I bought some Australian Red Cedar to make a replacement back for a colonial era cedar balloon back dining chair. The original was smashed when the chair fell backwards. Literally smashed, like a broken glass! No way on earth was it ever going back together again.

This is one of a set of four. None of them are perfect and tend to suffer from an excess of patina! This one has been hacked a few times. I have found plastic filler around the joint where the balloon back joins the rear sides. Whatever I do, I can't do a worse job!

Photos will follow later to form a how-to guide. Well, how I did it anyway.

So tonight I planed a flat face on the block that will form the new balloon back. Blimey this is nice timber to work. A beautiful finish straight off the plane. If you could afford it, you would use nothing else!

Anyway, more tomorrow.