Master Woodworking and Furniture Repair

This piece was painted black many years ago.  This enamel was stubborn and really gave me fits getting it out of the wood. The piece was in really poor shape.  All of the joints were loose and it basically fell apart in my hands as I examined it the first time.   The top piece was an unmatched piece of pine and I'm really not sure exactly how it was intended to work, but I went with the assumption the top would hinge open, so I had to get that back together and the get new veneer on it. When I reassembled it, the frame pieces were warped, as was the pine center piece, I decided to fill the frame flush and top it with veneer.  There was a lot of structural work to do after I got it stripped.  So, here's how I applied the veneer.  First I had to select my pieces  Also, the filled section and the veneer had to be sealed to ensure that the  contact cement would adhere.  The next day, after sealing, I applied contact cement to

I don't know what I did with the original pictures of this beautiful old Lincoln rocker.  So I'll start off with a picture of the nearly finished product.  This one came to me with a heavily damaged and soiled shellac finish.  I wouldn't be surprised if it was original and this chair is dated sometime between 1850 and 1900, so that finish was pretty much gone.  I tried a deep cleaning, but all that did was reveal more damage, so I spoke with the owver and he decided to go ahead with a full refinishing. Below you can get an idea of the degree of wear and damage this piece had. The first step was to clean off all of the old finish.  I don't like to use chemical strippers, but the detail of the carvings really called for it.  Fortunately, it cleaned up nicely and quickly. Eventually, I got it all stripped.  Then I had to reglue and peg all of the joints and repair some deep gouges and chips.  When I got that all finished, I ga