I recently came into position of two antique chairs (ladies and gents chairs/gone with the wind chairs/rose parlor chairs/ are a few of the names I have seen given to them). My step-daughters misguided mother-in-law was going send them to the garbage dump. They were already thrown into the back of a trailer. The chairs have seen a lot of abuse, one had a broken leg which I repaired, and they both looked like they had fallen off the back of a truck and bounced down the road (rough scrapes and dings). Surprisingly, they are both still structurally sound. I removed the upholstery, sanded and stripped off the old finish. Now I am looking at multiple wood tones (maybe even multiple woods (primarily the wood looks to be mahogany but can it have really varying tones?)) in segmented sections and splices that was not apparent before removing the original finish. Wood grain was visible under the original finish but the splicing and different tones were well disguised. How do I go about refinishing these pieces of furniture without them looking like the devil. How do I achieve what the craftsmen did a hundred years ago? I’m more of a woodworker – finishing is not my forte’ to say the least.
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Replies
zbop,
Believe it or not, stripping the finish was a big mistake. These chairs were most likely "mahoganized" That is they were treated with a heavily pigmented redbrown stain and colored topcoat to give the appearance of fine wood and hide all the joints. If I had those chairs I would have cleaned the surface lightly with a little soap and water, dried them, padded a little shellac on them, glazed them to richen the color and padded with shellac again.
With due respect, if finishing is not your forte, I would recommend hiring someone with experience to do it.
If this is not an option, take some time and READ about finishing first. Get a feel for the terms and expected results form various products.
If you decide to take a shot at it;
You might try some of the darker gel stains to conceal the joints. Do this for a base color. When dry, seal it with shellac(Seal Coat) When dry, lightly rub them down with a grey scotch pad, and apply another light layer of gel stain as needed. This would be considered a glaze. I would then reseal the glaze with shellac. You can continue with shellac as your finish or after sealing, apply a satin varnish.
Practice on a few sample boards before you dive in to get a feel for things.
Let me know how you make out.
Peter Gedrys
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