Restoring a Chippendale Chair - Thomas Johnson Antique Furniture Restoration 

That was a magnificent repair from start to finish.

Hi Paul, thanks for watching. Use Elmer's yellow glue whenever you have a good wood to wood joint. Same for hide glue(Woodworker's Supply.com) when repairing valuable antiques. Use epoxy (Devcon 5 min. or West System) when you've got a situation like a joint with wood missing or when you've got to fill a space. Hope this helps. I should make a video on just this subject. Tom

At 12:00 no dowels no problem! I'll just make'em by hand and in two minutes. Tom you are THE MAN.! Thank you for the great video!

Hello Mr. Thomas Johnson My name is Stefano, for several months I watch your videos from Italy, I have the restoration hobby, I want to thank you because I find your videos instructive and interesting. Compliments for your works, and praises to you for the sharing Thank you very much

An oldie but goodie. And it does look pretty good.

I know I'm late to the party but I wanted to many of us could do the repair but it takes an artist to make the repair pretty much disappear! You are an artist and thank you for sharing with us. Gar

I’ve watched a number of your videos, and it’s fascinating to see the techniques you use, and the skill involved . You make it all look pretty easy, though I’m 100% sure I couldn’t begin to come close to what you do. Thanks for posting your work on line and showing us what a real craftsman can do!

I love watching you doing such amazing good job

You are fabulous! Second time I've seen you use this spine joint...Clearly a great solution and execution...HATS OFF!

Thank you for these videos, Tom. I'm a young man mid 20's just getting into restoration work professionally. Your videos are perfect guides to quality repair, restoration, and refinishing work.

What a nice job of a very tricky situation

Love that chair!

I just recently came across your channel. Your work is inspiring and has influenced some of the methods I use in my own hobby woodworking. I truly enjoy watching you and am impressed at the end result. Thank you for taking the time to record these videos.

Thank you Tom for giving me advanced notice about your joint video with Scott regarding different glues used in fixing furniture. I enjoyed the session and look forward to your next joint sessions. Regards-Frank.

Thanks, I think you learn a lot restoring old furniture, what to do and what NOT to do! Tom

Sir, you do masterful work! This is a beautiful repair, nearly invisible. Thanks for sharing.

Really impressive work. I just picked up an antique dining room set. English. Solid mahogany. Complete set of 6 side chairs and two end chairs with the armrests. Most of the chairs of loose and will need disassembling and reglued. Not sure on the age. Early 1700s to late 1800s. It has a really unique screw system to extend the table an additional 40 inches to fit two leaves. I'll be watching a lot of your videos to prep for the chair maintenance! Thank you!!

The way Chippendale furniture is adored, one expects top notch construction techniques but truthfully some of it was badly designed for strength. Looks lovely, wears badly it seems. Love your work Tom!

I found my answer reading someone's review. Thanks I love your videos and your work.

What a "Piece of work!! Fascinating to watch!! True craftsmanship!!

Another great job ❤

Hi Tom. God knows why, but my wife and I love your channel and its our go to for when we are turning in for the night. I'm no wood guy, but I found myself walking through a hardware store and knew what all of the stuff in the wood work section was, what to use it for and all of your tips and tricks were going through my head. I am almost on the verge of trying some of this myself. I say almost. My wife knows what I'm like! Cheers from Australia!

I loved watching you work. You are an artist with your hands.

You're phenomenal, Mr. Johnson! :)

What a "Piece of work"Genius!!

Looks pretty amazing to me!

Thanks for watching! Good luck with the upholstery Tom

this just popped up on my feed, amazing work and nearly 10 years ago; i would be cool to see if the repair has survived!

The detail is fabulous

' looks pretty good ;-) Awesome job and pleasant video. Greetings from France for sharing your amazing environment as well as your workshop. TY Tom and keep on enjoying us!

What a wonderful craftsman.

Just discovered your channel and REALLY enjoy watching your work...rr

Well, if they have a problem with what I did they should comment on it, not just an anonymous dislike. Own it!

Real pro work . Thanks

Enjoyed this one, as always

Great job and an excellent video. Thanks ofr sharing it.

Excellent work.

nice video, clear and effective detail. Congratulations

Very nice! Very informative! thanks for sharing your knowledge!

Thanks for the great instructional video. I remember working with some of those tools at your shop in the early 90's. Keep the video's coming. Larry OConnor

Well done, it looks lovely!

Great Repair. Looks like a new chair. Nice Router, I love my PC100. I'm always learning new ways of repairing things when I watch your videos. It helps me a -lot, because I have only been doing the restoring part for about year now... More demand for restoration then custom built things, though I have had a couple Custom jobs this month. I'm glade I started into restoring furniture. Theres a good demand even in this struggling economy. And on top of that, I really like doing it. Take Care, MF

One again, great video. I am interested in the finish products you use. How about doing a video on the stains, finishes and toners you use?

wonderful to watch

Thank you for an amazing video! I am still a little confused on when to use each adhesive epoxy, yellow glue, hide glue. I refinish furniture but not to the level you do yet most of my repairs a simple loose dovetail, reattach drawer slides etc which glue should I use for these type of repairs? Also which brand hide,yellow glue and epoxy do you recommend. Sorry for al the rookie questions thanks again for al the amazing videos your a true craftsman.

Awesome work

really amazing work

Great work!

Thanks!

Very nice...

Great work👍

I love your videos! I think I am close to watching all of them and some more than once for instructions to sink in. I believe your dislikes are probably from other furniture repair individuals that might be a tad bit jealous, and I doubt they will "own" that. I have a question: I have an antique china cabinet (2 separable parts). The bottom has 6 claw feet, 4 in front, 2 at each end on the back. The legs get loose, 3 broke off by the base. I repaired them my using epoxy and metal "L" shaped brackets on the inner side and spray painted the brackets. The legs that are loose I do not want to remove because there is 1 dovetail joint that attaches it to the base and I can't get that off without cracking it. How would I secure the front part down without drilling into the clawfoot design. I was thinking of drilling into it to put a brad screw in it and then fill in the hole. THought?

Excellent video, Tom. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and experience. A neighbor has a chair with the same broken leg they have asked me to repair. Your tutorial is perfect guidance in my case. What is the spray toner you use to match the finish?

Thank you for your vedios. Realy thanks.

I envy your talent Tom! How is the hide glue different from regular yellow wood glue? Where do you get it? Thanks

Excellent work. Just a comment on use of adhesives. Epoxy isn't "stronger" than yellow wood glue *when there is good surface-to-surface contact.* You were correct to use epoxy on the initial glue up because it is a good *gap filling* glue. After routing slots and cutting precisely matching splines you had good surface contact, which called for yellow glue. Finally, on assembly, you didn't switch to hide glue "because it was what the original builders used." You switched to hide glue because it will permit easy future disassembly when this valuable chair will once again need restoration (hide glue disassembles with heat). Your adhesive choices were instinctively right but only your explanation for using the yellow glue was correct.

In between it looked like the work of Frankenstein, but the result is pretty good.

Still looks pretty good I’ll bet.

Nice job. Like that outfeed roller on the table saw. Is that original to the saw?

excellent

Great

Lovely! Do you share hide glue recipe and do you dye stain your base color then paint area matching grain stain slightly darker or am i just going for overkill?

In the original construction, angling the mortise rather than the tenon forces you to shorten the back rail tenons and makes these crucial joints inherently weak.

Is the Bee's wax polish you use a concoction of yours or off the shelf product?

Considering that the joinery was responsible for the weak joint and the subsequent break, would it not have been better to convert the existing single large tenon to a double tenon to conserve wood and strength in the leg? I realize that this would not be true to the original design and construction, but I feel that your artistry could make it appear to be a single tenon.

When I use Hide glue it is heated to melt the beads of glue and applied hot. Yours looks as though it has not hot and a little thin. Is there something I don't know about?

I have seen you do that before, routing out an outside piece. Why not drill into the center of each piece and put in a dowel? Wouldn't that be stronger and less visible?

It might be an optical illusion but the back legs don't seem to be straight with each other?. I am sure that I am wrong but needed to ask as it just looks wrong to me.

I really enjoyed your video. I have an antique french nursing chair, that I believed was worth about £800.00. until I noticed that one of the back legs has been repaired although it is a good repair, the shape and colour does not match the other one, would it be worth getting this done profesionally in terms of the value of the chair, or has it already lost its value.

What did you call the the glue hide or high glue?

While I know an antique that is broken is worth less, how much more does restoring something like a chippendale chair decrease the value of it. I’ve heard from various appraisers that renovating an antique decreases its value. Is this true?

Just a rough estimate, how many pocket knives do you have?

From time to time in your videos we see a young lady working in the background on furniture, so are these apprenticed working in your shop?

isn't there a Chemical reaction between the Glues?

Hello from Georgia! You don't have the typical Maine accent. Former military or otherwise relocated? Also, at about the 10:40 mark and a little further, is that your wife or daughter? I've learned a lot but a lot more needs to be learned. Lol. Take care and GOD bless you and your family.

Why do you spray with shellac and then sand it off wouldn’t you want to just leave it on, aren’t you sending it off when you do that?

impress

The chair may have been involved in a saloon brawl, one cowboy having shattered it over the head of another. At least that's what I think happened.

I was horrified when I saw how much you took out with the router.

😍🤝🙋‍♂️❤✌bravo

More like some big arse like me sat on it LOL

How to tell when you are obese. Take your broken chair to Tom and he says "I don't want to, but I'm going to have to use Epoxy"

So you do an amazing repair of a hopelessly broken chair. Then 300 lb aunt Mabel sits on it and the repair lets go and you're in court. Do you make people sign a waiver? Just asking because I'm repairing some sketchty chairs.

,

wanna your student,plzzzz

I am wondering why such a recognizable brand makes such a poorly designed chair, if this is indicative of their work how did they get to deserve such notoriety?

Correct....gutless prats.

Great