A few of the common chair problems encountered in restoration work are listed below; more extensive repairs will be discussed in the succeeding section, devoted to repair. Slats. A minimum type of damage has occurred when one or more slats in a ladderback chair, or splats in a bannister chair, are missing or broken. As previously mentioned, the curved segments of spinning wheels are excellent sources for slats, inasmuch as no steaming and clamping or shaping will be required. While the straight type of molded bannisters were sometimes cut from maple, softwoods such as pine or tulipwood were considered sufficiently strong because of their straight grains. In the split turned variety, however, softwoods were shunned because of the fragility in turnings of such small diameters. Ash, maple, oak, or other strong woods should be used to make a full turning exactly coinciding in pattern with the turnings of the back posts, then ripped lengthwise. For small diameter work it is preferable to rip the stock before turning, gluing it together with waxed paper between the halves, with the rough ends bradded or screwed. Legs. In general, in old chairs the bottoms of the rear legs will display plain, turned sections, while those of the front will usually conform to the pattern of the front posts. Feet. When feet are missing or so damaged that they must be replaced, the best method is to turn the roughedout foot with a pin of 4in. diameter, or larger, for gluing into a corresponding hole in the leg (Figure 7.9), rather than to resort to doweling. Restored finials should be attached in the same manner. In restoring feet on Dutch or Spanish chairs it is customary to shape the piece roughly, then to glue its pin into place in the leg and let it set, before working the foot into its final shape with rasps and files. Where a section of the leg has been carried away in the splitting off of a foot, it can often be "halved on" with glue, clamped, then reinforced with small screws to prevent later loosening. Fig. 7.9. Windsor chairs. Because the construction of fine Windsor chairs Restoring ... damaged embodied adroit use of the different shrinkage rates in green and seafoot, soned woods, the restoration or repairing of this type of chair is not ordinarily an easy operation. The able craftsmen of those early days succeeded in combining some of the strongest and most elastic of native woods into a slender, graceful, and sound harmony of line and form. The onepiece seats of white wood, basswood, or tulipwood, together with the maple legs, were usually cut from green or unseasoned wood, whereas the maple stretchers, the bent bows or hoops, and the spindles of hickory, oak or ash, were formed from wellseasoned wood. The ends of the stretchers were left slightly oversize, so that when they were driven into their holes they were held tightly RESTORATION, REPAIR, AND REFINISHING 391 by the shrinkage of the green legs.