We are refinishing our cabinets this spring and have decided to try to repair a problem that has existed for the 24 years since the cabinets were installed. The cabinet company bought the doors and did not know how to apply the knife hinges so they used a saw and cut several grooves next to each other in the back side of the doors with the result that the front side blew out and splintered. We have looked at this for all this time and cursed the woodworker that did it. I would love to have a good suggestion on how to fix it. My best guess at the moment is to route a square or bullet shaped groove across the door (perpendicular to the face) where the damage is and try to clean it up. I could also take a little bit off the edge and the bevel to clean those surfaces up. I don’t know how to insert a photo or I would. It would help this discussion a lot! Thanks for any help.
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Hi,
Search the internet (this site first) for an article on "repairing common woodworking mistakes".
I read one by one of the major WW magazines in the last three months that show you how to do just that.
Based on what I remember, repairing the wood will be somewhat "simple", i.e., get a piece of the same type of wood, pick a place in your sample with "similar" grain. Mark out a "patch" where you intend to remove the flaw - for example, 1/8 inch thick, by 3 inches long, by the width of the style. Cut yourself a similar, but slightly larger (thicker, wider, longer) patch, etc, etc. In essence, you want to inlay the patch into the removed area, and scrape, sand, plane - however, until it blends in perfectly, mechanically. You should practice on scrap until you are confident that you can inlay the patch before you try this on your door. There's a learning curve here - you won't do it right the first time. Look at your attempt on scrap and and figure out why not, and try it again, etc, etc.
That's the easy part. Then use dyes and/or stains to match the patch to the rest of the piece. Repair the finish at the junction.
Now you have a door stile with no hinge mortise in it. Now put the hinge mortise in that you would have, had you been doing the work in the first place.
Hope this helps. I'm sure that there are lots of ways to do this, but this will get you started thinking about it in light of the tools and skills that you possess.
Good Luck,
Mike D
There are a number of knife style hinges, Joe. You may be able to "pretty" the slots up with a router. You will have to build a jig to position the router and limit the distance it cuts into the door. A straight bit is often used first, to cut the appropriate size slot, this will clean up the existing saw cuts. After the straight bit, you can use a V shaped bit. The type you use for sign making. You should be able to use the same jig. The V bit will chamfer the edges of the slot and leave a nice rounded edge where you stop. If you have two routers it's easier, one straight, one V. When making the jig, make sure the router can't move either left or right. The existing slots could make the router climb and difficult to control.
Beat it to fit / Paint it to match
Hi Joelll ,
It's hard to say without a picture of the edge detail but ,,,, if I understand your problem correctly , one approach would be to rip the edge off until the damage is gone , reglue a piece back on and re shape and slot for the knife hinges again re finish to match .
hope this helps dusty
Yep,
That's way easier than "my" approach.
Mike D
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