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I recently bought an antique chair, literally from the 1800s. It is a little thing, probably a child's chair. One of the legs broke. At first I was sad since it
by titzer 5y ago
I recently bought an antique chair, literally from the 1800s. It is a little thing, probably a child's chair. One of the legs broke. At first I was sad since it was a nice buy ($15?) and fit exactly into a little space I had for it. I mean, it survives a hundred years and then gets broken by my idiocy within weeks? Then I had a look. The thing is put together with no screws. It's literally a friction fit for every one of the 4 legs and cross braces. So fixing it is as easy as spinning up a wood lathe and making a new leg. And it turns out...it has been repaired already. This is why it has lasted 100 years.
- joncrocks 5y agoChair of Theseus... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus
- funkaster 5y agolike most GA planes. Eventually you'll replace _almost_ everything in them :)
- rhapsodic 5y ago>So fixing it is as easy as spinning up a wood lathe and making a new leg. Which, for 99.99% of humanity, equates to "not easy".
- titzer 5y agoThat's just if you want to match the actual leg style. A round stick of wood with a hole in the right spot would technically work :-) I don't have a lathe, but when I run across one, I'll give it a go, or ask a friend.
- jandrese 5y agoThe trick is hand carving the pegs exactly the right size to friction fit in the hole. Without a lathe that is tall ask. But also I wonder if they didn't include some glue to hold that chair together originally. Screws in furniture are mostly just there to keep the thing together while the glue cures.
- throwaway946513 5y agoFrom the old wood work I've seen around the house, most appear to have glue with a wood dowel, pin, or shim to lock the glued piece into place while it dries, and aren't applying excess pressure to the grain causing a split piece of wood.
- titzer 5y agoYeah, on said antique chair there is some old wood glue. I imagine the friction joints wore down over time and the glue was poorly slopped in in an attempt to keep the thing together, but that glue, too, failed. I suspect the original did not have glue. Things wear down, and about the only thing you can hope for is replaceable parts. Chair of Theseus, indeed!
- voiper1 5y agoQuite possibly it was green woodworking. When the greenwood dries, it increase the tightness of the joining.