So I was given a rocking chair to restore that was my wife’s Grandfather’s when he was a child. Based on the family tree we estimate the chair was made around 1900. It’s clearly a production made chair and probably not historic or valuable but is sentimental to the family.
I’ve not done a lot of restoration work but thought it would be fun to give it a try. The finish is mostly gone – I’m guessing shellac but I plan to do some tests to be sure. It needs a thorough cleaning – not sure what to use here. The back of the seat also needs some repair where the cane holes are/were and the whole chair probably needs to be taken apart and re-glued.
The back splat and crest rail are missing so I will need to find some inspiration to come up with something the fits the style of the chair and type of wood. I’ve done some internet searches to see if I could find something similar without much luck.
If all goes well I will need to refinish and rebuild the cane seat.
I’m also thinking of making this my second YouTube video, again just for fun.
Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated – Thanks!
Replies
Without any certainty, I suspect that the crest rail (and possibly the back splat) were curved using thin layers laminated around a form. Might have been steam bent, but I've seen some plywood backs with a design pressed into them on a number of similar aged chairs.
It might have looked like this (sorry for the huge link):
https://www.ebay.com/itm/155323581696?hash=item242a01c500:g:RFoAAOSwWXphNMna&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAAwJJZTTWP2hwwJJnrJs%2BM95iHW9Xd9HP5UAHuKiQa37wZigo6aXVaaua8TIew6828aCzApUQdT5IiU%2Fk7j50Xx%2BoVIPT8R57Z77m0sP5B9UWpFNhWJJz4XlxrEU3E4YCf%2BCO8Z%2BzdgLTsgsssd%2FDmZuX8otuhvjKEm3D%2FNoKryPEGhbDBUw0jxptc3H%2F9GhFBf75kg%2B6aMBsLNCnVkYoRGD1psD8ngtIZs8T1uJhR39TYYc90hwimHJtwXikSURjrJg%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR-aUtafxYQ
It might be woth buying for the parts!
Awesome MJ! That sure looks like the same one. Thanks!
Several YouTube Channels have shown rocking chairs:
AT Restoration
Thomas Johnson
Fixing Furniture (closest to yours I think)
John's furniture repair
The last one has shown wicker work in the past and shows an advanced complete restoration of a wicker chair in one of her more recent posts.
A belated thanks to all. MJ’s link gave me an idea of what the back looked like and I watched several videos from the channels Rob listed. The restoration was a lot of fun and I recorded the process.
Here is a link to the YouTube video for part 1 where I rebuilt what I had. Part 2 will be coming in a couple of weeks where I build a new back, re-cane the seat and do the finishing.
https://youtu.be/eqkk3SGsMds
Enjoy!
Well it was more than a couple of weeks but I finally released the second part of the rocking chair restoration. In this one I make the curved back to replace the one that was missing. The photos in the link that MJ sent were instrumental in recreating the back. Thanks MJ!
The third and final episode should be out in a couple of weeks - really this time.
Enjoy!
https://youtu.be/oeh6Aken47U