Newsletter
September 28, 2002

The infant picture frame section is up and running. It has a long way to go and there is so much information to be added it would be good to return periodically to Picture Frame Contents to see what's new. I didn't send an extra newsletter as I said I would in my last newsletter, because I just got the picture framing section on the web site a few days ago and decided to wait to today rather than adding extras to your in box.

Different procedures of Picture Frame Restoration is high on the list of things to do. I found a supplier who has real gold leaf, artificial gold leaf, gold leaf paint and other forms of gold leaf as well as mat board and lots of other things. Their links to get you exactly where you want to go leave something to be desired, but we're working on that. They have very good prices.

We've changed our procedure to leave the list. I can't use the word *nsubscribe, because some sp*m filters would kick the newsletter into the bad guy list. No one has ever *nsubscribed from our list and we hope to please you with the information given so that procedure never will be used. Our new procedure is to protect the email address of those who are on the list.

Some newsletter publishers have said that it appears that their email lists have been pirated by sp*mmers, so I have removed subscribers addresses from our web site and they are only present for a very controlled, very few minutes while the newsletter is being sent. Although the list was password protected the spammers can be kind of tricky. The only place your email address exists in connection with our web site is on a CD on my desk, for use in sending the newsletter and a backup copy in a safe place, so your email address is extra safe with us.

Quick Tip

When you're stripping turned spindles with tight places, apply lots of stripper and let it work for the maximum time, then take some coarse string or twine and rub it back and forth, like you were shining shoes, in the tight places. It may take several applications, but it's a lot easier than trying to pick the old paint or finish out without getting wood too.

Sanding

I realize that I rant and rave about sanding, but even I will admit that sometimes it's necessary to sand. Although the following email question concerns Teak, my reply would pertain to any species of wood.

wondering if you can help... i have a similar question to one you've replied to but i might need more assistance cause I may have made a rookie mistake.

I have an old teak coffee table (triangular) quite beautiful, from my parents. They gave it to me when I was a student and I treated it like a diving platform on a boat. It was in awful shape when I decided to re-finish it. I sanded it down with some pretty heavy paper and now I seem to have exposed tiny hairline cracks (cracks is too strong a word) in the wood (thousands of them)... i've sanded the table down with a much finer grain and I'm now at the point where the wood looks quite good apart from those tiny cracks which seem to be part of the original grain. Is there anything I should do before I apply copious teak oil?

thanks
Gavin

It sounds like you probably need more sanding. The cracks are probably grooves made by the grit in the sandpaper.

You should try sanding with a 180 grit, unless you've used a finer grit than that already. Sand with the finer of 180 or what you've used until the cracks get smaller, then sand with 220 grit until it sands out any marks from the prior grit, then sand with a 400 grit. Since you plan to only use an oil as a finish the 400 grit will give a good smooth surface.

Have patience with the oil and leave a good healthy amount on long enough for it to soak in as much as it will before wiping the excess. The smoother the surface is, the longer it will take to soak in, but it will be much easier to maintain.

If you're planning to stain after sanding, the smoother the surface is the less stain it will absorb and will be lighter than if you had stopped with a more coarse sandpaper. For instance a surface sanded with 400 grit sandpaper and stained with a walnut stain would be much lighter than a surface sanded with 220 grit and stained with the same walnut stain. Stopping with 180 grit will make the stain even darker.

Quick Tip

When you're stripping furniture, keep a metal container with a metal lid handy to store the residue and used rags and paper towels. Most chemicals and oil based finishing materials can cause a fire by spontaneous combustion when soaked into rags and other material and left in a pile.

Stripping With Heat

I received the following question from someone with a huge project, but a very rewarding one when the work is all done.

We recently bought a 72 year-old farmhouse which, unfortunately, has every interior and exterior door, along with all molding around the doorways painted a million coats of paint. What is the best product to use to strip the paint. Because the previous owners used latex-based paint on top of oil-based paint, the paint is chipping. I wouldn't be able to repaint over it. So far, I 've used a heat gun for the doors which I've done outside. Is that ok to use indoors?

Thanks
Rose

Some paint will give off toxic fumes when high heat is applied and enough heat to cause paint to soften and curl could be enough to cause the toxic fumes.

If you do use the heat inside be sure to have exceptional ventilation with a couple of fans sucking fumes out of the house in nearby open windows and fresh air from a fan blowing across you. If you can smell any hot paint smell, stop, the ventilation isn't adequate enough.

Any stripping inside where it's hard to ventilate properly I've started using an environmentally safe stripper like Citristrip. It smells like you're squeezing orange juice rather than stripping paint or a finish. It's a bit more expensive than heat, but in the long run, when you consider health matters and doctor bills it could be considerably less expensive.

Quick Tip

When you're stripping chairs, if you're using a liquid stripper, put the chair legs, one at a time in an old cake pan, then keep dipping your brush in stripper and applying to the leg and pushing the residue down the leg. It makes the job go quicker and saves stripper by reusing it. You can strain it through cheesecloth when it gets too many chunks in it.

Why Things Happen When Sanding

When you take several different grades of sandpaper, for instance 80 grit through 400 grit and run your finger over them you can feel that the 80 grit is very coarse and would hurt if you ran it over your skin using pressure, whereas the 400 grit feels smooth and causes more heat from friction, than pain.

If you looked at the sandpaper under a microscope you would see that it has umpteen jillion little particles on it and each particle is a jagged cutting edge.

The 80 grit has large particles and is designed to take a lot of material off in a hurry. Not recommended for general furniture work. The 400 grit has extremely tiny particles, so doesn't go deep into the wood, thereby making the wood smoother. If you jumped from 80 grit to 400 grit it would take you a month of sundays to get the marks all sanded out from the 80 grit and get a smooth finish, so you need to move up the grit ladder slowly with successively finer grits, so it takes less effort and time to make a smooth finish.

The same stain color will look different with different degrees of smoothness of surfaces.

The cutting particles on sandpaper break open the pores of the wood and the more coarse sandpaper will leave the broken pores fuzzy . The fuzzier the wood is, the more stain it will absorb, so as you go to finer grits, the more the sandpaper will remove the top of the fuzz leaving shorter and less fuzz, so less fuzz means less stain being absorbed. By the time you get to 400 grit the fuzz is pretty well shaved off, so there isn't much to absorb stain and the stain is just going into the unbroken pores and cells of the wood.

Wood Knowledge

If you're interested in lots of information about lots and lots of wood species there are a couple of CD ROMs available, one with 900+ species and one with 400+ species available at Woods Of The World CD ROM.

Quick Tip

Plastic outdoor furniture will last longer if you apply a coat of automotive wax with UV protection. Be sure to read the label, not all automotive waxes have UV protection.

Woodworkers Catalog

Have you received a free copy of the Woodworkers Catalog? It's a dreamers paradise. It has several thousand items, including items you may not even know existed. Click the link and you can have one very shortly.

Some Things People Have Said About Us

These comments are taken from our guestbook. If you'd like to see more comments they're available for viewing at guestbook.

Special thanks to all who have offered so many kind words.

Thanks for the info, especially about restoration. We were about to have someone refinish our dining room set, but now I'm going to see if restoration will be okay--which I'd do myself. I had mistakenly asked the guy the cost of refinishing, not knowing that restoration was a possibility. I'll order your products if I do restore instead of having someone refinish. Morty

(Thanks Morty. We don't actually sell any products, we find trustworthy suppliers and most are generous enough to give us a small percentage of the sale price, which helps to keep the free information coming. Tom)

I've done some furniture stripping way in the past and needed to update/refresh my memory before I started a 1930's armchair that I will reupholster as a winter project. Your info was very 'cleanly' presented and easy to understand. Thank you. Marion

I found it to be very educational as I am wanting to paint my kitchen cabinets but didn't want to take the time to go to the store and ask the questions. You made finding out very convenient. THANKS connie