Furniture Hardware. Keeping track.

When restoring furniture often this means taking pieces apart. But like taking a car engine apart, I am not just going to do grab all the hardware and put them in a box or a glass jar. Instead I am going to have holder laying out exactly where each piece of hardware came from. Often I use a piece of cardboard and just make a series of holes with a knife or an awl. Than I place the screws, nails, escutcheon pins, locks, handles, hinges, or whatever in a sequence that allows me the reassurance that everything goes back exactly where they came from. The holder can be made from cardboard or plywood or even hardwood. Lastly I make notations on the holders so that not only I can I install the hardware exactly, but that my subs can too. For example I will label a series of screws with the word left (L) and right (R) to make certain I don't flip the screws around. If L & R isn't enough I even label from what position I am looking at the piece when I wrote L & R. 

While this may be a simple tip it is amazing how useful it can be in the shop or onsite. 

Cheers.

Screws that won't budge. What to do.....

As a restorer  I often am taking something apart and reassembling it. Often the screws that I am removing are slotted. I know, I know. Most of you hate slotted. But I on the other hand love them. So what do you do when a screw doesn't want to budge? Well a long time ago I learned by heating the head of the screw with a soldering iron you can make the wood pull away from the heat. Also if you heat the screw hot enough, once the metal cools it shrinks just enough for the screw to  be loosen. The soldering iron tip I find the most useful is the one that tapers on all four faces and fits into the screw slot.  

Once the screw has been heated a very important too you will need is a proper screw driver that fits properly in the screw slot. Another great tip is to bevel the corners of the screw driver tip so it doesn't ruin the slot.  We restorers like to keep things nice and tidy. Lastly once you've heated the screw and everything is cooled down, make sure to first twist right to break any bond and than rotate left to remove the screw. 

The next blog post will be about keeping track of your hardware. So stay tuned for that. 

The $400 dollar handle.

The damage handle on the right. My reproduction on the left. 

Restorers love dogs! Especially if they enjoy chewing on furniture.  This was the case with the handle seen above. Often when the damage has occurred there is usually no going back and saving what was left. A new handle had to be made to match the rest of suite of furniture in the home.  Like everything in this field having to reproduce one of something is more time costly than making several.   

Once I shaped the handle using the original as a pattern I was able to cut close to the shape on the bandsaw, sand to my lines with the Rigid belt and spindle sander combo machine, and than router cut the rabbets on the edge. Rabbeting the edges was easy but what about the ends?

If I was making more than one than I would make a jig and pattern and flush trim the shape. But again its just one handle. So I traced the bottom reveal from the original handle and pared down to the line with my Lee Valley Pm\M-V11 chisel, which works and cuts like a dream.  If you want to read up more on that please visit:http://periodcraftsmen.blogspot.com/2016/12/lee-valley-veritas-pm-v11-chisels.html.

Once the rabbets around the whole edge was cut it was time to shape the quarter round. Sadly a router bit couldn't take care of this issue quickly so I had to use a scratch stock and cutter.  

Here is a view of the scratch stock and cutter working the ledge to shape. 

Another view of the cutter shaping the quarter round. The scratch stock made quick work of the lipping. 

Locating the cutter was simple because I had an original handle to match the location and desired shape. 

My favorite scratch stock cutters are old radius gauges. I own several that I use for its purpose in determining radiuses and for drawing. But one added bonus is to use them as scratch stock cutters. I know... I know this sounds crazy but these are often thrown away by many tool dealers. So why not give them another life.  

Once all the scratch stocking is done I proceed to further refining the edge with a carving tool. After a little sanding I am ready to cut the  groove for the banding. 

To cut the groove for the banding I used a straight bit mounted in a router table. I centered the groove to match the original. The banding I made for the handle came from old stock I had on hand and was the proper color. It may not be the same species as the original but its close enough.  I glued the banding with fish glue which is a protein glue, sets quickly, and dries in a couple hours.

Next comes the easy part, a little color, finish and wax. In the end this was a lot of work and I should of charged $400 but you live and learn. Just another day saving furniture. 

Cheers!