Here is an example of a multitude of splices used to repair the damage to a leg caused by past upholstery treatments.
This is what the leg looked like before restoration. Notice the recent groove used to house the welt. This weakened the sides of the mortise greatly. The repeated tacking over the years completely destroyed the integrity of the leg at the most important place, the area where the leg joins the rails.
The frame has been glued and polished, webbed and made in muslin, ready for the show cover.
In the slide show below you will see the treatment in progress as well as the original problem. On the back of this chair four layers of fabric are attached in the same place—the inside edge of the frame. As you can see, the oak has been splintered, filled, and splintered again, with a very bleak future should this pattern be repeated. Because these chairs get a lot of use and the fabric is changed more than usual, I suggested making a squab, an insert that the upholstery will be attached to rather than the chair's frame. This squab will then be attached with a few screws that can be undone when the fabric needs to be redone.
The frame was consolidated, gluing cracks and filling holes with a structural filler. This filler, epoxy with a lightweight bulking agent, now supported the wood surrounding it.
The squab was made using lightweight mahogany door-skin which was then upholstered by stitching the show cover to a canvas ground.
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