This will be the last job I do before we move, a friend from church asked if I'd be interested in repairing her grandfathers dining table, it's a nice piece, I've always liked the mid century dining elegance. I am deciding how to repair this and what steps I'll take. I have the leg base off to the side, the top is beautiful, the table is mahogany, and the top is a substrate with Mahogany veneers and a boxwood banding on the edge separated by an inlay.
I've proposed two methods for repair to the owner, one is to duplicate the turnings from scratch, but as you can see the dowel joint was a bad design, and left it prone to breakage as it did.

Or, I can cut the damaged portions down to the good wood, and make up the height with an ornamental block of mahogany for both sets of legs so they are the same.

This'll be fun!

I dug in a little with AI, according to AI in the 50's through early 60's they used Urea-Formaldehyde or PVA (Tightbond), so the joints could be a bear to separate, and I'll have to do some separating on other parts of the table. Production was in high gear during this time for this North Carolina manufacturer, and they started using the modern glues. There is a small chance it's assembled with animal hide glue, so here is my question to the community.

Does this sound correct for determining which glue is present?

Perform the Alcohol or Vinegar Test

Because you cannot identify the exact batch choice visually, you need to apply a small amount of liquid to a hidden bit of squeeze-out on the joint to see what breaks it down:

• If it is Hide Glue: Dabbing a small amount of rubbing alcohol or warm water onto the joint will cause the adhesive to turn slightly tacky, gummy, or soft within a few minutes.

• If it is Urea-Formaldehyde or PVA: Alcohol will have zero effect. Instead, applying warmed white vinegar will slowly begin to break down the bond and turn it chalky or soft.

Interested to see what you choose to do.

2 minutes ago, lew said:

Interested to see what you choose to do.

Welp, just got done talking to the owner, and she wants me to get creative and do the blocking, trim down the damaged parts to good wood, and cut down the turnings on the good leg assembly so it's all visually equal, and make up the height with mahogany blocks. I'll blend the blocks in so they look period correct.

Turning a replacement part is pretty much a cut and dried procedure. I presume the parts connect to the leg base via a dowel connection, so that could go past the repair part. As a matter of fact you could turn the part with integral dowel on both ends. The top looks to be in excellent shape.