Step 1: THE DAMAGE

The chair was damaged in two places. One of the legs was broken and it was an easy glue together fix. The other was the very edge of the seat where a hinge was. To replace the entire seat would ruin the chair since the seat was not only glued but screwed in place.

Step 2: TRIMMING OFF THE DAMAGE

This chair was made from soft pine. I decided to replace the front edge of the seat with a strong wood and used oak. First, I had to trim off the broken part. I set the circular saw to the proper depth, used the oak board as a guide against which to run the foot of my circular saw, and trimmed the broken part of the seat off.

Step 3: THE REPAIR PIECE

I trimmed the oak board to the exact width of the seat and rounded over the edges to match the round over of the library chair seat. My sharpening stone is also a jig for setting 22.5°and 45°degree angles on my table saw. I trimmed the oak board to the proper depth and proper 22.5° angle.

Step 4: ATTACHING THE REPAIR

First, I checked the fit. Then I marked the placement of the hinges. I glued the repair piece in place. I drilled 3 pilot holes between the location of the hinges, secured the piece with trim screws, counter sunk the head of each screw and used bamboo skewers to plug the holes, and trimmed and sanded smooth when glue dried.

Step 5: MORTISING FOR THE HINGES AND STAIN

I took my time mortising for the hinges. The stain took some finessing to get it to match since oak and pine absorb differently.

Step 6: ALL FIXED

I clamped the two parts of the Library Chair together, drilled pilot holes, and hand-screwed the soft brass screws in rather than using a drill. I could feel the oak really grab the screws and knew I had a good repair. The oak did stain a bit differently from the pine, but all-in-all not too shabby. The main thing is that it is once again functional. Ben Franklin would be proud.

Let me know what you think.