Heywood Wakefield Ashcraft

Recently, I had the extreme good fortune of finding a Heywood Wakefield Ashcraft platform rocker about to be sent to the landfill. Every time I go to the thrift store near me, I drive around back to the dumpster just to see what's being thrown out. A couple of days ago I found this:

It wasn't in the best shape, but I did a bit of gluing and tightening of screws and it looks better already. I didn't even know what I had until I posted photos of it on the F.O.M. web site and Tiki David told me it was a Heywood Wakefield.

Here's some of the damage:

Now, since doing some reading, I'm afraid I should take this to a professional. Has anyone here ever restored such a chair? I was thinking I would re-wrap it with binding cane, replacing the worn out paper wrap, and give it a coat of amber shellac.
Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Don

Nice find! I had a drop leaf table and four dining chairs in my shop a while back and while I didn't need to fully restore them I noticed that it was the paper bindings that were the first to go. Here are some pictures of my HW barstools. I hope they can give you an idea of what the wood should look like. Not sure if you know this but as the name implies "Ashcraft" is made of ash not rattan. The wood was burned to create a faux rattan look during WWII because they couldn't get rattan from Asia. Mine were in pretty decent shape and I just re-coated them this year with Minwax polyshades in Honey. I followed the directions of someone on this board in an old thread about refinishing rattan. It turned out great. I would go for it yourself...it was free what can you lose!

Nice rocker...and I think if you are armed with the knowledge and proper materials, you should be able to do it yourself. Here are some other threads that might help.

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=25263&forum=1
http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=6975&forum=5

Best of luck.

No way, get out!!!! Its amazing what one can find for free. I got the chair version of the rocker at the thrift store for about 10 bucks, I had no idea it was a HW chair. same thing, the paper wrapping is half missing. I just did my best to rewrap it, gave it a coat of amber shelac, and mage new cushions. I think it looks great. If it wasnt dark out right now Id go out on the deck and take a picture. Now that I know its specialish I will bring it in the house.

We have a thrift store here in Bakersfield called RAD and although you probably need a good shower after shopping there, some rather amazing MCM and tiki things routinely pop up. "We" all know that tiki is "trash" so it gets priced accordingly in thrift stores. MUHAHAHAHA! We got some horrible tiki barstools for $2 a piece, but once they were cleaned, varnished, and the seats restored, they look as if they came from an antique store and that they are all pricey pricey.