70-year old dining chairs

It hadn't sunk in how old this dining set was when I bought it. They were marked 1942, still with the label of the manufacturer, Showers Brothers. One looked like a throw-away, braced as it had been with plywood. The rest seemed sturdy, that's all I went by. That, and that the label underneath indicated "mhg" for mahogany, and we were enamoured with the idea of expanding our "Duncan Pyfe style" (we have lugged around a drop leaf table for 30 years) and we have mahogany (we thought) china hutches.

I didn't know whether it was realistic to refinish them, or anything about the process. Once I had made the trip a hundred miles to look at the set, I pressed on and bought it. Not good logic, I know, but the price came down quite low as I examined each item closely, and before I knew it, a friend and I were placing and padding, bracing, strapping and bungeeing for the trip back home.

I went to a local furniture guy who fixed the table's pedestal leg. So far so good. But he wasn't a specialist at refinishing and I began to think there was more to this than getting a bottle of stripper and cans of stain and varnish. (I was right about that.)

The chairs came out very well--pretty color and finish to match the table, which my photo doesn't show. Also "well" in the sense of healed--they are almost new in their sturdiness and first-rate finish. What the photo really shows is the construction underneath the seat. According to Kelly at the shop, that cross-piece business is the main key to the chairs' longevity. They are relatively lightweight (some of the high-priced new chairs are heavy, not congruent with gracious living) and Kelly has seen almost new chairs in to his shop because they came apart, even at the $300+ price level.

I found the right shop. Kelly knew to glue the de-lamination I hadn't even seen, then strip (by hand, no dipping), then glue again and patch a couple of places, then sand, stain with a special stain you and I don't find. Then, because the chairs are mostly maple and very little mahogany, some "toning" to even out the color, and finally the varnish. Joyce, did I do right?  I didn't buy new. $1,000 in refinishing went into the local economy, including the sixth chair that wasn't a throw-away after all. 

Magogany?  Kelly said it's too brittle--that's why veneers and small bits are used, but maple for the main frame.