Hi, Peter,
First, congratulations on the table finishing slide show. It was very helpful and interesting. The final product is beautiful.
Now, I have a problem. We have some oak bar stools, which were recently reupholstered. The oak still looks old, however, with accumulated years of age and use. What would you recommend to refurbish the oak. I believe the finish is an oil or varnish, but I can check that out. There are products which that you can clean and refinish with one step, using steel wool to rub the surface while wet. Something like that would be a great solution, if it works.
Thanks for your help and best regards,
Tom Abbott
Replies
Hi Tom,
Nice to hear from you. Thanks on the table, it was a fun job.
On the oak legs; first clean them, a simple cleaner like Fantastic, Simple Green etc. will do the job. Then give them a scuff with a maroon or grey scotch pad.
If the finish was a commercial product it's lacquer. If done by someone, it could be anything.
Concerning those wipe on cleaner - refinish products; Some may love them, I don't use them.
A very simple way is to clean them and pad a couple of coats of shellac on them. Add a little trans tint color like medium brown to it and you'll have beautiful and easy finish.
It would only take a few minutes to do this to each stool. Turn them upside down and you could pad one, move on to another and then come right back and pad another coat on the first one. You'll be surprised at how nice they look.
I have some turn of the century oak dining chairs I finished with shellac a number of years ago and they're still going strong. If I want to brighten them up at all, I just do a quick scuff and re-pad.
Let me know how you do.
Peter
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