Nana's Dining Chair Rebuild, Part 7: Glue-up and Finishing

With all the joinery, shaping and detail work complete, I could get to the assembly.  The glue-up went fairly smoothly, with a little panic (as per usual) when gluing the front assembly to the back assembly.

Front leg assembly: legs and front rail (note shaped cauls that save legs from dents)

Back leg assembly: legs, seat rail, lower backrest rail, backrest panel and upper backrest rail

After those assemblies dried and a dry rehearsal was done for the full assembly, it was the point of no return.  The lower rails were glued first, then the seat rails were added.  I used the off-cut pieces from shaping the back legs as cauls during clamping.

The whole she-bang

The chair was a little out of square - less than 1/8" - and I adjusted the clamps to get this to about 1/16" before I was satisfied.

The glued up chair

The original chair had arms and I opted not to include them in my reproduction.  The next picture shows one of the arms from the original placed where it would have gone.  It was a two piece arm.

Original arm held where it would have been attached

The upright of the arm was screwed to the side seat rail

The armrest was screwed to the curved portion of the backrest

Anyway, I made the executive decision not to include the arms on my chair.  I thought about how I might prefer to attach them if I had included them - the upright tenoned into a mortise in the seat rail, the top of the upright tenoned into a mortise in the underside of the armrest, and the armrest tenoned into a mortise in the front of the back leg.  Maybe next time.

I added corner brackets that really solidify the chair and add a way to attach the seat.  The angles came out great and they fit like gloves.

Corner brackets added

On to finishing.  First was a coat of clear shellac that would hopefully reduce blotching and make the stain more even.  I took a couple pieces of the original chair to a local paint store and asked if they could match the color.  Turns out a shelf product matched quite well - ZAR interior oil-based stain "Teak Natural".  I gave the chair two coats of that, sanding lightly after each coat dried.  The color didn't look great after the first coat as some places took the stain differently from others.  I think two or three coats of shellac before staining would have been a better idea.  But the color evened out after the second application of stain.

Chair after stain applied

After the stain, I applied two coats of a satin polyurethane and a coat of paste wax.  The chair looked better with each successive layer.

Poly added

Finally, the seat could be attached.

A glamour shot

And how does it feel?

Ahhhh!

Here's the chair next to one of the originals (can you tell which is which?).  Overall I'm very happy with the result.  Stoked that after so long I finally reproduced the chair and that I've accumulated the skills necessary to do it.

Original on left, reproduction on right

BTW, I found out my Grandparents bought this dining set in 1920!  Almost 100 years ago!  No wonder the original chairs that were put together with dowels were a little rickety.  I hope my chair will last as long or longer.

To anybody reading this - have a very happy Thanksgiving.  Savor the time spent with family and friends.