Campana Woodworking
Established 1978
Providing the Fox Valley with Furniture Repair and Custom Furniture for your Home or Office 

Antique Grandfather's 

Rocking Chair Renovation
Grandfather's Rocker in for renovation


 

          Often a client brings a piece of furniture that needs a total and complete renovation. Without this renovation process, the piece will not last much longer and it will be lost to the person. So, on this page, I will explain what was performed to an antique rocking chair that was falling apart and extensively damaged with some pictures so you can see the extent of the work.

The process of complete renovation typically goes along these lines. 

1.) The piece is disassembled as much as possible. Loose joints are gently pulled apart, nails removed (nails are the worst thing), as much glue is removed from joints as possible.

2.) All parts are closely inspected for wear-and-tear. Then the parts are sorted for repair before finish removal. (In the renovation process some repair is completed before stripping and some after.)

 

3.) Next, the finish is removed using a remover that will take off the old finish but is gentle on the wood. ( All furniture at Campana Woodworking is stripped by hand, no dipping or machine soaking.) After the finish is removed most of the parts are washed in a solution to remove all remnants of the stripping chemical. Now the parts are left to air dry for however long it takes- sometimes a week, sometimes longer.

4.) At this point, repairs begin on all the parts needing repair. Each individual part is evaluated for its condition. The repair could need work  ranging from nothing to duplicating an entire new part - of course using the same species of wood and creating the part faithfully to the original. 

 

 
Entire new seat veneer fabricated by us

 5.) After the final repair of all the parts, a thorough sanding is performed of each part whether a chair spindle or top of a dining table. 

 

6.) Next all parts are dry fit before assembly. It is very important to make sure they fit properly since, I glue all pieces together never to come apart and a mistake would be awful. 

 

7.) Final assembly. 

 

8.) A brief final sanding before stain is applied. Staining may take any amount of coats to achieve the proper color. Color can also be applied during finishing. This entirely depends on the color to be achieved. In this case, white is the choice by client.

 

9.) Finally, the finish applied. This step usually entails: a coat or two of shellac, a coat or two of sanding sealer and any number of coats of lacquer, with sanding in between coats. Also, there is usually color touch-ups with specialty dry stains 

 

10.) The final step can require a high polish rub or just an easy cloth touch for bumps and nibs.