Bad Joints #1

The chair to the left is sitting in our shop right now, obviously in need of a bit of repair.  When I took a look at this un-done joint,  I was amazed at the horribly bad engineering.  No wonder the arm came loose from the seat of this chair.  When I saw this joint, I realized, some poor person had purchased this chair set, having no idea that they were making a sad decision.  So I thought for your educational benefit,  I would help you avoid such pitfalls when next you decide you need a new dining set.

The first thing that I notice about this joint is that someone tried to use a tiny little swirl of glue to adhere a flat surface to a ridged surface.  The problem with this, is that only on the few areas where the ridges meet the flat, will the glue be any good.  And the glue was only used in a little swirl which makes it even worse.  Perhaps had the glue actually been applied to the entire flat surface,  the joint would have lasted longer.  But ultimately you can not expect glue to hold together a flat surface to a ridged one.  They tried to supplement the glue by using a bolt, screwing from the inside underneath of the seat out into the arm.  But once the glue failed,  all the stress was on the bolt.  The arm would have immediately become wiggly.  And all that wiggling would eventually have caused the the stiff bold to break down the pliable wood, which would eventually then have broken. 

So,  when looking at chairs,  if you see an attractive contoured base to the seat,  take a close look and see if there is any gapping between the seat and the arm.

Now just for contrast I want to show you this chair which is over 200 years old.  Yes, it is in our shop for repair,  but this chair lasted 200 years before breaking,  instead of the handful that the first chair lasted.  You can see from the upper image of the chair that it is the same sort of issue,  an arm, which has come detached from the seat. But upon looking at the lower image, we can see why it lasted for so long.  First off,  there are two flat surfaces which are being glued together.  and in addition,  the arm is cut into the seat a little bit which gives more area for the glue to bind.   The second thing I want you to notice is that instead of using a bolt to give added support to the glue,  two wooden dowels connect the pieces.  The grain on the dowels runs across the joint (rather than with it).  This cross grain makes the joint very difficult to break.  

Remember this about wood vs metal.  If wood and metal ever get into a disagreement,  the metal will always win.   The ax chops the wood, not the other way around.  So if you have a joint which is partially enforced by metal,  if the glue ever fails,  then the metal piece will wear down the wood over time, and your repair will be even tougher.

I always recommend, when you are looking to fill out your furniture repertoire, buy old!  You will get a much better quality of wood, glue, joints, finish, etc.    You may need to do a little fixing up,  but once that fixing up is done,  it should last you a very, very long time.

Another 'Modern Furniture' Cautionary Tale...

Most of the furniture we work with here at the shop are antiques or good quality newer furniture,  but from time to time we get a piece in which makes us sad for our client, and mad at the maker.  You see, so often when modern furniture is made, there are shortcuts taken in the building process which the buyer is oblivious to.  We have had coffee tables come in that are completely made out of cardboard!  We often have pieces arrive that are pressboard or 'particle board' covered in veneer, it is like a wolf in sheep's clothing.  

This time we had a bed frame come to us for stripping.  It was a sturdy looking bed frame with a dark finish.    We put it through the stripping chemicals with no problems and all the finish came off just as it should have.  But then, when it was put in our 'neutralizing bath', we discovered something very sad.  The curved 'sleigh' top of the footboard began to bubble up and stretch as you can see in the top photo.  It was only then that we discovered, that the curved section had been made out of particle board and then covered in paper that was printed with a wood grain on it.  The glue holding the paper on failed and the paper could easily be pulled away from the particle board.   

This means that in the building process, the makers decided to have a curved particle board section pressed into the shape they wanted, instead of having actual wood carved into that same shape.  They chose to do an inexpensive short cut.  Unfortunately it is not inexpensive to fix the mess that has now been made because of that short cut.  The hard thing here, is that so often, there is no way to easily determine whether short cuts were made, before buying a piece of modern furniture. 

The best way to ensure that the piece of furniture you are purchasing is going to me made out of wood, not wood dust, paper or cardboard, is to buy older furniture.  The older it in the safer you are, but just as a point of reference,   Particle Board was introduced in the 1950s,  became widespread in the 1960s, and since the 1970s it's use has been refined, but is still commonly found in furniture of all levels of 'quality'.   If you are planning on purchasing modern made furniture, make sure you do your research.  If you went out to purchase a car, or a home, I am sure you would ask all kinds of questions to make sure that you were getting the best item for your money.  Do the same thing when you go out to purchase your bed frame, dinning table, hutch, etc and you will at least have smaller odds of getting a piece of junk.  

Cautionary Tale Against Modern Furniture

This is yet another cautionary tale against purchasing newly made furniture.  Old furniture you can count on, when it looks like wood, it is wood.  But new furniture, a person never knows.  That is what happened to the unfortunate owner of this coffee table.  It appeared to be made out of wood, then painted  black.  It even had a noticeable wood grain. The coffee table was made with just two legs,  one on each side, and they ran the width of the table.  One of them broke off.   It was only then, that the true nature of this piece of 'wooden' furniture was truly revealed.

This 'Wood' was actually ground wood pulp which had been pressed into hard 'boards'.  The outside of the 'boards' was given a wood grain pattern.  The inside of each board is hollow and actually, (I can hardly believe I am going to say this) actually filled with strips of cardboard! CARDBOARD! I am horrified that someone out there is making this product and calling it furniture!  They are essentially selling fancy painted cardboard furniture and calling it wood.  I wonder what they would say if you asked them what type of wood was used?  Would they try and claim whatever variety was used to make the wood pulp?  

The truly sad thing about this is that an average consumer would have no idea, from looking at a piece like this (with out the break) that this was anything but wood.  They could easily believe that they were actually purchasing a sturdy, genuine wooden coffee table.  And that is where I get back to my original point.  Take buying older furniture seriously my dear readers.   It will actually last, and if some child dances on your coffee table a little to often, and a leg breaks off, at least it is made out of something that can easily be repaired,  wood!