(Free and) Easy Chair

So I am not sure what to call this type of chair exactly.  I tend to stay away from upholstered furniture unless it's in very good condition because I don't really have any experience doing upholstery. I have done a little but not too much and nothing very complicated.  I love the castors on this piece and the way the back sweeps out. But the condition is rough. The good news? The frame seems to be in good condition. That should give me a good chance to practice upholstery without also worrying about woodwork. I am going to tackle this project next so look for updates in the future.  I fear that for a free chair that it may cost me a bit to complete. I mean fabric does not grow on trees nor does horse hair for stuffing. I will try to reuse everything I can and make up for the rest. Luckily I have some webbing sitting around that I bought at auction for just such an occasion. 

Love those Legs

I mean this back goes WAY back. 

Undercarriage explosion

The back. I wish I could reuse this fabric but some cat got to it and just shredded it. Plus its pretty worn in the front.

Implosion 

A little detail on the front. 

More chairs

So Sunday I went back to the estate sale to see what they had left. Sunday or whatever the last day of the sale is tends to be half priced day around here. This means that there is less stock but cheaper prices. I find a good strategy is to buy what you want desperately at full price and then return to get other stock that you might otherwise pass on. So along with the child's rocker they had a box of chair parts and an easy chair in pretty rough shape. I was considering purchasing them at a price that would have totalled 10 dollars when the sale manager came out to  pack some things up before the end of the day. We got to talking about restoration and I told her about the child's rocker I picked up yesterday and showed her some pictures on my phone. She was tickled that I was working on it and rather than sell me the chairs or throw them away at the end of the sale she told me to just take them home and see what I could do. I asked what was in the box of parts and she said it was a Lincoln Rocker. I thought it looked like an eastlake chair but she would know better. Turns out we were both right.

Box'O Chair

More Box'O Chair

Sitting Chair

Child's rocking chair Part 1

Saturday morning I went to an estate sale. This child's rocker was in a box and four dollars. I hemmed and hawed about the issue and finally bought it. One of the rockers was split. I figured that I could repair it. Rockers are tricky to repair but they are not the worst thing in the world. When I got it home and started inspecting the joint I realized that it had split because the wood was worm eaten and soft. You could lift the piece and a fine wood dust would fall out. I decided that this would take two pins one from the top and one from the bottom. Because the wood was delicate I decided to use the hand drill. I then drilled out and pegged my break. It was then that I realized that if my break was fixed I would have a hard time fitting in my stretcher. So I stopped and prepared the whole piece for glue up. Then two hours later I had the whole buisness clamped up. It was a good time to quit because I had to get ready to go to work at the auction.

This is the chair seat "in the black" 

This is the fracture on the rocker. That is also my hand drill. I only managed to crush a little finger skin in it this time. Also in this picture is an antique hand c-clamp I picked up a few years ago. My workbench is an old sink vanity set I pulled out of a rubbish tip seven years ago. 

Another view of the seat. I am lucky that nothing on it needed repair. The arms appear to be hand carved.  

This is the broken rocker in the vise ready to be drilled. The pins worked pretty well but I still thought the joint was too weak. 

This is the start of the glue up. 

In this picture you can see the rot. I stabilised the wood, but its pretty weak here. You can see the worm holes in this picture as well. This oak dowel is proud and later I cut it down with my flush cut saw. 

Here is the whole child's rocker after reassembly and glue up. I let it sit here for several hours so the glue could set. 

This picture is out of order, but here are some stretchers. I ended up pulling them all apart so I could re-glue the joints. 

This picture shows the other side of the rocker in the vise. The next step was to drill it out to insert a pin.