Much help needed in the restoration of this Family Heirloom.

Hi All.....I am hoping for some insight in the restoration of this family Heirloom and was hoping to get some advice,insight.....anything that prevents me from impuning the integrity of this family Heirloom. The legend of this old rocker is it goes back as far as 8 or 9 generations. It was passed on to my Brother after my Mom passed 5 years ago. He did nothing with it but put it in a shed and let it grow mold. It appears the mice has a field day with it also. I stripped it down and want to do a shaker back and seat on it.My main objective is to keep the history of the chair alive. I want to keep that patina on the chair along with each and every nick,scratch and imperfection the chair has obtained during the generations of ownership by my family. My oldest Daughter is expecting Her first child in January. I want to fix this chair and pass it on to her. She is well aware of the history of the chair and has no idea what happened to it. What I need is advice! How do I fix this chair without taking away all the things that make it special? I also searched the chair for some kind of markings and was able to find none on it! Can anybody "Ballpark" the age of this chair? I know what I was told as far as age but I would love to know the real age of it. Any and all help and suggestions will be greatly appreciated!

 

Welcome!
Please go back and edit your photos to the FULL IMAGE option and always do this.
Thank you.

 

I hope this helps. Please excuse my ignorance. I am very green at this!

 

No need. It's just part of the warm up.

 

Nothing to excuse! Almost everyone does the same thing. It is just a whole lot easier for others to see the larger photos.

And WELCOME!!!!

 

I desperately need some advice and help with this. There is so much conflicting information on the Internet. Do I polyeurethane? The chair is still very tight and doesnt need to re glued . Whats the best method of cleaning it and getting a shine on it with the patina? How old is it really? So many questions with so little answers.

 

I'm sure that the furniture gurus will be along presently. It may take until tomorrow, but they will give you scads of advice and hopefully answer some of your questions.

 

Guru's......Sounds like exactly what I need!

 

Looks to be late 19th to early 20th century spindled rocker. Appears to be either maple or birch. If you want to preserve what original finish is left and keep it original, I would do nothing beyond cleaning it with murphy's oil soap (or similar) and giving it a coat of furniture paste wax. If you want to enhance the look a bit without refinishing, I would give it a few coats of tung oil before waxing. You might want to thin the tung oil a bit with mineral spirits so that it penetrates easily and doesn't give too much of a coated look when dry.

This would not have had any nails in the joints originally. I would remove those nails carefully and re-glue the joints. This may entail disassembly and removal of old glue to get a good bond. Always use clamps when gluing. Chairs are hard to clamp so I sometimes use bungee cords on the legs or around the body of the chair to pull it together. Nail holes can be filled with putty or a wax stick.

 

I might add that your rocker is similar to what is sometimes referred to as a carpet rocker. They used carpet-like material on the seats and backs. Yours has the rush seat so not a true carpet rocker. It may have had a carpet back. Here are a couple examples of what I am talking about.....

 

Finally some kind of Help! Thank you! I joined 3 different forums hoping to get a single piece of advice and yours was the first I received! Thank you! The chair itself without the backing or rush is still amazingly solid. I do not want to take the chance of tearing it apart for the sake of regaining the strength it already has. The monetary value of this chair has no consequence to me. The family value however is priceless! Passing this chair to the next generation (My Daughter) is something you can never put a price on! What are the pro's and con's of polyeurethane?

 

Poly wasn't around when the chair was born.....once on it's hard to get off & won't let the wood breathe .

You like Guru's ...Brad is our furniture Guru.....I've got nuthin to add to whatever he has to say about furniture......only to agree with him about the tung oil !

 

I think I may have found the year and make of this chair! Page 46-47 of the 1876 catalog it looks like a No 9 Mammoth Oak Rocker made by Brumby. What do you think? Is this the one?

 

Very very similar but your top spindle at the back doesn't match. Your is not oak. These also have a woven cane seat and yours is rush. Your seat could be a replacement but who knows? I think you are on the right track but there were many similar pieces made by a lot of different companies over decades.

Brumby's is still in business and still makes a similar rocker. There is a pic of what they call a restoration here as well (I would say it is more of a refinish than a restoration). They also have other later catalogs to look through. Worth a look.......

http://brumbyrocker.com/

 

I am not a fan of polys for antiques at all. They tend to sit on the surface rather than penetrate. Have seen some have good results with polys by thinning them but have never tried it. They are also a bear to strip if you ever need to refinish. Using a poly would be the opposite of a restoration IMHO.

 

Just want to say that when I was reading the original post, seeing "stripped it down" made me gasp. I thought you meant 'stripped the wood' --eek! lol
Anyway, I agree: no on the polyurethane, and yes to the tung oil; it
s awesome stuff! When I was doing this kind of work, I found that using the palm and/or heel of my bare hand to rub the oil in made it penetrate (from the heat), and leave a nice hard finish.

 

I actually spent many hours researching the seat to see what I could find out about it. I found plenty! I took it upon myself to email Brumby looking for clarification of Identificaton of the chair and they did confirm it was a Brumby.....However it has had several modification since new. The bolt on runners had at some point been converted to Doweled, The arms are not original as shown by the missing dowel and the non traditional shape of them. I was actually able to find a picture of this same style chair restored. The doweled pieces and the upper cross piece (I don't know the name of it) Have identical markings. This seems to be what the piece would look like restored. It is the identical chair. That being said I certainly appreciate all the advice I got here. When I started the only thing I knew was the chair was a family Heirloom. I remember vividly being a child watching my Grandfather rock in this chair by the fireplace reading his newspaper and smoking his cigar. Researching it was actually a lot of fun. I feel more of a connection with it now that I know the History of it. I appreciate all your advice on this! Even though my background has been restoring old cars and motorcycles I am reaslly looking forward to this challenge!

 

It is good to see your post! I'm not knowledgeable about furniture, but enjoy seeing an update from the person who originally posted a query, and also enjoyed reading the information that Brad and others gave about your chair. You have learned a lot from the company. That was a good idea!

 

It has already been a great experience and I havent really started anything other than stripping the old seat and back off of the chair. The research on the chair has been an amazing experience! I am going to use the advise of using the Tung Oil and paste wax . I am going to start with it tomorrow. Can you lend any advice on technique or how many coats I should apply to the chair? How long should I wait between coats? How long do I have to wait before applying the paste wax to the chair?