Blog Stone Maintenance Tips & Information
Historical Furniture Restoration
This is one of the coolest restoration projects I have undertaken. It is not the most complicated I have had to piece together stone tops as if they are puzzles in the past. It does, however, have the best story. Together this armoire and the piece of stone that now sits on top of it in one piece make up an antique that is more than 100 years old.
Our customer inherited this from her mother, who inherited it from hers, who brought it with her when the young family immigrated from Germany early in the last century. The stone was with the piece when it was originally purchased in Germany and it stayed with it in the cargo hold of a ship across the Atlantic ocean. The family and thearmoire made the trip in one piece but unfortunately the stone top did not. When the family’s furniture was disembarked the stone was in pieces and, according to our customer, it has been for 100 years until she, original owners Grand-daughter, called us to fix it.
We started by gluing the three pieces together. Once the glue set we cut slots in the stone perpendicular to the crack then inserted fiberglass support rodding into the slot. We then filled the spaces with a structural adhesive which is also pictured. Once that set we flipped the top right side up, filled surface pits then refinished and polished the piece. Once complete we reset it back in its place as one piece for the first time in 100 years.
By Josh Huseby 8-5-2016