Sometimes you never know what kind of call you are going to get about woodworking. When folks find out you do woodworking they always have a project that "won't take much" and want you to do it for them. I really enjoy building new projects and I really don't like re-doing old furniture. I love old furniture but I am not a restorer.

 

Anyway I got a call from a very good friend that said he had gotten this old dresser years ago from passed down from his great grandfather and it just needs a little glue here and there and wanted to know if I could fix it for him. Well I told him to drop it by and I would see when I could work it in.

 

Oh my, this is going to need a lot more than just a little glue here and there.

 

Several of the drawers are missing the bottoms and all of them are going to have to be put back together.

 

And I will say the old hand cut dovetails are pretty neat, but I don't want to have to start making new pieces to match up. Looks to me like these never had any glue on them.

 

But wait it gets better.

 

This is the good side of the chest and it appears to be made of oak. Nice panels that are solid wood.

 

But then when I saw the other side.

 

Yea, no wonder the drawers weren't sitting in there straight. The guides are missing for both of the large drawers. Well I told him I could make the panels and put the side back but he could finish it. He told me he wanted me to finish it but he didn't want to change the old look of the chest. I am not sure how you finish it old distressed, but I am sure I will come up with something.

 

The front of the drawers looks to be made of something other than Oak..

 

I couldn't really tell if they were Maple or Cherry or something else completely.

 

Anyway I guess it will be something neat to restore. I would rather see it back in use than to go to the burn pile.

 

Oh and it is also going to need all new hardware, something period correct.

 

I am thinking this may be late 1800's or possible early 1900's. Any ideas?

 

Just a little glue here and there and she should be ready to go! LOL

I'm so glad that's your job and not mine. I wouldn't even know where to start, other than the crying.

It looks like quite a job. But, you're up to it, right?

Was that ax head in a drawer? Did that chest ever reside in Fall River MA? If so, Lizzie Borden lived around 1890 or so.

 

 

No Gene, the ax head is another story. LOL More on it later....

I am not sure but I will check with the owner and see where it might have been if they know.

 

At least you have all the drawer faces! You have to re-finish it John?

Yes, all of the drawer faces are there. The one draw sitting under the chest is turned backwards so you don't see the face.

No I don't have to re-finish it Ron. At least not at this point.

 

 

 

Hate to say this, but......the dovetails were done by a machine.

Found a similar one years ago, someone had nailed a ping-pong table top to it. The veneer on the top was toast, stripped it of, and the QSWO under it even looked better.

 

You might check, but on mine, the corner joints used dowels to hold things together.

 

If one had a nice Jack plane, one could make a couple new curved drawer fronts out of match oak.....

Wow what a project

One trick people in the polymer molding trades use to identify each and every single different polymer is to butn a littl and sniff the smoke when the flame is extinguished. Each polymer smells different and most of them very much so.

 

Same is true with glues all but Hide are synthetic polymers of one kind or another. So if you can get a little of the glue off with out wood in it you might be able to smoke off the stuff and compare that to other glues you have around like elmer's white Etc.

 

Additionally if it might be hide glue it will definitely smoke with a smell utterly unique to burning animal proteins and if you can get a chunk then try heating it to 140F will make it very soft and it will go into solution if given a drop of water and of course it'll gel up as it cools.

 

In the 1940s the wood furniture industry was experimenting with glues other than hide. So there's always a chance that it was not hide but an early PVA.