I first started by cleaning them all. First with a brush to remove the cobwebs and the surface dust, then I gave them a good scrub with 000 steel wool dipped in linseed oil. That quickly brought them back to a really nice color. A good hour later, I wiped them down with paper towels. That removed all the dust.
Once they were clean, I moved to the structural damage. One chair was in 5 pieces, one chair needed to have the seat reattached and a third one I am still trying to figure how to repair.
I cleaned up all the areas that would receive glue on those chairs while a fresh liquid hide glue batch was cooking in my very traditional glue pot.
As it wasn't that hot, I hurried up reassembling both chairs. I quickly brushed hide glue in the mortises and on the tenons. I fitted all pieces together and firmly clamped them.
A bit later, I removed the clamps and reattached the seat on the fully rebuilt chair. I still need to clean up traces of previous "repairs" that used large wire nails to attach the seat.
All in all, not too bad for 8€ and about 1 hour of sweat equity.
Here they are, with a table from the same vintage and origin. The pairing is totally accidental, as that table was an impulse buy on a flea market that very same morning. The next morning, I added a coat of wax to the chairs and buffed it off.
There was another piece of furniture included, but it will be the subject of a separate post.
