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Don Weisman writes:

Common Mahogany Duncan Phyffe Chair
for Repairs -- that all of us see sooner or later.
The Back Splats on some of these were cross grain broken
and some with missing veneer beyond what gluing the plies
back together again could do
and be strong enough to place into service.

 

Two of the 4 broken back splats.

This manufacturer used a 1/4" solid wood core plus face veneer
and a backer to reach a thickness of 19/64"
(depending upon where one measures).
What we decided to do was to make the splats out of
1/2" solid Mahogany (no matter where you measured).
(The Mahogany [F.A.S.] was not our usual Pattern grade
and the quality and color of the wood was rather poor)

What we did, was to reduce the thickness from the backside
where it mortises into the Crest rail and lower Back rail.
Unfortunately, the mortised arc of the lower back rails were uneven
and the reduced thickness shows about 3/8" at either side.
(Once finished, it should not be very noticeable)

The result as you can imagine is a very strong back splat.
Another advantage is that if made from plywood,
edges have to be dealt with.
(Y'all know how much fun that is)
Yet another advantage is that they were faster to make
than laying up the plywood, veneering and coming out to 19/64".
 

The blanks for the new back splats.
The "ears" are glued on to conserve wood.

The required separation of the Crest rail.
We use Jap saws for this.

New Back splat in Arm Chair.
 

 
New Back Splat in Side chair.

 

Side chair and Arm chair with new Splats installed
being clamped while the glue dries.
 

The milling of the wood to thickness for four splats,
gluing, cutting out the patterns
and repairing loose joinery in the chairs,
took 7 3/4 hours.


Don Weisman
 TX

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