Recently bought 6 HM side chairs.
The stacking bases have seen better days. They will eventually be replaced with dowel bases.
The epoxy around the shockmounts look sloppy to me. Is that original? There are also bumps as part of the molded chair on the bottom set for narrow bases, but the shock mounts are mounted at the wide configuration. Is that typical?
How do I date these?
Markings include HM logo, circle S (summit plastics) a couple are stamped with numbers (306192, 861902) and “ind grade” (industrial? not sure what this is)
I would like to clean these up possibly doing a nice overhaul - pulling off the old shockmounts, replacing in the narrow config, wet sanding the whole chair and recoating. Thoughts? Should I move the mounts if dowel bases can fit either way? Solvent/oil coating vs wax coating vs Penetrol vs linseed oil?
Thanks for your help!
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The epoxy is almost surely original. A lot of HM shell chairs look like that.
I think these are on the newer side, because older chairs I have seen are date-stamped in the format OCT 6 57. Later ones have the date encoded, and I'm not sure how the codes work; 861902 may mean February 19, 1986, but don't take that as a fact.
IND GRADE may have been added by the buyer, not the manufacturer.
Show us the stamps? That may help.
These particular chairs are 1960 or later. The circled S and raised letters began in around 1960. And yes, the side shell chairs were definitely made well into the 1980s.
I would not wet sand and re-coat the entire chair. The seat side looks shiny and serviceable, and at least you can say the surface is original, even if not much else is going to be.
I minimally cleaned the chairs (soap and water) attached all the legs, brought them inside, and ran a cloth across them to dust off. When I looked at the cloth it was covered in loose fiberglass...and my arms were itchy. Short of wet sand/Penetrol what can I do to them to seal in the fibers?
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