It seems strange that anything can be so mended as to be stronger than before; yet this is literally true as regards the broken leg of a chair, a cane, a beam, the mast or spar of a vessel, or any similar long piece of wood. This is effected as follows:—Cut the two separated pieces into two exactly fitting “steps” or mortises, as shown in this illustration.
Fasten these with glue and screws; or, better still, by adding to both two sliding, tightly fitting ring-tubes, or one long one. This will actually make the stick stronger than it was at first. The rings should be covered with paper, glued, and then painted and varnished.
The processes of glueing and screwing are applicable to most fractures of furniture. Where a piece of wood is broken away, it, or a similar piece, must be inserted. When wood is warped it may be straightened by applying wet towels. Observe that if a flat panel is warped thus—
you must wet the upper or concave side, put it under heavy weight, and as soon as it becomes straight, screw it down with transverse strips. Drawers which are made from badly seasoned wood are a grief to the heart. They warp and stick. When you find that such is the case you can save yourself much annoyance by examining them, planing away the obstructions, and nailing transverse strips of wood across; that is to say, pieces in which the grain of the strip crosses that of the wood. Very good and well-seasoned English furniture often warps badly in India; therefore it should be thus protected. This can in most cases be better done with strips of metal. In large wardrobes, presses, or chests, where there are broad and often thin panels, this precaution should always be taken. As I write I have just seen two exquisitely painted and valuable pictures on panel, one of which had curved and split in two, while the other was badly warped for want of such a precaution, which would have cost only a penny’s worth of strip and screws and half-an-hour’s work to save them.
It will very often happen in mending furniture that neither nail, glue, nor screw can be relied on. In such case bore with a suitable gimlet and pass wire through the hole. Flexible wire twisted in two strands, with the ends properly secured, say to the head of a screw, all being sunk beneath the level, will hold almost anything.
Frames for looking-glasses or pictures often “spring” at the joints. In such cases a screw with acidulated glue will make them permanently strong.
Always put handles to drawers. The vile invention or device of using the key for a handle is by far too common. Metallic handles of brass are preferable to wooden knobs. Keys are often lost, or else break. The bottom of a drawer should always be secured by screws.
When the bottom of a drawer, as frequently happens, shrinks and becomes too short, so that there is a long opening, the latter should be filled with a strip of wood. The chief cause why modern furniture is apt to become loose or separate is chiefly due to its being made either of unseasoned or soft wood, such as weak deal or poplar, which absorbs moisture from the air and then dries and shrinks, or because it is made of too many pieces only glued together, and that with cheap, bad glue.