Gooday,
A few weeks ago I volunteered to fix one of the oak benches(pews) in my church. When I finished that job I noticed the adjacent bench was not secured properly. When I looked under the bench I found the supports that the bench sits on were split from top to bottom. Having deliberated on a repair scheme for the pieces I decided to use the existing supports as templates( after gluing them together)
and trace them on to thicker stock.
Tucked away in the workshop was several large slabs of clear western hemlock. The hemlock was salvaged from the pews that were removed from my Baptist church back home. My Opa built these benches over thirty years ago. Definitely not by coincidence part of the church pews from Salmon Arm B.C. ended up in Brentview Baptist church in Calgary, Alberta.
The old pew material needed to have a couple of holes filled with beech dowel I had in the shop and the front and back edges needed a pass with the router and a round over bit. The original varnish finish was touched up and the bench was assembled once again.
Using salvaged lumber for this project was a natural decision for me based on the other projects on this blog that also utilize salvaged wood.
