Fixing broken furniture

[debodun]

Seems a shame to trash antiques. I have a caned-seat chair in the attic. Surprisingly the caning is in good condition, but the frame is broken in several places. A local furniture repair guy estimated that it would cost close to $100 to fix it and I doubt I could even get $20 if it was repaired. Should I just sell it "as is" and let someone else worry about the repair (if so, what would be a reasonable price in this condition), or is it too bad a shape to do even that?

[mart]

When i had my shop I had some identical to your chair !! Mine were a nice oak and very pretty after refinishing !!  They are easily repaired if you have the tools,, clamps,glue and such !!  But in your situation I would sell them as is !! Let someone else do the repairs !! I sold mine for $25. each back in the late 70`s !! That was good back then !!

[idaho1]

Fixing something like that is really easy if you have the interest in doing so . Also depends on what you are going to do with it , keep it or resell it . One of my worst sellers are chairs .

Fixing that would most likely require a full disassembly , make sure all the parts fit together like they should then a total re-glue of all joints . It looks like it would clean up real good too without a refinish . 

[cogar]

Glue, clamps and Old English "dark" should put it back in working condition and saleable for $10 to $15+.

You could make up a story that it got broken when someone's grandfather got shot by a jealous husband and fell backward on the chair collapsing it. 

Some buyers like those kinda stories because for $10 they can re-tale it over n' over again regardless of any truth to it.

[mart]

Excellent Idea Cogar !!  Too bad it doesn`t have a hole for a gunshot that missed !!

[jacon4]

This chair illustrates why its important with old furniture to do what ever it takes (fashion wise) to keep the piece in the main house. Once a piece of old furniture leaves the house for any reason (usually falls out of fashion), to the basement, attic, garage, barn, etc, it's chances of survival decrease dramatically. It gets bumped, run into, flooded, crushed, broken, etc. I have seen high quality period furniture painted a shabby chic bright white come back to its  former glory when the paint was removed all because it got painted over the years with newer color fashions and stayed in the house. 

[talesofthesevenseas]

If you don't want to pay for re-caning the seat, you can make an upholstered seat for it for just a few dollars. Although I like the idea of coming up with a good gunshot story, LOL!

[cogar]

"Do it yourself" -replace damaged "caneing" in chair seats.
http://www.basketmakerscatalog.com/Merchant5/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=TBMC&Category_Code=CANEW

[mart]

The cane looked in good shape considering the storage !!  Soak it good with warm to med hot water daily for two or three days then let dry about two days and apply a light coat of mineral oil to the top only and wipe well to remove excess !!