Broken chair leg

[johndi]

Epoxy.
Check out Thomas Johnson antique restoration on YouTube
The guy is amazing and repaired a leg break almost identical to yours, but ona table leg

[WilliamHodge]

I weigh 160 pounds. One night I was sitting in a light chair that had been restored. The chair collapsed, and a part jambed into my thigh. It took months to recover.

That chair looks good for a display model. If you plan on having people sit on it, try loading it up with 285 pounds, and dragging and tilting it. This is a reasonable expectation, given the way people are putting increasing demands on furniture.

[joe1086]

If you click on the picks a Flickr page opens with higher resolution jpegs and you can zoom in/out.  Looks like the rear leg is broken right under the intersection with the side rail, back rail and leg.  The break is just beneath the tenons of the side and back rails. 

I'd be concered with any repair in that high stress area. Someone could get hurt.

[Woodshop]

If I was designing a chair I would start with strength. this chair was designed for looks. I think the same about any queen ann
   , perhaps the original design was made of high quality wood and someone built the same out of cheaper wood . then you get what you have. brakes are hard to repair with any hope of strength. a simple fall to the floor should not have broken it. I would think about replacing the leg to a point where there is much less stress on it , like close the the top before the curve. there use a spline.

just my opinion
good luck

[Willyou]

I agree with the spline and epoxy comments. However, I also agree with WilliamHodge. Even with this repair, I would not trust the strength for every day use. I would feel differently if the chair legs had stretchers for bracing. If you must have the chair for use I would suggest that you install some stretchers lower on the legs. I know this is not in keeping with the style, but you indicate that it is not a valuable antique. Stretchers along with the spline repair will, at least, make it safe to use.

[Steve N]

That chair looks good for a display model.

Looking back I don't see that, but for some reason I thought I had seen something like that. Yes I agree putting it back together for the look is one thing, to expect that chair to survive the rigors of use is likely not gonna happen. That said being a big guy I look closely at any chairs I do sit on, having had one go BOOM on me in the past, and I would just stand if that were the only chair available, even if it hadn't been broken before.

[Paul K. Murphy]

To render that chair suitable for seating, the stile must be replaced. Repairing the broken stile gives you a museum piece only.

[DogwoodTales]

+1 to what paul said. If the chair is worth the effort to you, then I would have done a long-angled splice with a new piece of wood above the seat.

I'm not a specialist, but that does look to me like a really bad break indicative of questionable wood quality for a chair.

[falcon]

I want to thank everyone for their input on this subject.  I think I'll just fix it with some spines, have it re-upholstered and sit it in a corner for display.  Makes sense to me.  

Ray

[Willyou]

Respectfully (I really don't mean to sound snarky) I would be afraid that someone will someday unknowingly sit in it and it will fail again; maybe with harm.