Cracked and Warped Old Oak Rocking Chair Seat

[Bruce Finstead]

I inherited an old oak rocking chair. It is/was in a sorry state. It had been stripped and partially disassembled, but it looks like it will be kind of cute if resurrected. It is now completely disassembled, and I am agonizing over the next major step: the chair seat is cracked at one seam, and is warped.

The seam runs front to back. It was originally held together with hide glue, and there is a very small spline to orient the two pieces; it does not look large enough to provide much structural integrity or glue surface. Each of the two pieces is concave downward (like sitting in a bowel.) The bottom is supposed to be flat, and the top is hollowed out to accept the buttocks. I have removed the glue (vinegar and scraping). When I force the two pieces together with the top of the seat tight together, the bottom of the seat has a profound crack, and the warp is severe. If I press the bottom of the seam together, the top of the seam has an unacceptable gap, and the warp is less severe, but still an issue. The back of the seat accepts dowels which go laterally into the chair back.

If I run a saw blade through the crack, I can get the two pieces to have a better joint, but I will be left with a warp to a greater or lesser degree, and the fit between the sides of the back and the sides of the chair seat will be off by 1/8". How should I deal with the warp?If I glue the two sides together as is, should I use hide or other glue? If I lose the spline with a saw cut, should I use Domino floating tenons or dowels?

I sure could help from those wiser than I. (I would have said older and wiser, but I am already 68.) Many Thanks in advance!

[Brad Patch]

I think your going to be dealing with the lesser of two evils. The crack should be repaired to prevent pinching someone's back side, I would not worry about the 1/8 loss, it will most likely reassemble just fine. Use any glue you like, rub the cleaned surfaces together and its done. Splines or dowels could help with alignment, but often they cause more misalignment than they fix. Don't know how severe the warp is, most likely you should learn to accept it as part of an old chairs history.

[Terry Beadle]

You might have to take more than a saw cut of 1/8th inch kerf to get the seat pieces to mate properly. If so, make a full seat length shim to go in between the two seat halves, glue it up and reshape to fit. I 'assume' it's not a museum piece so the shim should not be a penalty but a good engineered repair.

YMMV

Good luck.

[lowell holmes]

I would consider making a new seat. You can carve the seat using gouges and spoke shaves. Actually a travisher is preferred.

[Sam Puhalovich]

Bruce, from one oldster (76) to another ... been there, done that. Two years-ago one of my neighbors asked if it was possible to repair/restore her family heirloom that she rocked-in as a child. The seat was in the same kind of condition as you described. I dismantled it completely, then trued-up slit edges on the jointer. I cut a 1/4" wide slot for a spline ... staying 1/2" inside from the front and the rear. After the glue-up, I shimmed the top (top-side-down) to even-out the warp ... and ran it thru the drum sander. Cleaning-up the ends and holes for putting it back together resulted in a slight amount of 'slop' ... so it went back together needing a little 'persuasion' in some places. There was no noticeable difference after it was assembled.

[Larry Frank]

A long time ago, I found an oak rocking chair with designed pressed into the top of the back. My wife loved it and wanted me to restore it. It was in bad shape with a cracked seat, couple missing spindles and cracked arms. Long story short, I remade the seat, arms and several spindles. It came out real good and she used it rocking all three of the kids. The hardest part for me was drilling the holes in the new seat and they all had to be in the proper place and the proper angle. It was a significant challenge for me.

[Bruce Finstead]

Many Thanks for everyone's input. I suspect that I will end up with a combination of your suggestions. Again, thanks.

[Chris Padilla]

Post some pictures if you can, Bruce! We LOVE pictures! :)