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I have a vintage Rock'n'Rest chair that has met with an unfortunate perch...a family member sat on the arm and now one of the rear joints is loose. It is a mortise & tenon joint and it all appears to be intact inside, it just is loose. It doesn't look like there was any existing glue so I wasn't sure if I should put in some Gorilla Glue or similar? I don't think I should take it all the way apart as all of the other joints are fine. I'm very much a DIY beginner so any advice would be really appreciated.

close-up of loose mortise and tenon

side of chair

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  • Hi, welcome to StackExchange. You can try to repair this by getting glue in there somehow and then clamping the joint closed but in general this is not the best approach. You can look at various guides on how to do this without further taking it apart (including using purpose-made glues specifically for this kind of job, I believe there are at least three) but you'll never achieve the kind of strength chair joints really need this way.
    – Graphus
    Commented Jul 23, 2022 at 17:51
  • Is the chair valuable enough to you to maybe have a pro take a look at it? They could touch up the finish as well while they have it in their hands and it looks like the chair could do with it.
    – Graphus
    Commented Jul 23, 2022 at 17:51
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    The angled joint does not really carry much of the load in the connection. The fact that there does not appear to be glue there is not a big deal. The mortise and tenon connection on the interior however carries all the stress between the vertical and horizontal legs. In order to have an effective connection I believe you will have to open up and reglue that joint completely. This means you may have to disassemble the chair further in order to effectively glue it up.
    – Ashlar ♦
    Commented Jul 26, 2022 at 20:44
  • That's a beautiful chair! If I were in your shoes, the intrinsic value of the chair would probably drive me to a professional for a fix. (Along with the finish, as noted above.)
    – Aloysius Defenestrate
    Commented Jul 26, 2022 at 23:52

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I'm very much a DIY beginner so any advice would be really appreciated.

If you want to keep that chair in good working condition, take it to a professional furniture restorer.

It doesn't look like there was any existing glue

In a mortise and tenon joint, the glue is applied to the tenon and the inside of the mortise. It's not usually applied to the part of the joint that you can see without taking the joint apart.

so I wasn't sure if I should put in some Gorilla Glue or similar?

Don't do that. In most chairs, this one included, the connection between the rails and the rear legs has to be very strong. As Ashlar explained in a comment, just adding a little glue to the part of the joint that you can see isn't going to provide the necessary strength. Also, right now that tenon has nice clean shoulders, and once repaired, the joint will fit back together tightly. If you add glue there, that glue will eventually have to be removed to get a good fit again.rock.n.

Somebody with experience is really going to need to take the joint apart (which will also mean taking the corresponding joint on the other side apart). They'll then look at the mating surfaces to see whether they can be reglued. Often, when a joint like this breaks, it's the wood that breaks, not the glue, so the joint might need more repair than just scraping off the old glue, adding new glue, and sticking it back together.

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  • Very much +1 except for "[glue is] not usually applied to the part of the joint that you can see without taking the joint apart" I'm not sure how widespread applying no glue to the shoulders is. Obviously there still is and definitely was a widespread belief there's no point in applying glue to end grain, but even with this plenty of pros did still apply glue there as a sort of "why not?" (plus of course glue can tend to get there anyway because of squeeze-out).
    – Graphus
    Commented Jul 27, 2022 at 15:55
  • @Graphus I’m sure opinions on the value of gluing the shoulders varies (because it’s woodworking, after all), but at least some people undercut the shoulders a bit to give squeezeout a place to go. In any case, there appears to be no glue on the shoulders on the joint in question.
    – Caleb
    Commented Jul 27, 2022 at 19:10
  • Whether there's glue here on these shoulders is not relevant to what I was getting at Caleb.
    – Graphus
    Commented Jul 28, 2022 at 20:01

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