Retro Refit

One of our more challenging retrorefits was a George Nelson Dresser that had been cannibalized for its legs and drawer knobs.  The dresser top and sides needed some TLC.  However, the drawer faces were in relatively decent shape.  We did find two of the 8 original wooden knobs in one of the drawers.  The original legs were the black wooden series, although we chose to retrofit this dresser with the series’ aluminum hairpin legs.

This post will cover the wooden knobs.  Although I did wind up making a set of the dresser sized aluminum hairpin legs, I will probably never venture into that metal working arena in the future.  Without a custom fixture and hydraulic bender, it is nearly impossible to produce 2 pieces that are the same dimensions.  I have a lot of scrap aluminum now!

As always, when an original part is to be duplicated, the original was measured in detail and a shop drawing and measuring templates created to match the original curvatures.

Turning the replacement knobs on a lathe, from a block of wood, was very satisfying, although at times, frustrating.  After the first dozen or so, the task become easier and each knob took much less time to complete.  I do want to thank my brother in Bowling Green, KY for teaching me to use the wood lathe and chisels.  I had learned to use a metal lathe in an adult education class, but had not done any wood-turning.  With great patience, my brother taught me how to use the wood chisels and gave me valuable tips on how to make the original Nelson drawer knobs.

Fitting the knob with the unique post and screw to match the original mounting was an interesting search and took some trial and error.

The final product turned out excellent and the variances between knobs were less than the variances between the two original knobs that were used as the models.

UPDATE JUNE 2014: I have been lucky to be able to supply several restorations with these “cupcake” knobs and hardware.  Since the original post here, I have obtained a lathe duplicator that can copy any original design to the block of wood on the lathe.  I am able to fulfill custom requests for these knobs in Poplar, Spalted Maple, and Walnut woods.  I’m experimenting with teak I’ve purchased that turned out to be glued so that the face of the knob displays two grains, split down the middle.  Here’s a photo of the Spalted Maple and Poplar knobs: