Description and pictures of the sunflower table

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Phoenix Furniture

I take on all types of woodwork but I won’t take a fence

Greg Sinclair

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Email: info@phoenixfurniture.co.uk

Description of damage and pictures of a Sunflower table

The table required repair to some loose joints, and a clean. It emerge to be more difficult than expected

In order to repair the loose joints, the table had to be totally dismantled down to its individual components. I expected to have 14 pieces including the top, but (picture 1) below left shows much more than that. There were 25 pieces, excluding the screws and nails added after the table was made, in attempts to make some inferior repairs that caused yet more breakages.

Mouse-over any of the pictures for a larger view

Assembled table, after repairers and cleaning

Some turnings are totally different from the others on the 2nd leg from the left (picture 1). The short stumpy dowel is too small to add sufficient structural strength. 4 nails were securing the turning to the lower part of the leg. The odd piece of turning was retained and a longer and thicker dowel added, to join all three parts of the leg.

Inadequate size of dowel is shows on the 4th leg from the left, (picture 1) used to join the top of the leg - the portion used for the frame joints - to the turned section. Traditionally, the turned and the square top are made from one piece of timber. Either this table was made by an amateur, or the legs have been cut down, or several pieces of furniture have been cannibalised to make this one. This is very unlikely to be a repair to a break, as it is impossible to have a clean break exactly at that precise intersection of the turning.

The joints are poorly cut and in no way compliment the quality of the turned legs. The 2 large screws did hold the legs and frame together, but stressed what remained of the joints, and split the timber in various places.

A clear view of the screw hole, odd turning, and stumpy dowel shown in (picture 2) left, is a close up of the picture above. It is clear in this picture that there is also a lack of glue in the joints. One of the nails inserted to join the odd turning to the leg has caused the crack visible in the leg to the right in this picture.

Broken turning and split joint in (picture 3). Once the general structural strength of a piece of furniture weakens, it starts to self-destruct. Moments of force exerted by adjoining timbers force joints apart, splitting them open. The leverage of a leg supported by a small, slim dowel was bound to split the turning, which consists of short grain timber. None of these breakages was likely to have happened if the joints had been accurately made, and the top of the legs and their turned section had been made from one length of timber.