Saved!!!

Recently, this delicate little wedding spoon was returned to me by its owners who wondered if I could repair a catastrophic break which had occurred when said spoon did a nose dive from the wall down to a pretty hard landing on the floor.   The spoon was a bit of a mess, snapped in several places and some little bits missing.  To be honest, I wasn't sure there was a lot I could do.

I should have taken a pic of it in its full-on smashed state, but to be honest, I could barely look at it.

I did get lucky though, when I managed to stick one side back together pretty neatly with some quick setting 'crazy glue' that I had on hand.  With one side repaired, I just had to deal with the gaping wound left when the missing chunk had gone 'walkabout'.  With Celtic knotwork being the curvy, delicate stuff it is, gluing a piece back in was a bit of a challenge.

After about 5 or 6 attempts, I finally managed to shape a tiny piece which fit in the hole and enabled me to contact a bit of glue in all the right places.   I made it slightly oversize to shape down later...but not so big that the shaping could cause more breakage.   I also got really lucky in that I managed to find a sliver of wood of the same species, grain pattern and colouration....not always something that is so easy to do!!!

The glue job was a success, so I was able to very gingerly start shaping the patch back toward the original knotwork shape.   There were definitely a few times I had to hold my breath and hope for the best, but eventually we got it pretty much back to the original form.

The first coat of oil reveals a bit of the old crack, but there isn't much can be done about that.  The wood tone is an almost exact match and at a glance, no one will ever know that it is a completely separate piece of wood there!!!   The poor old thing definitely took a battering and there is no disguising the scars, but at least the spoon can be rehung and it can get back to its job of celebrating a happy wedding!!

I can't always guarantee this kind of success, but if you own a David Western Lovespoon which gets broken or damaged, there is always a chance it can be mended!  (You'll just have to put up with me taunting you about your carelessness!!)
So before you despair, let's try a repair!!   How's THAT for catchy?