Oak Dining Set Refinish – Part I

July 18, 2012 By 2 Comments

This past week, I started a project to repair and refinish an Oak dining table and 6 chairs. It’s a pedestal style table where the pedestal and top splits to accept 5 leaves that was made in Hanover Ontario more than likely in the early to mid 1900′s. The leather chairs are upholstered with straw stuffing!

I don’t have a single “before” picture as the table top was not attached to the pedestal due to one of the feet having been broken off.

What I’ll do is showcase each piece or a group of pieces as they are tackled.

That being said, here is a before & after pic of half of the pedestal:

Pedestal before

Pedestal ‘after’ – it’s upside down waiting for the finish to dry

The old finish had to be stripped down and restained. A lot of old dirt came off and the new stain really brightened up the ray-flecks. Especially with the finish being pure Tung oil.

And that’s all the news that’s fit to print … for now!

 

Filed Under: Furniture Repair

WW I Chest – The hardware

January 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Now that the lid and the base of the chest were refinished and looking great it was time to turn to the hardware. The client wanted to keep the existing side handles, but replace the front draw catches.

The brass side handles were in pretty good shape. Some elbow grease and some steel wool cleaned them up nicely and did not affect their aged appearance which the client was wanting to maintain.

The brass draw catches were however beat beyond repair and had to be replaced. A dilemma ensued as the only replacement draw catches that I could find were bright, shiny and new looking. I knew of a way to age brass, but it involved the use of ammonia. Typically I don’t like using harsh chemicals. Their unpleasant and they are dangerous in many cases.

To the internet I went in research and I found that by soaking the brass in a solution of vinegar and salt, followed by a 20-30 minute run in the oven at the highest setting (mine goes to 450 F) accelerates the natural corrosion process. A little steel wood to clean off the crystalized salt and a cold water bath halts the process. Et voila! Aged brass!

Aging brass - Left side is after aging, right side is before.

Now there is one thing that was added to the chest at the client’s request. A bronze Victorian handle. Normally I would say that all the hardware should be of the same material, but in this case, the aged brass complements it and after mounting it front and center on the lid, I must say it looks splendid!

Hardware installed on chest

Shortly after attaching all of the hardware, I delivered it to my client and she was very pleased with the outcome. She also chose the perfect place for it to be displayed. In a stairwell landing that has a window above it and it can be admired from almost any direction. Check the below for the pictures of the chest in its new home. Thanks to my client for allowing me to write about this project. It was an absolute honour to return it to a new level of glory!

Front shot in its new home

Top shot in its new home

Filed Under: Furniture Repair, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , ,

WW I Chest – The lid

January 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment

With the base of the chest completed, it was time to turn to the more prominent piece. The lid and the name stenciled into the middle of it.

The Lid before refinishing

The Stenciled Name - Before refinishing

 

The finish reviver managed to take a lot of dirt off, but there were paint spots and areas where the finish was worn clean through to thepine.Additionally, the reviver caused some of the gold lettering. This of course concerned me at first, but upon closer inspection it appeared that the gold paint had been applied during a previous refinishing. There was black lettering under the gold which looked like it had been sprayed on using a stencil while the gold had the flow of being applied by hand.

Finally, there was a split down the middle of the lid. The way the lid was constructed, the sides prevented the top from shrinking as the wood slowly dried over the decades.

Now you might think I’m being critical of how it was cared for. Far from it! This is all part of the fascinating history of a piece of furniture that is revealed as it is refinished and repaired. Simply looking at the chest only tells you that it was old and worn. Diving deep into the process reveals its true story; but I digress…

Using a fine grit sandpaper, a brass bristled brush (the size of a toothbrush) as well as some steel wool plus some elbow grease resulted in a flowing surface with its scars untouched but there was still the issue of bare wood. Some more garnet shellac that was used in the base restored the colour to a nice even brownish gold tone.

The stenciling was tricky I’ll admit. Using tracing paper over the lid to painstakingly copy the points of each letter I then transferred them to a piece of white poster board. This would serve as the template to apply the flat black paint to the lid directly over where the name had been originally.

3 coats of semi-gloss polyurethane then followed and the lid was done. Next comes the hardware and delivery!

Stenciling after pic - waiting for the paint to dry before removing the center of the D & A

Click here for part 4

Filed Under: Furniture Repair Tagged With: , , ,

WW I Chest – the base

December 8, 2011 By Leave a Comment

With all of the hardware removed and the lid placed off to the side, I began applying the finish reviver to clean up all of the oils and dirt that inevitably adheres to a piece of furniture. Unfortunately, with some of the finished being worn right down to the bare pine, there was some flaking of the finish. Not entirely what I was expecting. So I worked free all of the loose flakes which were few and began working on a few paint marks that had made their way onto the chest lid and back using a very sharp scraper.

Because of the varying degrees of thickness in what was left of the finish, I decided to sand down the entire case using a random orbit sander except on the stenciled name. This area was tackled by hand. Okay, I know what you’re thinking. I didn’t try to erase all traces of finish as that would have also erased the character of the chest. Actually, I used 120 grit sandpaper to smooth out the remaining finish and feather it to the areas where there was no finish.

Of course, this resulted in some areas being stark naked white pine while other areas had that antique golden look. The answer? Shellac. I hand rubbed a garnet toned de-waxed shellac on the lighter areas to match the existing finish. Once blending was completed, I sprayed the entire base exterior with the same shellac to seal it and to act as a binder coat for a couple of semi-gloss coats of water based poly-urethane.

I am very pleased with how the base is turning out. I hope my client will be also :) Click on the images to see full size.

The glare shows you the even finish :)

 

without the glare - also check out the dovetails!

In the next article, I will tackle the lid and the stenciling.

 Click here for part 3

Filed Under: Furniture Repair Tagged With: ,

WW I Chest

December 6, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Several weeks ago, I received an email asking me to go and take a look at a chest that has served in both World Wars.

Both wars? Indeed, I immediately agreed to take a look at this treasure and we made the arrangements for me to travel to the customer’s home.

Back of Chest

The chest is beautiful, made from pine and joined together by dovetails, but also has gone through some tough times. Well, I think that’s to be expected considering where it has been! With a broken lid stay, the lid had fallen backward all the way ripping out the top board which had since been repaired.

Before Picture

The top also has a split down the middle length-wise. This is because wood expands and contracts across the grain as humidity levels change. However, the sides of the lid is made from a board with the grain running in a perpendicular direction to the top.

On a bit of a tangent … At the beginning of WW I, production on everything jumped into high gear. There was no time to wait for the wood to dry out completely. The manufacturer had to turn out these chests as quickly as possible. So as the wood dried out over the years, it shrank and due to the cross grain conflict, the top couldn’t shrink as it wanted to and it pulled itself apart. Okay, the degree of freshness from cutting of the wood is a guess, but logical given the circumstances.

Okay, getting back on track. The history of a piece like this is simply fantastic Finally, the finish has been worn away in many places due to the many hands that have handled it and the stenciled name is wearing off. There are also some hardware issues. The draw catches are worn or broken and there was a hasp that had been installed and since removed.

The owner has since agreed to have me restore it with the goal of preserving the character and history of the piece. I’ve had possession of it in my shop for about a week now and progress is being made, but you’ll have to wait for the next post for the details.

Until then, here are a couple more pics of the chest for you to enjoy …

Click here for part 2

The chest, opened

Side of chest

Filed Under: Furniture Repair Tagged With: ,

A Tale of 2 chairs

December 6, 2011 By Leave a Comment

These chairs turned out wonderfully! After 2 very different rebuilds, the client came to pick them up  in mid November and I have since heard that they are still very pleased with the repairs and spruce-up of the finish.

The client kept the cushions, but they're ready for several years more service!

You can read Part I here.

 

Filed Under: Furniture Repair Tagged With: , , ,

A tale of 2 chairs

October 15, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Recently I’ve had 2 chairs brought to me sans cushions where the structure has been compromised and the owner would like them restored to functional condition. These are going to a fun pair. Looks like most of the glue joints are broken on the first chair and the 2nd has been put through the wringer where most of the dowels have been broken in half.

Major structural failure!

Just a little rickety!

These pieces exhibit evidence of previous repairs. Dowels of different types are in evidence (3/8″ fluted vs 3/8″ spiral). Additionally, they have been refinished several times.

So what I’ll do is drill out all of the dowels and where necessary plug and re-drill out the mortise holes; reassemble with new dowels of the appropriate length with cleaned up glue joints. Finally I’ll spruce up the finish by cleaning them with a solution of 1 part boiled linseed oil and 3 parts mineral spirits followed up by a coat of wax and buff.

Look for a follow up with the after shot in the next few days!

Cheers!

Filed Under: Furniture Repair Tagged With: , ,

Restoring vs Repairing – Part I – Restoration

September 10, 2011 By Leave a Comment

So, when is a decision made to restore vs repair a piece of furniture? Well, to determine that, we must understand what it means to restore a piece and what it means to simply repair it.

Restoration

Worth Saving?

Restoring is to bring something to its original condition. Period. No improvements can be made to the design. Everything possible must be done to maintain the aesthetic and monetary value of the table, chair, chest or whatever is being considered. It could be considered blasphemous by many woodworkers and period furniture aficionados to replace a damaged board with a strip of plywood or to replace a worn iron strap hinge with a brass butt hinge.

The consideration that has to be made when deciding to restore a piece of furniture is to determine the value of restoring it. This is dependent upon the reason for restoring it. In many cases, it’s because it is an heirloom and preserving this part of a family’s history is important so that it can be enjoyed by future generations. Other reasons is that it is functional and restoring it is cheaper than buying a new one of like quality.

Restoration can be a lengthy and involved process requiring wood of the same type and age to be found. That is, if a chair needs a new foot or brace and is made from Mahogany that was harvested 200 years ago, then wood that was harvested 200 years ago should be used to make the repair. This is just one of the rules that a furniture restorer needs to try to heed.

Restoring and the impact to value

If there is any question as to its monetary value as an antique, it should be appraised by an independent appraiser and they should be questioned on what the impact of a restoration may be to its value. In some cases it may be better to leave it as is but if the piece is already missing a quarter of its parts, the true value is probably already degraded so far as to not matter.

In the next post, I’ll discuss some of the other rules of restoration and some of the key details behind identifying if a pre-industrial revolution piece has been restored improperly.

Do you have a comment or a question you’d like to ask? Feel free to leave your question or comment below.

 

Filed Under: Restoration Series Tagged With: ,