Hinge Piece

The piece of wood that the lid and hinges attach to was severely cracked.  I have seen other reports of people having a similar issue.  I believe that the piece sees too much stress and finally fails after 100 years.

I decided to remake the piece out of oak.  Luckily Home Depot has oak in stock that is the same thickness.

I will say that a router with a 1/4 routing bit is needed to cut the bottom groove and the inset hinge areas.  I am not sure how else you would cut the bottom groove.

I used the original piece as a template.

Cracked

New Piece

Stain

Since this is oak, I needed to apply many coats of the Minwax Stain to get the correct color.  I used Red Mahogany color stain.