Carving a Rosette, and Repairing an Antique Mirror

Last week I was entrusted with repairing a badly damaged antique mirror frame.  The movers were concerned that the mirror was too far gone.

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Most of the damage was easily repairable.  The concerning thing was that a complete rosette was missing!  I had the other rosettes  to go by,  so I decided to carve one from scratch.

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Next I had to match the gilding color.  I am glad I got a full antique kit of gilding supplies from ebay a few years ago.  I went with french gold.

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And the final result.

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I am really happy how this one turned out, and so was the customer.  These are the kind of projects that I love to do.  Had to put a lot of my artistic skills to the test.

Zeke Willard

Back in the saddle

Last weekend our family went camping in Blairsville, GA

We were able to, swim,  fish, sit around the campfire, and just enjoy nature.  While we were gathering firewood, we found some walnut, and pine with a green mold in the wood.  Caleb made sure to get a couple of samples to turn on the lathe. Here Julien, and Caleb are getting wood ready for the fire.

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Also, for the 2nd time in my life I got to ride a horse on some Mountain trails.  This was the highlight of the trip for me. They put me on a beast called Kingston.  He would bite at any other horse that would try to pass him.

My beautiful wife below had a great time also.  I hope she doesn’t get mad at me for putting her picture on here!

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Now it’s back to furniture repair.  Don’t worry, I am wearing my mask every day.  I am getting used to it.  Also, I am trying out some new water born lacquer aerosol sprays.  Pretty soon my operation will be acceptable by California standards :)!   As Aerosmith would say, I’m back in the saddle agaiiinnn.

Still in Business

Some customers have heard that I have been sick, or have noticed that others have been doing my jobs. I provided a few answers to questions I have received.

Q. Are you still in the furniture repair business?

A.  Yes, usually April through the Holidays in December is a busy time for me.

Q. Are you still doing the repair work?

A. The answer is yes, and no.  I have not been doing many of the repairs, but I do have skilled subcontractors who have been taking on the bulk of the work.  I have mainly been estimating the new work that comes in.

Q. Is furniture repair still the only thing that you are doing, or are you working a part time job also?

A.  I am still doing the business full time! It seems like I have a lot more paperwork though, and I am spending a lot of time in the office.

Q. Are the subcontractors that you use as good as you?

A. Yes, one has 40 years of experience, and the other trained at the same company as me. I also have a subcontractor that is a drywall pro,  that has been doing jobs for me for a few years.

Q. Are you feeling any better?

A.  Yes, I have almost fully recuperated, but I cannot be exposed to the dust or, chemicals for a while.

Thank you for all of your well wishes, and continued support of my business.  How can I help you with your furniture issues?

Wood Dust, and Chemical Exposure

I have been working as a furniture repair technician for 15 years now.  Right away I noticed that certain fumes, or wood dust would bother me.  I decided to wear a dust mask, and a respirator.  I found wearing a mask very uncomfortable, and the cartridges were expensive to replace.  Every 2 weeks I would have to get new cartridges.  Also I was scaring the customers!

I decided to wear the mask less, which was a big mistake.

About a month ago after doing a lot of woodworking, and a lot of chemical work, I felt like I could not breathe that night.  After being to urgent care, and the hospital they found out that there was irritation, and enlarged blood vessels in my lungs. Yes, it was from breathing in all the toxic stuff.  It has been a month since this problem has started, and I am starting to feel better.  The doctor said I need to take it easy, and stay away from work for a couple months.  That has been very difficult to do, since I have a family of 9, and I have always done most of the work in my business.  I have sub contractors that I have known for years helping me with the work part right now.

Some Sage advice: Wear the Mask! It is not worth the pain, and worry later.

Zeke

Snow Days, and Removing water spots with Charles Neil

I had to cancel jobs for a 2nd day.  The roads have been too icy to go out. We have been fortunate to have  power throughout the ice/snow storm in Atlanta.

I took advantage of the time to work on some projects in the shop, which include working on a large pine blanket chest, small oval table with veneer damage, an oak china cabinet shelf, and a dresser drawer.  I even took time to work on a wood handle for an old wooden toolbox I am restoring.  I will post pics on my next blog.

In other news I did some Mt biking in my neighborhood the other day.  The tires surprisingly have good traction going up the hills. I am going to go biking again today, after a little shop time.

Back to normal schedule tomorrow, as long as the weather permits!

I wanted to leave you with a cool tip from Charles Neil.  He has a very interesting way to remove water/ heat spots from wood furniture.

5 reasons why you should repair furniture

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1. Can be dangerous!

-Do you have a wobbly chair?  Eventually when you sit on the chair, the leg will break, and you could get hurt. A dining table with a leg snapping at an inopportune time could spoil a dinner party.  Especially if the main course lands in a guests lap!

2. Can get expensive.

-Just like brakes on a car, if you let it go for weeks after your brake light comes on, it can get expensive.  Furniture is the same way. The more you neglect it, the more it is going to cost to repair it. A broken leg, is going to cost more than a wobbly leg, for example.

3.   Green way.

-It is better than throwing it into a landfill! Unless of course it is that crappy particle board stuff 🙂

4. It just looks good fixed.

-What do you think when you walk into someone’s home, and all of the furniture is dilapidated, and falling apart?When furniture gets old it may develop character with wear, and tear.  That may look good, but what I am talking about is the obvious eye sores, and parts missing on furniture. The chairs obviously are broken, or table sways when you walk by it.

5.  You get to meet an awesome furniture repair guy, like me!

-It is always good to have a furniture repair guy on your speed dial 😉

Snow Day!

On Tuesday afternoon, a snow storm came to Atlanta.  I was at work, and left early at about 1pm.  2 and 1/2 hours later I made it home. It was only a 5 mile drive!  I was much more fortunate than a lot of people in Atlanta. Many people had to abandon their cars because of running out of gas, or had to spend the night in their cars.  I heard that kids were trapped on buses, and also had to spend the night at school.  A friend of mine was in his car for 13 hours.  I decided not to venture out on Wednesday because of the traffic, and worked in the shop.  I had plenty to do. I repaired a broken back on a chair, and I am working on the small piece below.  My customer left a note for me, when I went to pick the small table up.  I appreciate my customers. Especially when they are easy to deal with ;).

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Table bases galore!

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This week I worked on 14 table bases.

The tops were laminate, and they were thrown away.  New tops were ordered, but the client liked the bases, and decided to get them restored.  The bases have a middle piece that was a cherry veneer. The bottom, and top are metal.  The metal was mostly in good shape.  I touched up the areas where the paint was chipped, with black enamel paint.  The cherry veneer portion was a different story.  I had to remove gum, dirt, and other grime.  There were a lot of chips, and dents so this took the most time.  I filled, and touched up these damages.  In the end I blended the color, and they turned out great!

I did not fully refinish the bases.  What I did is called a “recondition”.  I lightly sanded for my repair finish to adhere, and the most noticeable damages, are filled, and repaired to close to invisible.   I mix a color by eye that matches the existing color of the wood, and I apply it, and blend it to the damaged areas.  Reconditioning allows the furniture to be repaired on location.  Let me know what pieces you would like to have reconditioned!

Zeke Willard

Repairing a Work Bench Top

During a recent move, a work bench purchased from Home Depot was damaged.

It had maple top, and during handling some tools were dropped on it causing some gouges. When I first saw the work bench, I thought the best way to repair it was to fill the damage, and do a spot repair.

The customer was not too keen on this idea, so I said that I could hand plane the work bench to repair the damage.

The customer thought it was a good idea, so I went to work.  I pulled out my antique Stanley block plane that my son Julien bought me as a present.  Good thing I just sharpened the blade on the plane.  The work bench was thick, solid Maple hardwood, and was not the easiest to plane.  I worked out the damages, and then smoothed the whole top with the block plane.  I would rather have used my number 3, or  number 4 smoothers to do this, but I had them at the shop.  Afer I made a pile of shavings the top was finished, and the gouges were gone.  The customer was satisfied.  Below is a pic of the result.

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2014 Goals

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From time to time, I will be doing a non furniture repair blog post.  If you were expecting a furniture repair post, I apologize, and please tune in next week.

I wanted to share my goals for 2014.

I have broken it up into 6 categories. Health, Business, Spiritual, Intellectual, Relationship, and Financial. I also included an action plan.

Health– Lose 20 lbs, have a regular workout routine

-Action Plan– join a gym, and workout at least 3 days a week, either before, or right after work.

Business– Keep shop, and car cleaned.  Blog 1 time per week. Strive to do the best I can on each job, and keep a positive attitude.

–Action Plan- Plan time, and day each week to clean up, and blog.  Keep up with my skills, by reading about repair techniques, and taking classes if needed. Reflect on how my job provides for my family.

Spiritual–Read the bible daily, and comment at each meeting.

–Action Plan- Read before work, and prepare an answer for each meeting.

Intellectual– Read 1 non-fiction book per month, and continue learning Spanish.

–Action Plan- Plan time before, or after work to read, purchase a Spanish book, or use an internet app.

Relationship– Be more mindful about the messes I create, and kids messes.  Coordinate a date night once a month.

–Action Plan– Once a week have a couples meeting to pick a day, and time for a date night.  Call a baby sitter.  Apply do it now, to clean up messes.

Financial– Get out of Debt!

–Action Plan- Continue with a debt snowball, and continue to be gazelle intense! (Google Dave Ramsey)

Zeke Willard