Wood Restoration: a Cake Stand

Furniture & Cabinetmaking, Techniques

Louise Biggs shows us you can have your cake and eat it too.

Three-tier wooden folding shelf unit.

This cake stand is made of quartersawn London plane (Platanus hybrid) also known as ‘lacewood’. My customer had made the cake stand at sixth-form college, with all the parts being produced between his woodwork and metalwork classes. Some decades later the frame sections had warped and twisted. Eager to keep it complete we embarked on a journey to try straightening them. I felt there was little we could do with the twist even if we succeeded in straightening them.

Assessment

The uprights were badly warped and the top ends twisted (right)
All frame joints were loose
The metal fittings had been bent and twisted with the movement of the uprights
The pin that locked the plates in the horizontal position was missing

Tool list

Tablesaw
Planer/thicknesser
Screwdrivers – various sizes
Pliers
Square
Mortise gauge
Marking gauge
Gent’s saw
Chisels – various sizes
Try plane – 07
Sash cramp
Spokeshave

For the turning

Ring centres
Chuck with small jaws
Spindle roughing gouge
Beading/parting tool
Spindle gouge

Stages of Restoration

Disassembled wooden stool pieces on table. — 1. The joints for the frame were loose, so before any further damage occurred to the component parts it was knocked apart completely. Before dismantling the metalwork from the three turned plates the cake stand was photographed and all the sections marked ready for reassembly

Attempting to straighten the uprights

Wooden sword template on a workbench. — 2. Unsure of whether it would even work, a jig was made up using a thick piece of board material to which was ﬁxed a stout, straight batten down the middle. Having soaked the uprights in hot water they were clamped against the jig with cramps, which were tightened to the point the uprights

Woodworking clamps securing wood pieces on a workbench. — 3. Repeated soakings occurred and each time the uprights were pulled a little further, until I got to the point where they were straight. At this point they were pulled past the point of being straight in the opposite direction in the hope that once they were completely dry any spring-back in the timber would leave them straight

Cutting wood with a handsaw on a yellow patterned surface. — 4. It worked up until then. The next stage was to see if they would hold the straight line, which was a matter of waiting. They held for a while but then came the very hot weather when even downstairs in the workshop was too warm, so it came as no surprise that they slowly started to curve back to their original state. We tried. On to plan B. It was impossible to match the grain, I could only get close enough, although this would change again once the uprights were tapered. To start, they were cut and planed to the dimension at the bottom of the original uprights. The shoulder line of the tenon was marked from the original and squared across to the second new upright

Hands using a woodworking marking gauge. — 5. Setting a mortise gauge from the original, the tenon was marked out on one new upright and marked as to which mortise it would ﬁ t. The stage was repeated for the second upright. This allowed for any discrepancies between the original joints and would line them up to the previous shoulder lines on the foot section

Carpenter marking dovetail joint on wooden board. — 6. The tenons were cut using a Gent’s saw and each upright positioned to mark the haunches of the tenons. These were also cut using the Gent’s saw

Carpenter using marking gauge on wood. — 7. The taper reduced the top end of the leg by 3mm on each side. A marking gauge was set and the end of the leg marked. The lines were also taken slightly on to each face for a clear indicator when planning the taper

Carpenter using hand plane on wooden board. — 8. With a large try plane each face was planed down to a taper. A constant check was kept with a straightedge to ensure the taper was not becoming convex or concave, ﬁrst planing two opposite sides then using long, tapered wedges to ﬁrmly cramp the uprights so the second two faces were planed

Drilling hole in wood plank using drill press. — 9. Lining up the shoulders of the tenons, the positions of the three sets of brass collets and the dowel hole for the top rail were marked out. The tops of the uprights were left long at this stage. The tapered wedges used in the vice when planing were used to support the tapered uprights on the drill press to drill out for the collets

Wooden joints with hardware on a carpet. — 10. At this stage the old uprights had to be cut at the point of the collets in order to extract them. This also allowed me to see how long each collet was for drilling and re-ﬁtting them. Each one was marked for its correct position

Hand sawing curved wooden piece on yellow patterned surface. — 11. The foot sections and the bottom stretcher were glued up ﬁrst, followed by the uprights and the curved top rail. Once dry the top ends of the uprights were cut to length and, using a spokeshave, the curve of the top rail was continued across the top of the uprights

Using a wood lathe to drill a hole. — 12. A piece of the old upright was mounted on the lathe between ring centres and turned to round using a spindle roughing gouge. A chucking point was cut with a beading/parting tool and the section mounted in the chuck. A 4mm hole was drilled in the end using a Jacobs chuck in the tailstock, ﬁrmly holding the chuck to prevent it travelling out of the tailstock. This would take the brass rod used as the pin

Woodturning lathe shaping intricate wooden spindle. — 13. Using a spindle gouge a shallow cove was formed which would allow a thumb and index ﬁnger to lightly grip the pin. The two ends were slightly rounded to match. Once the shape was satisfactory, the piece was abraded and parted off and the top end ﬁnished by hand

Wooden display stand with three round shelves. — 14. The cake stand had originally been ﬁnished with wax and the timber had mellowed in the intervening years. The three plates had a multitude of colours; the original uprights were very pale and the top rail and stretcher were different again. After a lot of trial and error and several test pieces later the new uprights were stained with a mix of water stains. Two thin coats of Danish oil were used to seal the stain and build up the ﬁnish and these were slightly coloured with tints to adjust the uprights to the ﬁnal colour, which blended in with the various shades. Several coats of coloured wax were then applied to the entire cake stand

Wooden jig getting crafted by hands with care. — 15. The various parts were laid out in the right positions and the right order of reassembly was established. The brackets that held the plates had to be ﬁtted to the uprights ﬁrst and then screwed to the edges of each plate. Some had to be adjusted and straightened so they turned the plates better

Close-up of wooden folding tray table with brass hardware. — 16. The brass uprights were then ﬁtted to the brackets and the nuts tightened. With the pin through the small brass plate it was inserted into the wooden plate and held in place with the plate horizontal. The position could then be marked and the screws ﬁtted. A small chain was ﬁtted to prevent the pin being lost

Three-tier wooden display stand with brass accents. — 17. With a last check that everything moved as it should, a ﬁnal coat of wax was applied and buffed up. The cake stand was now ready to go home

Further reading

An Interview from History

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