Advice needed on antique chest of drawers restoration

[MurrayM]

Hello,

I've made the foolish decision to attempt to restore/replace the drawer runners of an old chest of drawers. They are so worn down that the drawers are near impossible to use. However, I have no experience in such matters - thus "foolish". Already I've hit a snag: this dresser is very well built and I'm not sure how best to go about getting the back off - or even if getting the back off it the right thing to do.

The chest is of solid-wood construction; I do not know the type of wood nor the vintage. The primary wood is red. The secondary wood is lighter in colour. There are circular saw marks (big ones - like from the mill) on the undressed pieces which I gather implies the vintage is later than 1860. However there is no other obvious sign of machining. The draws are made with wide tail, narrow pin, hand-cut dovetails. There are no screws. The nails have what I think is a rose head but a round shank with some raised bands near the head for grip. (I've attached a picture of a couple of the nails lying on a couple of the drawer guides which may help identify the wood too). The back is made of three panels with strips covering the joints. (So far I have managed to remove one of these joint-covering strips.) The sides appear to be a single panel each. The chest is 144cm high and 117cm wide.

The reason I am attempting to remove the back to access the runners is that this is what I've learned from the small amount of research I've done. I'm trying to pry it off with a chisel but there are so many nails holding each of the three panels in place, that this is very difficult and I'm worried about the damage I'm doing. The back panels are nailed to the sides as well as the drawer runners/dividers. There must be at least 25 nails in each of the two larger panels.

As you can see from the photos, most of the drawers don't have individual runners, instead having a single piece combination runner/dust divider. The second drawer from the bottom however does have normal runners and those are my first target. They are so deeply gouged that I intend to replace them completely (rather than attempting to turn them upside-down and swap them). I will also need to repair the rails and the drawer sides.

So here are my main questions. Do I continue trying to pry the back off, or is there a better way? Or do I leave the back on and attempt to replace the runners from the front?

And some subsidiary questions are: what kind of wood does this look like? How can I identify it? How old do you think this piece is/how can I date it? There are no markings at all. Do you have any other advice? I know I'm in over my head here, but I chose this project because we are using this chest and we really want the drawers to work!

If you have any questions about the chest please ask and I'll do my best to answer.

Many thanks for any help!

Cheers and Merry Christmas,
Murray

[Toymaker Len]

If I was you I would just stop before you do some real damage. It looks like a chest of Australian red cedar drawers with western red cedar and maybe hoop pine or meranti for the hidden bits. If you damage the integrity or the patina of a piece like this you can halve its value.
Option 1- Take it to a restorer or a cabinet maker, if not for the whole job at least for an opinion and guidance
Option 2- Overlay the damaged runners with a hardwood filler strip attached with a few spots of soft easily removed glue.
Option 3- Post some more pics particularly of the paper label on the back and the drawer fronts so we can see what it looks like and who made it.
You are sure to get some good advice on the forum from restorers. Its a very nice piece and I am jealous, I've been trying to buy or make one of these for years. Good luck with it.

[MurrayM]

Hi Len, thanks for your reply.

Yes, if I don't think I can do this without damaging the piece horribly, I won't do it. But having it done professionally is beyond my means, and I really want to try it myself anyway because furniture restoration is something I've wanted to do for a long time. I'm sure I will hurt the value of it, but that doesn't concern me. This piece belonged to my grandparents and I don't want it leaving my family.

Unfortunately the tag on the back is only for a moving company. It was put there when my grandfather had the chest shipped to Narramine, NSW (from where, I don't yet know). There is no date but it would have been some time after 1938. I've looked everywhere on the chest and the drawers but can find no maker's mark.

I did think of trying to place a strip of hardwood over the gouged runners, but the gouges are not uniform so that wouldn't be straight-forward for me. If you have any advice on how to proceed with that, I would be grateful for it. I assume I would need to cut a rebate into the runner where the gouges are shallow, so that the strip doesn't sit proud of the runner face. And I would have to do something to fill in the deepest parts to support the strip.

Murray

To give you a look at the primary wood, here's a front rail with the finish worn off:
298686
Center of drawer divider, rear rail and back panels:
298687
One of the most deeply gouged runners, and note the different woods:
298688
Opposite runner:
298689
Veneered edge and split
298690

298691298692298693298694
298695
298696
Drawers (the flash exaggerates the redness):
298697298698298699

[Toymaker Len]

So all the drawer faces, sides and the top are clearly oz red cedar with hidden bits of other wood as was common practice. The red cedar veneer around the top was also common practice with feature grain. Even if you can't afford to have a cabinet maker or restorer do the whole job it would be really good to get a few opinions as a guide and you will probably get a fairly accurate assessment of the age.

[chris_77]

Hi
Its a nice peace of furniture. I would be happy to help you out but I think that you should bring it to professional furniture restorer. In the mine time please check out pictures of my in my profile. There is a lots samples of my RESTORATION work. Cheers.

[Xanthorrhoeas]

Hi Murray,

Your chest is Australian cedar (note the ring porous figure in the sides) with selected cross-banded veneer to some faces. It has had some earlier repairs - the roughly nailed piece in one side and probably the excessive number of nails in the back. Generalising (so not always true, but usually) furniture with cross-banded faces is higher quality than the solid timber only pieces. In terms of its value - the external finish is most important so please don't try to refinish it. A clean-up and wax will make it glow.

The style with the square hat drawers was popular from the 1860's onwards but the carved decoration on yours looks like the later pieces and the circular saw marks on the inside faces certainly support a later dating. Probably 1890 to 1895.

Usually, the runners will pull out from the back once you have the back off. To do that with minimal damage you could try using a piece of scrap timber inside the chest and hammering that outward so that you spread the impact as widely as possible. Once it moves out a little you may be able to pull the nails out with pincers (like tile pincers with long handles) and levering against another piece of scrap timber so you don't damage the back. The secret of restoration is to remove as little as possible and add as little as possible so if you can it would be better to swap the runners from one side to the other (so flip them over). If not then you will need to exactly machine or make cedar runners to replace them - quite an accurate job. Australian cedar is still readily available so the material can be found. Don't use hardwood or meranti or western red cedar - must be Australian cedar. I can name some suppliers if you need.

As well as the runners the sides of the drawers will be worn so they will need to be cut down (possibly using a router and a guide) and a new piece of cedar the same thickness glued on. make it a bit deeper than you think and then hand plane it to be the perfect size.

The glues used were all animal glues - hoof and hide glue, pearl glue, rabbit skin glue (other names for the same thing) and any new repairs should use the same as modern adhesives will not attach properly and will make a mess of the piece. UBeaut sell suitable easy to use glues if you don't want to go the old fashioned way with a glue pot. The big advantage of these glues are that they are reversible - apply hot water and the glue comes unstuck. So mistakes can be corrected and old glues do not need to be completely removed. Also, if the runners are stubborn you may need to release any old glue with hot water but protect the shellac finish from it or it will mark.

I hope that this helps.

Regards

David

[MurrayM]

David, thank you for the help. It became clear that this project is too advanced for me so I've postponed it for now. But I am gradually building up knowledge about how to do it, and your post helps (and corroborates much of what I've learned elsewhere). I think removing the back is going to be the hardest part of this. Those dozens of nails are really holding onto it.

Don't worry, I shall not touch the finish, other than basic cleaning and wax as you suggest. An although I wish all the drawers had handles, I won't add any (I've seen enough episodes of Antiques Roadshow to know that's a bad idea). All I aim to do it get the draws operating well. The drawer sides as well runners will definitely need work. However, I won't attempt it until I'm better equipped.

Cheers,
Murray

[fortunerestore]

Hello everyone, thanks a lot for this thread. This is useful in many ways. Toymaker Len and David's suggestions are all very helpful and apt. Taking such a decision actually needs a lot of courage and expertise in this field. You must consult some expert in this regard to prevent any kind of disaster. Search around for new and better options, for some more help and then go on. :) Good luck for this project. :)