Not sure where to post this question, but I'm told all the thinking people are here; so here goes: I am making a batch of Chippendale style dining chairs. The front legs are typical Chip. style, ball & claw feet, cabriole, decorated knee, knee block returns. As I was assembling chair # 4 today I chose a pair of legs from the supply, and oh the horror of it all! These legs were carved about 3 months ago. each of this pair have cracks that have developed. One starts at the foot and travels all the way up the leg through the calf. It stops there. It is wide enough to just barely stick a paper into and maybe 1/4" deep. The other leg has a crack that starts at the bottom of the ball goes up through the ball into the instep of the foot and stops there. It is a little less than the thickness of a piece of paper. Since I can't probe it, I don't know the depth. From what I see on the bottom of the foot and on the surface of the instep it may be 1/2" deep.
Question: What to do? Throw 'em out and make new ones? Flow super glue into crack and sand to fill crack? (If it splits no further, this might fill up the crack under the varnish so it wouldn't show. How about drilling one or two 1/4" holes horizontally and peg them with mahogany dowels. Would this pevent further splitting.?
Oh! woe is me.