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| Restoring Antique Rocking Chair |
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The truth is, there are hundreds of furniture restores all over the world who fix, repair and re-finish old and antique furniture every day. I believe these restores do a service by preserving these valuables by making them able to withstand the next 100 years. The question I had, was what to do with an antique rocking chair that I was commissioned to restore. Such was the case with this chair. I was asked to repair the chair because all the glue joints had come loose and the entire chair was about to fall apart, literally it was unsafe to sit in. When I looked at the chair I could see that it was entirely constructed of what looked like 3/8" dowels (they appeared to be dowels made of popular). I could also see that someone had tried to repair the chair about 20 years earlier and had not taken the chair apart, but had tried to inject some sort of polyurethane glue, like Gorilla Glue or similar, into the joints to try to fix them. It appears this worked somewhat but was not a long lasting repair. 
The Restored Chair, Back in the Owners Living Room I also found out from the owners of the chair that it was constructed by a family member some time around 1910, which makes it around 100 years old. Other thing we knew was that the owners of the chair wanted it to be a part of their life, they wanted the chair to be a usable chair in their living room and that it was not going to stuck over in a corner and never used. With this knowledge we knew we had some challenges ahead. Original Machine Marks from Builder of the Chair Using dowels is not a bad use of joinery for some projects, I just prefer to use old fashioned mortise and tenon joints in chairs. I feel that there is too much strain and tension on chair parts to leave to just dowels, depending of course on the chair design. I felt this chair was not an ideal candidate for dowels, but that is what we had to work with and to restore. Another area of concern for both me and the owners of the chair was the way the arms attached. The front of the arms was passable (barely) but at the back of the arm, it was attached to the upright with only one 3/8" dowel, and a 2" finishing nail pounded through from the outside. Not an ideal joint for a chair component that would undergo considerable strain every time some entered or exited the chair. My greatest concern was to repair the chair without disturbing any of the original finish on the chair. It was quite evident that the original maker had only usage of rudimentary tools as there is a lot of tool marks all over the chair that I did not want to disturb. I also needed to so something with the arms of the chair to reinforce them without taking away from the "original look" of the chair.
Reinforcing Bocks Added Under the Front and Back of Each Arm After disassembling the entire chair, I felt that simply putting slightly larger dowels in throughout the chair, then glueing them all back together would work. Ha !!! no way !! The problem was that some parts of the dowels had to be removed, they didn't all come out cleanly and making larger holes for larger doweling simply would not work for every joint as much of the chair was constructed of about 3/4" material so drilling larger holes would start to compromise the strength of tha wood and those joints. In the end, in most cases simply cleaning out the old doweling and cleaning out the old holes and re-inserting new Oak doweling was perfect. The glue for MOST of the chair was ordinary yellow carpenters glue, although 2 or 3 joints were re-joined with a polyurethane glue. This is because with a bit of moisture, polyurethane glues actually expand inside the joint. This was require in a couple of areas because inserting a larger dowel would not have worked, and the holes and the dowels were not a nice tight fit. Like many projects I take on, I though I could do this one in a couple of days ... again AH !!! almost 2 weeks later I completed the last glue-up and finished the chair. I must say I was very happy with the final job and so were the owners of the chair. The arm was reinfoirced with a couple of angle block, that could at a later date be removed absolutely necessary to restore the chair to it's original shape. I decided NOT to use screws to reinforce the angle blocks, but to let the yellow carpenters glue do it's work. I have great faith in it. This was a very interesting project ... re-building an old piece while maitaining as much history as possible. I'm not sure I am looking forward to doing more of this work, building from scratch still has a much greater appeal. Copyright - Colin Knecht 
Comments (11)
  written by Colin, February 05, 2011
John, It would be really nice if you could figure out a way adding the wood without using filler or epoxy. I would really like to see some pictures of the area you are talking about as I can't really visualize it clearly in my mind. We could also post something in the forums and see what other ideas and suggestions other woodworkers have. Send us a memo through the "Contact Us" link with your email and I will get back in touch to get the photos.
Let's see if we can give you some ideas to help you with this important project  Colin - Woodworkweb
 written by John Blackwell, February 07, 2011
Hi Colin and thanks for the reply. I have the photos of the pieces of the rocking chair in question. My email addy is theclockmakersshop@yahoo.com.
I will contact you thru the contact us and wait for your instructions. Thanks again John
written by nancy grenfell, June 01, 2011
the mortise is separating. you sit in a chair with peril. I have about 4 or 5 all separated out and would like to "glue" properly , preparing the inserts properly... The 3 unarmed and 3 armed are starting to separate. All the caning in the seats is gone, but we've made boards and covered.....for the time.. I would like a video or print.. I have the rubber mallet... and electric "drills" and gentle sanding to clean the entries... Thank you..
written by Colin, June 02, 2011
Hi John, sorry, but I think your note somehow got broken up somewhere, but it sounds like you have some mortise and tenon chairs that need restoring. If you are willing to tackle the job yourself, it sounds like you will need to dis-assemble the chairs, clean the joints lightly, then re-glue them. Make sure that you mark each piece so you know where they go. I used blue painters masking tape. It holds well and you can write on it.
Hope this helps ... all the best with your project, and if you have questions, post them in the forums so others can see them and respond to them to help you out too Thanks again for your comments Colin
written by Linda, October 27, 2011
I have a stickly rocker with slat back, and one is broken. How do I put new one in without yanking it all apart. Also the leather seat was PAINTED! WHAT kind ifc remover can I use on leather.my rocker looks almost like the one on picture.
written by Cassidy M., December 30, 2011
I enjoyed reading your article as I too am hopign to restore an old rocking chair. It had been left outside by previous owners and has some weather damage, but I think sanding can solve most of that problem. I was wondering though what to do about the squeaks. I am relativly new to this all so was unsure where to start. I've read everything from putting baby powder on the joints to shooting it full of the expaning glue. How do you go about deciding what action to take first? Do you have a list of less extreme to more extreme courses of action? Any ideas would be helpful.
written by Colin, December 31, 2011
Hey Cassidy, thanks for your note. I must confess I have never heard of putting baby powder on a squeaky chair, will have to try that one day.
The squeak is coming because a joint, actually probably more than one joint, is loose. I think I would try the expanding glue in joint and try that. Read the instructions for the glue too, some times they have additional tips. Sometimes you can take apart just a couple of joints, but try the expanding glue first. Another place to check is to see if you can replace the cross bracing (if there is some) under the seat, the cross bracing that will hold the legs and seat frame together add a lot of strength so this is a good area to concentrate on too. The last resort would be to completely disassemble and reassemble the chair. Hope this helps, great to have you with us Colin
written by Amy Gilliland, February 18, 2012
Hi, I just wanted to say, i have recently bought an old rocking chair very much like the one you worked on in this video. Some kid must have been given it to do what ever they wanted. They painted a PEACE sign on the back panel. They used a yarn cover to put over the seat. Ive taken all the yarn off to find out their are springs in the seat. Im debating should i cut those out and build up a seat or try to keep the springs.Its definitely taking on a big project but will be rewarding in the end.
written by Colin, February 19, 2012
Hi Amy, congrats on your purchase of the old rocking chair
Sounds like you have bit of a project ahead of you, but yes it will be worth in the end for a number of reasons. Not sure what to recommend with your seat. If you are not into working with the springs, and they can can be tricky, I agree that it might be easier to replace with a nice padded seat (I also happen to prefer sitting on a padded seat rather than the springs). What ever you decide, if you don't like it, it can always be redone another way. We would love to see some pics of your progress, and of your finished work. Colin
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My great GF was a carpenter and woodworker from a long line of carpenters and woodworkers. He built many beautiful items for my great grandmother, that I wish I could have gotten my hands on before the family sold the old homestead and log cabin, with furnishings. I don't know what they were thinking when they let all those items go away with the log cabin. Oh well, I was much too young at the time to realize what was happening. Hindsight, just a bit too late unfortunately.
Anyway, like your project, he used the dowels to connect all the parts of the chair. I also have to replace the old cane back which is not a major problem since I have done that before on many other projects.
One problem I do have to solve is that where the chair arms attached to the back uprights is that the wood has actually split out from the heavy use over the years and those small areas at the back of the chair arm that split are missing, leaving a void in the bottom and slightly on the side of the chair arm. surrounding the dowel. So, those areas have to be repaired and the missing wood replicated to restore as much of the original chair arm as possible.
I am experimenting with different ways to accomplish replacing the missing wood, but haven't come up with a satisfactory plan just yet. I thought about mixing an epoxy material and blending it with a stain to match the rest of the chair but am afraid it may be seen from the sides and may not match very well the wood grain. I will play around a little more, experimenting with wood fillers and other such materials until I come up with the best method appearance wise.
Those missing areas are fairly large but not large enough to cut a piece of replacement wood and gluing it into the voided areas so that method is not really an option unless I cut more out of the original arm which I don't want to do.
Any suggestions on this needed repair? Or anything I have failed to think about in my haste that you can see?
Thanks again for the videos. Always helpful and interesting to learn what other woodworkers do with similar projects. Keep them coming!
John Blackwell
Sand Springs, Oklahoma