Restoring antique furniture is not for the faint of heart !!! If you are an avid watcher of the television show The Antiques Road Show or other similar shows, you will know that it is a BIG no, no to do any work, as in re-finishing, re-building or re-storing to old antiques. Apparently collectors would rather have antiques that are in what ever shape they are, good or bad and they do not want anyone to alter the original object. In the event an item is re-finished or re-built the value plummets like lead balloon ... and I can understand that. What I don't understand is when I see very nice old furniture that is in terrible shape, that no one will do anything with because it "might" de-value the piece of furniture. In many cases some lovely old furniture has come un-glued, pieces missing or just simply badly abused over the millenia and now it needs some work to put it back together and maybe even a re-finish job to make the piece as close to it's original shape as possible.
The truth is, there are hundreds of furniture restores all over the world who fix, repair and re-finish old and antique furniture every day. I believe these restores do a service by preserving these valuables by making them able to withstand the next 100 years. The question I had, was what to do with an antique rocking chair that I was commissioned to restore.
For centuries, lacquer finishes have been used to give woodworking a long lasting, durable water-resistant finish. Lacquers are available in two styles: spray and brush-on, although they’re both among the fastest drying finishes. That said, brushing on a lacquer finish is more diligent and precise work and takes longer, but is also cleaner than spraying on finish.
What is Lacquer?
Lacquer tends often to be confused with shellac, which arises from shellac coming from the “lac” beetle. Lacquer, on the other hand, is derived from the resin of a varnish tree which is then harvested, distilled and combined with a lacquer thinner to create the common finish. Lacquer is also typically used with a variety of paints to deliver a strong, durable paint finish.
Working with Oak, for most woodworkers is a joy. Despite the fact that Oak is a heavy wood to work with, it produces such excellent finished results it is hard to avoid using it. One of the beauties of Oak is that it can contain visible “figure”, that is, areas where the grain runs a bit different than normal creating a pleasing pattern. These pleasing patterns can sometimes have their own problems when it comes to finishing.
One of the biggest problems we see with projects that are made from Oak is the miss-matching of grains. If you want to get a good finish on any wood project it is imperative that you try to match the grains as best you can. For example if you are creating table top or the side of a bureau, all the wood you use should be flat sawn, quarter sawn or rift sawn – NOT some of each. Each cut of wood absorbs stain differently which means, depending on the angle of light and the angle of view, the stained wood can appear uneven or mottled.
The second most frequent problem we see, is lack of finishing. Oak needs to be finished with very fine sandpaper like 280 or 320 grit in order for it to look nice when the final finishes are applied. The sanding process, particularly with finer grits will also create sawdust that will linger in the open-grain of the Oak. To remove this completely we recommend at the very least a tack cloth of mineral spirits, or to use your compressor and actually blow the dust out (this would have to be done out-or-doors for safety reasons). Only by getting all the sawdust out of the open pores of the Oak can you be assured of some success in your finishing.
Staining pine woodworking projects is something almost every woodworker either has done or will do. Pine is such a lovely material to work with, it's easy on the tools, reasonably priced and available almost everywhere. If you have worked with pine you will probably agree one of the challenges of the wood is finishing it, particularly staining it.
One of the problems with Pine is that if often will not take stain evenly. When this happens it looks like the woodworker either made a mistake or didn't know what they were doing, which is not the case. The reason Pine often produces a mottled look when staining is characteristic of the wood it's elf. Here's the problem … often new wood is mixed with old wood when gluing boards together, and even within some boards there can be “figure” which means the grain structure changes direction or density. All of these problems manifest themselves in how the wood absorbs stain – hence mottling very often occurs.
Sadly it doesn't matter how much you sand or with what grits, there is nothing you can do mechanically to overcome this problem. It a factor of the wood, and because Pine is such a light colored wood it shows up more readily. But there is hope and there are solutions.
" WOW … That's the best word I can use to describe the new spray-on stain from Krylon. When I first heard of this product I was a bit skeptical, after all how could someone actually put a stain in a spray can that wouldn't clog up the nozzle. Well, someone at Krylon figured out how to do it, and it works like a charm! I am quite familiar with Krylon products, I have used a number of them and they are all excellent. This new spray-can stain is another excellent product. The reason a spray stain is so attractive is because there are a lot of projects that are difficult (and messy) to get at with typical paint brush or wipe on stains. This new product is not only a welcome addition, it is going to replace some old standbys in my shop. I was truly amazed at how well the product sprays on, penetrates the wood and leaves a very even coating. The can says that you can spray the stain on and leave it or you can wipe some of it off to allow the wood grain to show through. We tried both methods and both worked, but being woodworkers at heart, the wipe off method colored the wood nicely and still left the grain showing through. The other bonus is that it dries very quickly which is handy if you are going to put another clear coat on top.
Click the “Read More” button for more information ...
For many woodworkers today, scapers are a bit of a mystery. Many of us have heard other woodworkers extoling the virtures of scrapers and how wonderful they are. Well, we decided that it was high time to spend some time on scrapers and explain how and where to use them ... and most of all how to keep them sharp. I can tell you the absolute most useless tool you will ever have in your workshop is a dull scaper. On the flip ... a sharp scraper is irreplaceable.
Before sandpaper became popular, scapers were the item that woodworkers used to put a fine finish on their woodworking projects. In fact, scrapers were so useful and popular that there were people who circulated the woodworking shops with the sole purpose of sharpening scrapers for woodworkers. Because of the sound they made when sharpening scrapers they were called "clickers".
As it turns out, scapers are a VERY useful tool in finishing wood, and in many cases, especially with highly figured woods, particularly those with open grain, sandpaper can actually supress that three dimensional aspect of highly figured wood ... but scrapers can restore the look.
Click the Read More button to see more about scrapers.
" WOW … That's the best word I can use to describe the new spray-on stain from Krylon. When I first heard of this product I was a bit skeptical, after all how could someone actually put a stain in a spray can that wouldn't clog up the nozzle. Well, someone at Krylon figured out how to do it, and it works like a charm! 