The Technique of FURNITURE MAKING

WARPED TOPS

Badly warped tops can often be corrected by saw kerfing, provided the under surface is not visible in the fixed position. A series of parallel cuts are run in with the circular saw, 1/4 in (6 mm) apart and to within a full 1/8 in (3 mm) of the upper surface. The board is then Cramped/ clamped down to a level surface, and softwood wedge strips or strips of veneer glued into the

541 Seventeenth-century French marquetry cabinet under restoration at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, using Araldite epoxy resin cement. (By courtesy of CIBA [ARL] Ltd, and the Trustees of the Victoria and Albert Museum)

cuts. The wedges must not be too tight or they will force the warp over in the opposite direction, and plenty of time should be allowed for the work to settle before the cramps are released. Badly warped table-tops in which both surfaces show, as in double-top tables, are almost impossible to correct by any known method to give permanent results, and the only alternatives are to renew the top or slit the existing top into two or more pieces, reversing the strips and re-thicknessing, neither of which would be acceptable in antique-work. This shows that the craftsman must resist the invitation to accomplish the impossible by those who do not appreciate what wood really is and how it behaves.