wedges which are common in them put me off... seemed like it was too difficult. You have removed the mystery for me and for that I am truly grateful. I am now searching locally for any I can buy!
I have nothing to say really, but I appreciate your content, and wish to help with the yt-algorithms.
Great video! Keep up the great work and videos, I am learning so much!
a work of art.
Great stuff, thanks!
Glad you liked it! Thanks. Scott
Thank you for the demo. It was helpful & really appreciate the fineness of your craft and attention to detail.
Glad it was helpful! Thank you. Scott
Thanks for an excellent video on a tricky repair
Thanks Don. I appreciate your ongoing support! Scott
You do very good work, and I like your calm demeanor. I have a part time furniture repair business too. I watch your videos to see what I can learn from you. In my opinion, old chair mortises get larger and the spindles get smaller as the chair dries out during use, therefore, I would have used epoxy instead of fish glue. It’s is stronger, fills gaps and is waterproof with the same open time as fish glue resulting in a more permanent repair. Much success, and many blessings.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this Thomas. The reason I used fish glue instead of epoxy is that it's a reversible glue. This is a piece worth saving, so if something breaks on it, the glue can be heated up, the joints taken apart, and the chair can be repaired as needed. Epoxy isn't. a reversible glue, so I only use it on rare occasions. Scott
Fixing Furniture thanks Scott.
Thank goodness you do this. I always pass on these kind of jobs. Hope you are well compensated. There just aren't many who would take on such a challenge!
It was the first of multiple chairs. It took me longer than I estimated, but will make up the time on the whole batch. Thanks for subscribing! Scott
I have learned a lot from your chair repair videos, thank you. I have a Windsor rocking chair with arms and 54 loose joints. Four of them are wedge joints through the seat and four are rectangular mortice and tenon joints in back panels. I am worried about open time on the glue for assembly. I suppose I should work on the legs first then attack the back and arms.
Yes, assembling the legs first makes sense. As you've seen in this video, the Fish glue I used from Lee Valley Tools has a good long open time for long assemblies. I hope that helps. Thanks for watching! Scott
Can you clean the old finish with soapy water before touching it up, or do you absolutely need to use mineral spirits?
Soap and water does an OK job, but it won't take off 100% of the dirt. Mineral spirits have the ability to cut through more sticky stuff while not damaging a finish. I hope that helps. Scott
Hi Scott, once again, amazing work. I’ve commented on your previous (maybe newer) videos, that I do furniture repair, and have recently come into finishing the pieces. Last month I worked on a repair that involved two broken chairs which were broken off the joint between the back and the leg of the chair. Only one side, so I have to saw off the other side in order to repair both sides with dowel inserts. The original vertical 1” dowel inserts had a 1/4” down inserted into them horizontally through the leg of the chair. I’ve repaired pieces before, but this was the first time I came across a dowel inserted into another dowel, basically making a cross inside the wood. I usually see screws where that 1/4” dowel was placed. Have you seen that type of assembly before, where a smaller dowel is inserted through a larger dowel in order to hold it in place? Oddly enough, the 1” dowel seemed to be made from compressed wood, the material was very dusty/flakey, and was falling apart when I rubbed it. I glued and clamped as you always demonstrate. I have to tell you though, boy was the finish an issue! The chair originally had a dark reddish brown dye, with a red mahogany stain and a black glaze finish. Imagine figuring that one out and trying to blend in the colors to match the rest of the piece. Thankfully I’m DONE with that project, but now that I have the experience, I’d love to do more, knowing exactly how to go forward with the repair. As always, your videos are a tremendous help. Thank you for your detailed step by step explanation of the process. Please take care of yourself and stay safe! God bless, Scott.
-Arno
I own a set of rocking chair that have a dowel through a dowel on the joint between the front of the arm and the seat. These are inexpensive rockers I bought from our front porch about 20 years ago, and I haven't seen another joint like it. It's good to hear you rose to the challenge and were successful in your repair. It sounds like you're more knowledgeable now given the experience... which is why furniture repair experts as so hard to find... it takes a lot of experience to know how to handle all situations. Thanks and you stay safe too. Cheers. Scott
Thank you for all you helpful videos. I have a American Boston Rocking chair. I believe it to be a early model replica but not sure. The chair needs to be redone as most of the joints are loose and the chair is very noisy when you use it. My question is, on the top plank on the back rest the spindles have dowels drilled and pressed in from the back to add to the joints on the spindles of the backrest. Would I need to drill those out before trying to separate the back spindles from the top backrest plank and the bottom chair seat.
Correction, I did a bit more research, it’s not a Boston Rocker. It’s a 1960’s S. Bent Bros Hitchcock Style Black Stencilled Country Colonial Rocker Rocking Chair.
Any tips on when assembling Ikea furniture. Is there anything we can do to make them a little more sturdier or stronger?
My only tip would be that if there are wooden dowels, glue them in place. Other than that, you're relying on mechanical fasteners, so be gentle with the furniture when you use it. Cheers. Scott
Hi Scott,, Great Videos!!!!. I have some S. Bent Windsor chairs that have loose legs. I have removed the legs following your videos and also removed the wedges. The legs into the seat have about 1/16" of play due to the fact that the legs have been loose for so long and have continued to be sat in. The seat is pine. Do you have a suggestion on how to make the holes a bit tighter before putting the wedges back in? Any help would greatly appreciated.
Your description of the repair is very clear and complete. Your camera work is excellent. Your narrative is very good. Your voice is very soft which is pleasing. However when the music comes on it is overly loud which is not pleasing. The piano is harsh which is also not pleasing. Last there is too much speed up video when you are gluing up and assembling. I don't need to see you glue every joint, especially at high speed. Show the first one or two and I get the idea. I realize this video is now a year old so maybe my comments are no longer relevant. Thank you for sharing.
Hi Glen. Thank you for your feedback. That's helpful as a video creator. Yes, my editing has matured a bit over the past year. My last video really cut down the glue up scenes but I'm also getting comments about people wanting to see the whole glue up end to end. Maybe I should put up one video that just shows a glue up in real time with no speed up for those type of viewers. Scott
I understand. If you ask 10 folks about their preference you will get 10 different opinions. Music seems to be a big issue. My preference would be none at all while some like the current junk and loud. I could mute but then I miss your commentary. My problem with speed up video is that it looks so frantic. To me it's almost exhausting just to watch. And as I mentioned, repetition is a problem. If there are 10 spindles to be glued, then by the second one I got it. No need to show the next 8. Well I seem to be repeating myself. Thank you for putting up with me. No matter how it comes out you do good work. Thanks.
Glen Crandall thanks for your thoughts Glen. I will keep your suggestions in mind for future editing. Thank you. Scott
I use a leather strop with a honing compound, why then do you use a 'clean' leather without the honing compound? I'm guessing it is a further refinement. Does it make a difference to the sharpness of the blade? Also, did I hear somewhere that you sharpen your plane blades to an angle of 40 degrees?
Yes, the clean leather side is for future polishing of the cutting edge. To be honest, I haven't tried not using the clean leather side to see if it makes a difference in the cutting action. It does visibly show a difference.
For plane blades, I use the standard 25 degree angle. Do you sharpen to 40 degrees? If so, do you notice a difference in the cutting action?
Love this chair, but all the curves will be a modern manufacturing nightmare. I just wish people like furniture with tasteful curves more.
Good point. Steam bending curves like this take labour and that's not conducive to mass production. There are some great chair makers who still make handmade chairs such as Curtis Buchanan.
Where do you get your honing compound?
Who was that on the piano?
It was Music provided by RUclips to creators and to be honest, I didn't document the name of the song. Sorry. Scott
I consciously liked the glue-up piano music.
This must have been a stressful repair to do. I don't know how you... COPE.
It would have been stressful 5 years ago, but that falls away with experience. The key is choosing the right glue for the open time. Cheers. Scott
@@FixingFurniture Dude... What type of saw did you use for cutting out the wedges?
James Kautz oh, the coping saw! Sorry, we have hundreds of hours in footage - I didn’t recall that. Nice one! Scott
@@FixingFurniture 😊 I love your videos by the way. I handle claims for a moving company so seeing how furniture repair vendors work is very insightful.
There are many similar projects in Woodprix's plans.
Sorry, but a mirror finish does NOT mean that a chisel or plane blade is sharp. However, a mirror finish MAY be very sharp but a highly polished edge should never be the goal. It's misleading to think so. It's not how the blade looks but rather how it feels and performs. A matte finish requires less time and fewer grits but can still be very sharp. I own only three diamond stones and a strop, sharpen freehand and use no jigs. My chisels are cheap carpenter brands. I've settled on this way because it is economical and less complicated. It takes practice and patience to endure the learning curve, but once you "get it" it's yours forever. Oh, one last thing. Don't watch a thousand videos thinking there is a big secret to be revealed. Better to practice!
What's wrong with making the wedges on your miter saw
Why you try to make this stuff look so hard when it's really not