Expert: Eileen Cronk - 10/13/2009

Question
I need to replace the seat and back of an antique cast iron leg and wood seat/back school desk. I cannot figure out how to edge join the new wood to maintain the same thickness and achieve the curvature without having space between the boards. I have tried tongue and groove bits and also canoe bit routing without success.

Can you help me identify what I need to do to edge join the boards and achieve the curvature?

Bob

Answer
Hi Bob
Nice to hear from you.
This is a miserable job.
I did one of these a few years back.
It was my first and last. It was far from perfect but OK.
You need a bench saw that you can tilt the blade on.
Probably already have one.
The tongue and groove join will be fine and likely what was original.
I cut soft wood patterns to get the angles correct and to size the width correctly (I basically made two seats. One a softwood pattern which I numbered and wrote the blade angles on then the real hardwood seat.
If memory serves (it doesn't always), I had to rip the boards fairly thin.
I had a couple of the original boards but they were not much help.
Oh yes..lots of sanding after they were together.
Will you keep me posted how you make out?
Regards
Eileen
PS..I have a good collection of router bits but have no clue what a canoe bit looks like but guess it angles one side of a straight edge..enlighten me LOL