High Museum

On Tuesday I took the family to the High Museum in Atlanta, GA.   I was looking forward to going.  My wife won a contest on a blog she follows , so all of the tickets were free!  The main attraction was “Paris on Peachtree”.

Although “Paris on Peachtree” was not what I expected, I had a great time looking at all of the antique wood furniture.  I wanted to look inside the drawers, and check out the joinery, but there was a no touch rule.  Most of the furniture was in excellent condition.  A few pieces were in need of repair though 😉

The most interesting piece to me, was a 1920’s faux painted armoire.

It was painted to look like more expensive wood.  Most likely the wood was pine, or birch.   I use this technique on location to camouflage very bad damage. I don’t do the whole piece of furniture, but I do the damaged spot, and blend it in with the rest of the wood.   Usually deep cross-grain scratches need this kind of repair.  The technique that I use is called hum bugging, or ragging on the finish, and color.  I try to match the grain pattern the best I can, and usually it blends in very well.

Below is a couple pictures of the piece at the High Museum.

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At first glance you cannot tell that anything was done to alter the look of the wood.  I thought it was a very skilled job, and artistic.  If you are in the Atlanta, check out the High. By the way the paintings were amazing also.

Zeke Willard

Repairing a Hand Made Cherry Table

Sometimes I think that the movers have a tough job, and get blamed for poor craftsmanship.

I recently had to repair a “hand made” cherry table.  The base was broken while transporting it from the customers house, to a storage facility.

The base consisted of of 4 boards that were glued, and joined together.  When I first saw the picture I thought that the dowels, and glue joint failed when it was dropped.  Upon further inspection, 3 nails with the heads removed were used to join the boards.  Guess the furniture maker ran out of dowels??  No wonder the table base broke!  I had to glue, and clamp the board back in place, and then I used Kreg joinery to repair the base on location.  I had to fill, and touch up the crack along the board also. Results below:

Before

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After

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Repairing Toys

“Furniture is not the only thing that we repair at WillardZ Furniture Repair.”

I recently repaired a rosewood model chinese junk, and a toy wooden shopping cart.

The chinese junk had a wood piece on the side, that was broken off during a recent move.  I had to take a trip to the local Rockler to pick out the smallest piece of rosewood they had.   All that they had was a small bowl blank.  I cut what I needed using the table saw, and then the bandsaw. I shaped it with a hand plane, and glued it in place.  I then filled any gaps, and finished it to match. It turned out great, and the customer was happy!  The rest of the rosewood was used by my son to make a fridge magnet.   Below is a pic of the chinese junk finished.

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The toy wooden shopping cart had a broken axle, and was also broken by movers.  It was an easy fix.  I had to glue the axel back in, and then attach the wheel without gluing it to the axle.  The customer’s 3 year old daughter was very happy, and immediately grabbed it and started rolling around her house.  Below is the before and after pics.

Before

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After

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What wooden toys can I repair for you?

Zeke Willard

Museum Houses

I enjoy working at Museum houses.

They are usually full of antiques.  Antiques are much easier to work on than modern furniture.  The antiques are usually solid wood, or well made veneer furniture.  The stains, and wax that I use, work very well with an antique’s finish.  Also if hand planing is need to repair an area, it will not expose the dreaded particle board.  A lot of artistic skill is needed to repair particle board damage.

Below I had to remove several water spots on the top of this 15 foot antique dining table.  It only took an hour, and the table polished up nicely!

Brumby Hall Museum House Marietta,GA

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Zeke Willard

Keurig and Furniture Repair

Some customers that I do work for are very hospitable.

Today I had to do a job in Jefferson, GA.  I was not looking forward to the long drive.  I knew that I would have to fight my way through 3 major highways through Atlanta to get there.

I also had a monetary limit, set by the movers, and was told to only do work up to that amount.  The movers said that the customer may pay for more work to be done, so I thought it would be worth the drive.

What I didn’t know was that the customer had a Keurig coffee maker, and loved to use it.  After being shown the work to do, the customer offered me a coffee.  I declined at first since I just had one on the way, but he was persistent, and probably had about 20 different flavors of coffee.  I am not one to go with froo froo coffee usually, but the pumpkin spice sounded good. So I agreed, and he brought me a grande sized cup.

I completed the work, and the customer was happy, and insisted I have another cup to go.  He took out a to go cup, and we again went through the assortment of flavors. I went with mint white chocolate.

At this point I was a little jittery, but I didn’t want to turn down good hospitality 🙂

Below is a drawer I worked on.

Before:

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After:

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Zeke Willard

Working in the Shop

It has been a very busy couple months here at WillardZ Furniture Repair.

It has been ball to the wall since August, and projects are starting to pile up in the shop.

95% of my work is on location, but occasionally the damage is too bad to repair on location.  A part may need to be made, like the leg I had to make on the lathe.

A piece of furniture may need to be clamped overnight, which requires me to take it to the shop.  Usually I like to have the items I take repaired and returned within a week.  Some items are taking me 3 weeks to finish in the shop!

If you are one of those customers, I do apologize.  Below is a sample of what I have been busy with on location.  Soon it will get back to normal, I promise 😉

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Turning a Wood Leg

“Things turn out best, for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.”

– John Wooden

Last week I finished turning a wood leg for an antique drop leaf table.  During a move to Atlanta, the movers broke the leg off and completely lost it. They called me to help the customer, who was very upset. It was her grandmother’s table, so it was a family heirloom.

It was mahogany, so I picked up a wood turning blank from the local Rockler. I was fortunate, because they usually do not carry the size I needed. Below is the leg blank, after I shaped it, for the lathe.

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Below is the final result:

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I really enjoy turning on the lathe.

One reason is I get to use my grandfather’s tools, which were handed down to me.  I have only purchased a couple of new lathe tools. My favorites are the skew gouges that were handed down. I have a good variety of those.
Another reason it is artistic, and you get to mold the shapes into what you like.

And finally it does not feel like work when I turn. It is very relaxing!
And by the way the customer was very happy, and wants me to do some work for her in the future.

What can I turn for you?

Quitter by Jon Acuff

“Fall in Like with your day Job”

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I just finished reading Quitter by Jon Acuff. I really enjoyed reading the book, and it has inspired  me to start writing regularly on my Blog.

My website has had a blog area set up for about 3 years, but I have thought that I did not have any time to write.

I realized that I needed to be realistic in my goal setting, and I decided that I could write at least 1 blog post per week.

This is the 3rd week in a row I have written a post.  I had exactly 4 posts in the previous 3 years.

Even If you already are in your dream job, this is a great book to read, especially when you start to feel burned out.

It is hard work chasing your dream!

It also helps you to be as awesome as you can, and helps you  to fall in like with your current job. Your current job can fuel your dream job.  I highly recommend this book! I am currently reading Start by Jon Acuff.

Zeke Willard

The Woodworking Apprentice

“Always two there are, a master and an apprentice.”

Frank OZ

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Ruby has been coming down to my basement shop since she was a baby.   She can probably name most of the machines I work on in my shop.  Not too long ago, I bought her a kids wooden work bench. It is one of those with the wooden hammers, screw drivers, and wooden bolts that connect together. She was fascinated with it at first, but soon became bored with her “baby” tools. She kept asking me to let her use my handsaw, and hand planes.  I keep my tools very sharp, so at first I was a little leery to let her use them.  She was like a squeaky wheel, so I decided to show her how to safely use my small hand saw ( in the picture above), and a small block plane. She did very well, and she would say to herself every so often, “I can’t touch it, sharp”, while she was pointing to the blade.   She made sawdust that day, and many curlies ( her word for hand plane shavings).

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IMG-20130614-00106Looks like I have a new Apprentice!