Originally Posted by kwendt

Hi back to Bennett and Glenn, and others who are in the refinishing mode.

I found a beat up, falling apart parlor type cabinet. No machine head or irons for the treadle. It has all drawers, doors and such. Thing was a showpiece in it's day, built like old furnature. Looks like burl walnut veneer over solid wood, not ply. I was going to scavenge parts, but turns out it's a White Cabinet #9 from around 1886 and would have taken a VSII or VSIII machine. Very unusual.

How best to proceed?

I'm concerned about how dry, light the wood is. Is there a good way to rejuve 1880's wood? No signs of worm holes or chews.

The old glue is defunct. All the joins are coming apart. The veneer, which was a sheet over the boards, is cracked top to bottom where the boards were glued edge to edge to form each side. Should I plan on totally breaking apart the boards (sacrificing veneer), to reglue the boards? Or should I attempt to get glue into the old joints, without fully taking apart the sides of the cabinet? Most of the corner joins have already fallen apart on their own, no problem with those. But here I'm talking about how 'base' boards were glued edge to edge to form each side panel for the cabinet, then the panels were veneered and decorated with wood figurals.

Which/what glue would you recommend for old, dried out 1880 wood? Rockler has some specialty wood cabinet making glues, but to be honest... I've never used anything but regular 'wood' glue. Never had a need. This piece however, is really cabinet art. I could use some recommendations on what you experts have used/liked.

Thanks all. kim in north palm beach