My mom’s antique wing chair is being reupholstered and needs some structural repair. Both wings have a lot of wiggle because the rails have split where they attach to the wings, the arm joint into the rails has lossened a bit, and the glue joints for the wings at the arms and rails have failed. It appears that the chair has been repaired before, and poorly.
First, the original screws, which are the only things holding the wing to the chair at this point, are removed. Next, the split at the top of the left rail is doweled with a 3/8″ dowel at the top, and a 1/4″ dowel at the bottom, which bridge the split.
Next, the glue surfaces are cleaned up to receive new glue.
The joints are glued back together with slow set epoxy. The screws attaching the wing to the top of the rail were replaced with longer screws that will bridge the split in the rail, which occurred right where the original screws ended. In addition, the arm joint is reinforced at the rail with two screws. The original screws were used where the wing attaches to the arm.
After some similar repairs on the other wing, a quick denatured alcohol test on an inconspicuous area confirmed my suspicion that this chair was finished with shellac. Great! The legs and feet were pretty scratched, worn and dinged up, so a bit of touch up is in order.
