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Page 30 The Antique Shoppe March, 2018

COMMON SENSE

ANTIQUES

By Fred Taylor

FURNITURE SOUNDS

Learn To Listen

Sometimes it seems that there just worn down? Place a straight edge along
1 aren’t any quiet spaces or times left these the bottom of a side to see how worn
days. Between kids, traffic, television, it really is. Then take a look inside the
radio, iPods, cell phones and Harleys it case at where the drawer runners meet
is hard to find a serene nook to curl up in the case.
and just enjoy the silence. Feel the area with your fingers.
One good place would seem to be an Can you feel the groove where the
empty house or even a full house late runners have worn into the case? If
at night after everyone has turned in the drawer sides are worn significantly
but then again even the best of houses or if the inside case runners are deeply
is not always silent. Each house has its grooved you have found the source of
own set of sounds that accompany it the bump. Drawer runners and case
each day and night and the sounds are runners can both easily be repaired by
often different depending on the time of a knowledgeable furniture professional.
day or night. The hum of machinery, the Another common sound found in
clicking on or off of the heating system, furniture is the annoying “scrape” often
the ice maker filling up and the normal heard when opening a cabinet door. The
expansion and contraction sounds of a first inclination is to think the door needs
building are always present. to be trimmed or shaved but that needs
2 the furniture in the house. Even the best some further thought. The cabinet was
The same can often be said about
probably originally built on the square
piece of furniture is not always silent. and the doors were probably square
So what does your furniture say to you to start with too. While it is true some
and what does it mean? Let’s take a look doors or cases do warp over time it is not
at a few common examples. the most common cause of the irritating
One of the most frequently heard scrape. The most common cause is that
sounds from furniture, especially an case has gotten out of square since it was
6 older or antique chest of drawers or placed in its current location. Perhaps it
dresser, is a disturbing “bump” when was never placed squarely to start with.
you close a drawer. What’s the matter Stand back and take a look at the
with it? It opens perfectly fine every cabinet with the doors closed. Is the
time but it has that disturbing bump space around the door even all the way
when you close it. That is the sound of around or does it slope off at an angle
many years of use and few instances of in some places? Look closely at where
maintenance. The most common cause the top leading edge of the door meets
of the bump is worn drawer runners that the cabinet. Is the space even or is it
allow the drawer to drop slightly as you wider at one end than the other? If the
open it. The when you close it the back spaces are uneven around the door the
of drawer front hits the rail between the cabinet is “out of whack.” Push up on
drawers, thus the bump. one corner of the top of the case. Does
Empty the noisy drawer and remove the uneven space around the door get
it from the case. Turn it upside down better or worse.
and look at the drawer sides. Are they Continued →

The space around this china cabinet door indicates the cabinet is not sitting level
and the door probably sticks or scrapes. The cabinet just needs to be leveled.