Bedhead repair

[AnnaG]

I have a bedhead that has a growing horizontal split (see pictures, sorry but the first picture is upsidew down and no matter what I do do, it refuses to be uploaded in the right orientation) which now extends about 1/3rd of the way across the bedhead. Should I repair this with wood glue and a number of clamps or should further bracing also be applied across the split on the back? I would be grateful for any suggestions on how to repair this.
Cheers, AG

[Lyle]

Looks like a join has let go. I'd gently work the whole join apart. Thin blades like stanley knives/box cutter.
Scrape residual glue off then reglue.
Clamping might be needing some preplanning.

[riverbuilder]

Carefully prise it apart, clean off old glue, re glue it. Something like elasticised octopus straps could be used to clamp it while glue is drying and they wont damage the edge or finish

[AnnaG]

Many thanks for the suggestions. At present I can't see any old glue in the join (maybe this why it split in the first place - not enough to start with) and as you suggest I 'll probably have to split the whole length because the gap at present is about 1mm and requires a very large amount of pressure to get the two surfaces together.

[Bohdan]

If you reglue with PVA removal of the old glue is critical as the new glue, while it may appear to stick, won't grab the old stuff. You also may also need to rejoint the edges straight.

[verawood]

Welcome to the forum Anna.

For a visual look at a repair try this,

Split Wood Repair from Wood Movement | Furniture Restoration - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmM1APci8TY)

He has quite a few on yt.

[AnnaG]

Thanks verawood. The video was great and he also had a great video on clamping curved surfaces which I think I will be doing. Now I just have to work out which are the best clamps to buy (unless I go with the octopus strap suggestion). Another suggestion I've seen is to use old bicycle innertubes.