This is a family heirloom, a spinning wheel made for spinning flax.
Our client inherited the wheel and wanted the small piece broken repaired.
It is unlikely that it will be used again, but it has to be strong enough
for someone to move it and not snap it.
Disassembled the part to be repaired.
Simple, straight forward repair, FAILED.
People don’t talk about their failures often, but they should.
We learn from our failures. In this case, while we knew that there might be a need for a thin insert, the utter inability of the normal repair to hold at all surprised us.
Options like drilling and pinning were not available due to the
fragility of the piece and the size of the small part needing repair.
We decided to create a prosthetic. We wanted it to be as thin as possible
while still able to guarantee the repair would not fail.
Our prosthetic was designed, and a template taken of the inside curve of the piece.
The wood was bent to fit the inside of the piece.
The inside was lightly sanded to allow for adhesion.
Old Brown Glue, with no additives, is reversible, and this was applied to both sides of the repaired area. Four hands held it while it was clamped to cure.
Sadly, our finish images were lost (glitch),
but the piece was finished to match the historic finish.
Broken piece before, and after treatment.
Flax wheels are not often seen; we offer our images of the flax wheel, before and after.
iPhone destroyed several days of images in their update.
Written by Kate Powell ©MPF Conservation.
May be printed for your own use ONLY, not for use on blogs without permission.
Nice work. Especially considering the circumstances.
Thanks Dan!