The original board looks punky.

I was at my daughter's place the last few days and went to sit down on the couch and it made a funny noise. We turned it over and could see something wasn't right so we cut the fabric away and found that the cross bracing was made out of 1/2" OSB. The middle one had split in half at the middle. It was easy to fix by adding 2 more boards along either side but I'm still shaking my head why they would use OSB for something like that.

 

Sounds like a supermarket overseas build if ya ask me.

 

hahaha, Doug.

I thought you were building an electric chair....ROTFL.

I do agree that the quality of workmanship/material is not improving as buyers go for ever cheaper prices.

 

hahaha, Doug.

I thought you were building an electric chair....[/QUOTE

OOOOOOOOH, I hadn't thought of building one of those yet..... thanks for the idea

 

We have 3 Lazy-Boy recliners - the oldest has 'real' wood in the framework. The middle one and with the most troublesome reclining mechanism is a mixture of real wood and OSB. The newest - sighhhhh - all OSB that I can see when turned over. The price of each was at least incrementally more expensive for less quality. We have a Lane recliner in the RV - it was the least expensive but is by far the most robust vs the last two Lazy-Boys. Any top line furniture store will have good furniture still made with real wood, the rest of it is what I call ground cardboard (low end MDF) held together with nails and staples.

Good luck on the next five. Their repairs should all go faster then the first with the vertical learning curve:blink:

 

It smells of China to me Doug. Over that last few years I've repaired several chairs, a table and a desk for friends and a neighbor.

 

Yes the World is faling apart and furniture is not what it once was. From my mothers house I have 5 armrest chairs and 2 without armrest. No one wants this. I have tried to sell them. Thinkeing of how much Work was put in to make them. They maybe 100 years old I do not know. My mother now in a nurcing home will turn 100 years may 15 this year.
But have a look at the pics.

 

No one want that old "junk". They want new 'contemporary' junk(IKEA and similar). We have three of the armless chairs similar to yours that were my grandmothers - and have been dated to the 1860's. We tried also to sell them but instead, had them recovered and are nice decorative pieces in our home.

 

I thought electric chair too. I'm very disappointed.

 

The trouble with restoring and recovering old quality furniture is the cost, if you farm it out. It's almost a DIY or nothing proposition these days.
Our place is almost exclusively old furniture from inheritance, estate sales, and also from a local restorer that does very affordable and well done craftsmanship.
I love our stuff.