Tripping Over a Open Door !

We were approached by a customer who some 8 years ago purchased a Coach House Pine 2 Door Sideboard from us, I remember the piece as it was hand polished to the customers bespoke colour, it turns out that he had a a bit of a mishap and had torn one of the door when he fell over the open door, he was worried that the door could not be repaired and he had destroyed a piece of furniture he and his with loved and used every day in there kitchen.

I asked him to bring the door in to the shop as I was sure we could help him in some way...this is what he brought me.

As you can see the pine has split along its grain which makes it far easier to repair, but sometimes it can be difficult to get a repair that you cant see or looks like a natural grain in the timber. The customer was happy that we said we could repair the door as what with the length of time it would be next to impossible to get a new door.

Make The Damage Worse

The first job of any repair is actually to take the item to be repaired apart and sometimes even remove/break off the damaged parts so that the repair can be carried out in a manner to ensure the best outcome.

In this case all we had to do was remove the hinge and make sure that the split end was mobile enough to get PVA glue all the way into the splintered wood to make sure a good solid repair was possible.

A good glue is essential and I find that a exterior glue even this piece sould not come into contact with to mush moisture ...its better to be safe that sorry as my dad always told me.

 Once the glue had been liberally spread between the splinters of wood the splinters then have to be clamped together and left for 24 hours for the glue to cure.

Clamping the Splinters Flat 

This is the tricky bit of all repairs and the one you have to get right, once the glue has cured its strength is actually stronger that the pine, so if the repair has to be taken apart, we could do more damage putting a bad repair right than the original damage.

The pictures above sow how inventive sometimes you have to be with clamping of difficultly shaped pieces when you have to apply pressure in 2 or more directions to fully close all splinters and gaps, the piece of folded news paper you see is a barrier between the block used to get a flat surface and prevents any glue seepage from making the block adhere to the piece being repaired, any physical barrier can be used that will easily sand once one the blocks and clamp has been removed.

Clam Removal and Sanding.

Once the clamps are removed and the newspaper barrier, in this case the newspaper could easily be removed with a Stanley blade used as a scraper, its is easy to see that the repair has been successful, the splintering has almost dissipated and the end grain is showing no signs of the repair.

The door is now ready to be sanded, first with 120 grit to remove the old finish and then with 180 grit to get the surface ready for a water based stain to match the colour that the existing door.

The original colour had darkened and matured over the years and so we added a little orange pigment to the original colour to match perfectly. 

Water based wood stains and spirit based stains we mix at The Rocking Chair for 2 reasons, firstly it is cheaper and secondly it gives us the flexibility to mix and shade or colour to match the piece being repaired.

Once the sanding is complete we stain the timber ...allowing to dry naturally as sometimes the piece may need a second coat of stain to ensure a perfect match, in this case 2 coats of stain were needed, and then 2 coats of wax polish were applied to bring the colour back to the original colour.

We use Fiddes waxes as they give us the finish we want, and also we can support another family run Welsh business.

Finished repair, even if I say so myself it is a good job and the customer was very happy with the outcome saving him the expense of a new purchase.

If you have any questions about repairs or wood finishing in general, send me a message and I will be happy to help in anyway I can.

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed reading as much as I enjoyed writing.

Many Thanks

Paul.