A Hand Carved Hickory High Chair

Check out this little high chair.   It's completely handmade--hand carved out of Hickory branches! It is a really fun story,  and it's a fun story to re-tell.

As you may know already,  the business name,  WoodTalkin, was chosen because of the stories pieces, like this little chair's, whisper to us. And they deserve to be listened to.  So bend your ear this direction for just a minute.

 My customer brought this little chair in the door and described how it had been in his family for several generations.  He didn't know who originally fabricated it--perhaps a great grandfather. The issue for them at this particular point in time--the reason he brought it to the shop--was because it was really rickety, unsafe for a child to sit in.  So he asked me to make it safe again.

 Well, as you may know, literally everything I do in the shop boils down to time and materials for work done. And this little chair was going to be a project requiring complete disassembly in order to clean and re-glue all the joints.  That appeared initially an easy enough task to accomplish, and in a reasonable amount of time.  Well so much for 1st blush conclusions.  When I began the task to disconnect the joints and pull the chair apart, I realized all the joints had been pinned with tiny nails. Ugh!

These were "wire nails"--production made.  People began using wire nails--slowly graduating from the use of blacksmith-made steel nails--in the late 1800s. Then they gradually replaced hand made steel nails in the United States and Great Britain.

 I had to carefully locate the nailhead(s) in each joint, dig that little nail head out of its position--enough so that at least I could grab it and pull it out--and then move to the next joint.  And I soon discovered some of the joints had several  embedded nails. So,  I needed to get back on the phone with my customer to let him know how and why  this effort was going to take longer and cost more than any of us had anticipated.  (Ongoing customer collaboration is key to good customer relationships!)

 Having to dig all these little details out of these joints left some nasty scars on the chair (look closely). Each of these little holes then had to be filled and then re-stained to match the surrounding patina, or blend it to compliment it.

 When I was able to start pulling the joints apart, I concluded this wasn't the 1st time these little joints had been re-glued. The glue in these joints was not in every case the old glue one would expect to find in a chair made in the late 1880s.  Some of the joints  appeared to have the old glue, but others were sporting glue contemporary of the past 35 or 40 years. Hmmm. So the chair's joints were probably  "pinned" together in a previous re-glue effort. In fact, the finish  was also unmistakably contemporary. This sweet hand-made highchair had been re-glued and and refinished at some point in the comparatively recent past.

 One of the handmade spindles fitting into the yoke of the seat's back was badly deteriorated. With antiques I don't re-make a spindle and put it in place with the old ones. So,  I removed the spindle from the yoke and cut off the portion that was damaged beyond repair. I placed a new piece of Hickory into the spindle,  glued and shaped it to accommodate both the figure and fit, and reintroduced it into this beautiful hand-carved yoke medly .  Then it was time to re-glue all the pieces and the chair back together. Wow, fun stuff!  

Such a fun little piece.  My customer was happy.  This little beauty is going back home to grand kids. I'm happy!

That's WoodTalkin for today. Thanks for listening. Merry Christmas!

Dick

A Sendipitous Acquisition!

This little vanity desk is just one piece of a bedroom suite.
Hi Everyone! In a past several months, I had the privilege to refinish all the suite's pieces except a headboard and a footboard. My customer reported how he acquired the pieces from a distant family member who initially purchased them second-hand, used them for a while, and then gave them to him.




attractive little vanity desk

I was first introduced to these in my customer's garage--each waiting for some needed attention. I could see he had some keepers (click here)! It was clear to me these were good quality pieces of furniture, but that's a kind of observation my customers can't necessarily  make. They don't get to see the variety in styles and construction I routinely work with in the WoodTalkin shop. So, it was my privilege to help him make some observations about each item, and those ramped up his appreciation for what he had serendipitously acquired.

nasty stain

A two-drawer bedside table (with a nasty stain in the top), a dresser, a vanity chair, and a small desk chair. For the most part all of these pieces were in reasonably good condition, considering their age. They had no structural problems, warps, or veneer losses. The bedside table had a broken toe on a back leg and the vanity had a similar toe insult. All the pieces were original finish, except the vanity. It had been painted white, so trying to get all the paint out of the vanity, replacing the veneer on the side table's top, and fabricating two new toes were probably the biggest challenges.

refabricated ear

My customer planned to self-replace the upholstered back on the vanity's chair. So, my goal with that piece was to support her effort. I refinished the chair and replaced its broken right "ear" (see pic, right) on the back of the chair so she could expertly upholster up to and around it.  

So, here are a few pics of the finished items--all happily ready to go home.


front to back: vanity chair, desk chair, and bedside table



seven-drawer dresser



The pieces are finished in a Matt luster and in a stain chosen by my customer. As mentioned above, they plan to reupholster the vanity's chair and also the seat cover on the desk chair. 

pretty little vanity and a new toe

The vanity has really pretty original antique brass pulls--but they are not shown in this pic. (I forgot to get that pic.) If you look really carefully you can see the back left foot of the vanity--it's no longer missing. So, there you go, a really fun project that reinvigorates this little bedroom suite for another generation. (Don't you wish we could all do that for one another!)

That's Wood Talkin for today. Furniture has a story to tell--so let's pay attention. Call me or text me for free in-home estimates, trouble-shooting, or some fun discussion.

Dick Brandow

720-3450-2992 cell/text

 

 



 

A Return from Ebony

Here's a fun one. As it turned out this little beauty didn't present any huge challenges. But it did offer at least a fun surprise. What you see is the way it looked the first time my customer contacted me. They texted me this pic, below. It's a darkly refinished White Oak Sideboard, probably @1910. He purchased it several years ago from an antique dealer. I suspect the dealer refinished the piece adding several contemporary touches, including the ebony patina and some hardware well outside the sensibilities of its historical character.

A natural wood look is more in keeping with my customer's present tastes, so that discussion and its mental picture guided the restoration effort. Considering the wear and tear of years, my customers also wanted what would have been the period hardware replaced on the piece. Some period brasses that were still on the piece offered us the direction we needed in purchasing replica replacement pieces, so that's what we did.


Below you see the finished product. Is that fun or what!

And as I suggested above, there were no huge surprises with this effort. However, there was this one fun little caveat.


During the restoration process the mirror was removed and stored away to permit the removal and restoration of the mirror frame. As I pulled the screw fasteners and removed the mirror I observed that a screw was missing from the hole on the back left (non-facing) side of the mirror frame. Hmmm. The question of it's removal, and for what reason, became abundantly clear later, when I replaced the mirror back into the refinished frame and then re-mounted the frame to the back of the sideboard.

Do you see those little shelves on either side of the mirror?

Those little shelves are largely supported by a single screw that extends from the back of the mirror frame and into each little shelf. When the screw from the back side of the mirror is placed appropriately to support the shelf on the left (facing side) of the mirror, the shelf tilts slightly and awkwardly up! Why? Because when the hole was initially drilled at the factory, 100 years ago, the installer--having his own BAD DAY--drilled the hole slightly high--too high for the shelf to be level with the mirror! Is that cool or what. I think that's kinda fun. We all do that stuff...it's a human sort of thing. I've provided a bigger and a little more frontal pic of the sideboard too, so you can see it as it was in the shop before the final work was completed. You can see the left shelf, yup, it's just a tad high. I think it's a feel-good observation that reminds us we're all family members of the larger human condition. So, let's cut ourselves & each other just a little slack.


That's Wood Talkin for today. Hope you have a fun week too.


Dick