My better half recently aquired an old oak table. She had started stripping it with chemicals, scrapers and sandpaper. While she had stepped out of the shop, I,”in my manly infinite wisdom”, took my trusty sander to it to flatten the top out and take it down to new bare wood. Upon her return, I was not so subtly informed that she wanted the “old” finish. Guess what my question is.
How can I antique this table back to what it was, and get some conversation back in my home? Just kidding, she’s a wonderful lady.
Thxs,Josh.
Replies
Well, Josh, you can't. Taking a sander to an old piece of furniture is the worst thing in the world, in my opinion. Who WANTS bare wood!! You can build something new for bare wood. I call it refinishing down to the splinters--and it ain't attractive.
Hi Gretchen;
I agree with you. I'm fairly new to this finer type of woodworking and I'm sure this won't be my last mistake. I'm just trying to find things out by asking questions. I guess I'll ask first next time.
Josh, this may be a really stupid question, but if the wifey wanted to old finish, why did she start stripping it? And just what is the finish she would like?
Eddie; She knew what "look" she wanted, she just forgot to tell me....lol.
Josh, all may not be lost, but we have to identify the "look" she wanted. I have restored a number of oak pieces, maybe, but not promise, I can help
F E
Josh, this may be a really stupid question, but if the wifey wanted to old finish, why did she start stripping it? And just what is the finish she would like
You can strip a piece--either with paint stripper for varnish or denatured alcohol for shellac--and retain the "patina" of the wood. Which aggressive sanding absolutely destroys.Gretchen
What is Patina?
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=define%3Apatina
And while Uncle Dunc has given you a lot of reference to the term, even after stripping there is a "patina" to wood from its age. If you sand it, then you lose this age--you have "fresh" wood.Gretchen
Thank you very much. A good simple answer.
Sounds like she may have been going for her own, customized, distressed old look. If she wanted to retain the basic patina, she would have needed to go with the denatured alcohol+laquer thinner mix (you didn't say which chemicals she was using), and absolutely no sandpaper -- just 0000 steel wool and a spatula of some sort. Washing off with turpentine.
If she has any dominant "interior designer" genes in her DNA, you might be in for a cold spell. Once the idea is formed, it's pretty difficult for an outsider to change it, LOL!!
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Although you will never get back the patina you lost by sanding, you may be able to do things to make the wood look old again and take the "raw" look out of it. Oak fumes well because of the tannin (fuming means to treat it with ammonia fumes in a tent)--that will turn it darker. You could also dye it and/or stain it. Maybe folks here can advise you on techniques that will make it look old. I think there is even a chemical aging process using an oxidizing agent, though it it sort of dangerous.
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled