Dear Grandmother, my favorite person in the world just passed away at 95.
‘Left me among other more valuable, less tangible things – some beautiful old furniture.
The center areas were always covered, and the periph of the tops are faded from many years of age. The rest of the furniture is in fair shape. I am wondering if I can use a gel stain over the existing stain to refinish it all without sanding.
I fear that sanding everything down will remove all the faded finish much better than the center (preserved areas) which will always remain much darker.
[url=http://www.picpeek.com/][img]http://www.picpeek.com/uploads/0dae73f7ec.jpg[/img][/url]
Gel stain?
Edited 1/29/2008 3:47 pm ET by daveybobcat
Replies
I wouldn't do a thing. The picture of the table shows too nice a piece to want to refinish, and that would be about the only way to even out the color. This is what wood does and the fading has become part of the charm of wood instead of the homogenenity of paint. Left uncovered the color will have evened out by the time your children inherit the pieces.
Even if you did decide to refinish, sanding isn't the way to remove the old finish. You would need to strip the entire piece with chemical stripper and with all the old finish removed you could dye the top to even the color.
Trying to get a nicer finish by putting gel stain as a toner followed by another top coat is likely to be an exercise in frustration.
Steve thanks for the pearls of wisdom. This is an important project for me so i did some reading this week from some finishing books at the local woodcraft store.
The other nightstand and endtables have some small water rings and I feel like i want to restore- not redo the finish. The picture I am showing has just been wiped down with a wet cloth to get the dust off (and subsequently is hiding the light scratches) The nightstand pictured is by far in the best condition of all.
Thanks for your advice.
I just worked over an antique (c. 1920's?) drysink that had several scratches and it came out beautifully.
I cleaned the piece with Formbys cleaner, then wiped it down with a rag slightly moistened with some Special Walnut stain (the color match was perfect). I finished it up with two coats of paste wax buffed out with a buffing wheel and old towels.
The piece has a slight glow and most of the scratches disappeared. The few that can still be seen now add to the character instead of looking like it was clawed by a pet or something. - lol
The customer absolutely loves it and now I'll be doing an antique grandfather clock for her.
special walnut stain eh? How special can it be? Homebrew or homedepot!
ok seriously- an oil, waterbase or what? did your cleaner remove all the existing stain from the wood? Is this even a concern when using a stripper like that?
still, i am curious. Hypothetically could a gel stain (like 'general finishes') be added ontop of another oil based stain such as this? What results might be expected?
Yes, gel stain can be used as a glaze over other finishes. Getting it to look as desired may be a challenge, expecially if the glaze isn't being used in the tradional fashion of shading material into corners. Stains are not paint and need to be substantially wiped from the surface. This means that how much "sticks" and where depends on the "nooks and crannies" in the finish. With a plane surface, like a table top, that would depend on meticulous sanding to provide some tooth in exactly the right places to achieve the desired effect. In some ways the gel stain isn't the right medium--you would be better off with actual glazing base, tinted with Japan colors or artists oil paint to the right shades. This material would likely give more working time.
But it doesn't stop there, the binder on stains is relatively weak. A protective clear finish is needed over the gel stain, either shellac or varnish. Getting the sheen to match up with other parts suggests that unless very skilled or lucky it will be necessary to coat the entire piece.
steve you are ubiquitous.
um. Make that part ubiquitous, part genious. I think i had better test in an inconspicuous place. I have more excitement than brains and have been tempted for a week now to just slap on some stain. Thanks for scaring me back into amateur-reality.
Actually it was Minwax's "Special Walnut" stain. It was left over from some previous job and it just happened to be a perfect color match.
The Formbys cleaner doesn't strip the old finish - it just cleans off the "gunk" that builds up over the years of people using furniture polish, Pledge, etc. I scrubbed it with a plastic scrubbing pad and wiped it down with paper towels until the towels quit picking up "gunk". Then, I went over it with the stain followed by the paste wax.
It worked great on the drysink, but your mileage may vary. - lol
Next time save a lot of money. The Formby's Build Up Cleaner 94% mineral spirits, 5% paraffin oil (to leave a little sheen and to carry the odorant behind, I suppose) and 1% odorant. Data from MSDS.
Steve -
I didn't know that..............thanks. As it happened, I had the Formbys left over from something else and decided to give it a try. I also have Mineral Spirits by the gallon. - lol
I would let it be and only go at it with some Bri Wax. Let nature take its course and it will eventually fade to like colour.
Work Safe, Count to 10 when your done for the day !!
Bruce S.
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled