Newsletter September 14 2002

Check your work in a good lighting situation as you work.

Wherever you're working try to be close to a window, if you have one, to keep tabs on things in natural light. If you're in the garage with the doors shut, with proper ventilation, and don't have a window, move your work near the doors and open them periodically to check in the natural light.

Feeling a little backward lately? Check out this site. elgoog for a little fun.

If you don't have anywhere to apply a final finish that is completely dust free and you can't get a nice glass smooth finish, try rubbing it with automotive paste polishing compound (not rubbing compound) the polishing compound has rottenstone in it, the most fine polishing abrasive easily available and you should get a nice smooth, glossy sheen.

Hello, I just found your site. I have my Grandmothers old humpback trunk. It is in beautiful condition, but she painted it blue! As a test, I took off a little bit of the paint while I was stripping another piece. It has beautiful wood strips, over metal. What should I use on this metal? I don't really know what it should look like when I get the paint off of it. I am so excited to get started, but I don't want to ruin it. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you, Julie


Hi Julie

You can strip the metal with a chemical stripper the same as you do the wood. Be careful not to scratch the metal, a plastic scraper is best for removing the residue, don't use any sandpaper or steel wool any more coarse than 0000.

As you strip watch carefully along the area where the wood strips touch the metal. You may be able to detect some of the original color. Sometimes the metal was blued and varnished, shellacked or lacquered or it was painted in any number of colors, but most generally, like model T's, it was black. The metal was frequently covered with canvas too, with the canvas finished. The edges next to the wood can often give a lot of clues.

After you get the trunk completely stripped and cleaned of any residue it would be best to completely finish the wood parts first, because if you get any of the stain or clear finish on the bare metal it will wipe off easily, but it you repaint the metal first and get some of the paint on the raw unfinished wood the pigment from the paint might soak into the wood and would be very difficult to correct.

Let the finish on the wood parts cure for two or three days before you tape it with masking tape for the metal painting part. Use paper to cover the wood as much as possible with just enough masking tape coverage to hold the paper on the wood. Let the paint on the metal cure for about an hour, then remove the masking tape from the wood. If you leave the tape on the newly finished wood parts too long it could leave adhesive on the finish when you remove the tape.

Before you remove the masking tape take a razor knife with a new blade in it and slice the paint where the metal meets the masking tape, then remove the tape. The slicing will make it so the tape won't pull any of the, still soft, paint from the metal.

A good spray paint would be easiest to use on the metal. I've had good luck with Krylon on metal. Use a primer first and sand lightly with a very fine sandpaper then spray the final finish.

If you need any leather handles, latches or other trunk hardware there's a good selection here.

You can go to this location for Krylon Spray Paint.

If you have something that's needed veneering for a long time, but you've heard that veneering is difficult and have put it off, it's not necessary to put it off any longer.

If you've ever applied self stick shelf paper you can use this veneer. You peel a paper backing off, apply the veneer to a prepared surface and fasten it down tight with veneering tools or a rolling pin or an empty mayonnaise jar, prepare it for a finish and finish it.

Click on the veneer picture to see samples of the different kinds of wood available and put veneer in the search box down below to get a lot more detailed procedure for applying the veneer than an empty mayonnaise jar. Actually the mayonnaise jar could be full too. You'll need to be hooked up to the Internet for these links to work.

If you're dining room table sits with one end toward a window you should turn the table end for end at least once a month to keep the light exposure equal.

Drop leaf tables, especially, with drop leaves down and one exposed to a window and the other toward the interior of the room will end up over a period of years with the unexposed leaf several shades darker than the exposed leaf if the table isn't turned.

Although you can't tell the age to within even a few years, you can tell the general era of the chair and you can tell if someone is trying to pull the wool over your eyes, saying a chair is antique, if the tell tale signs are absent.

First, look at the top of the back part of the back. If it's flattened on an otherwise curved back the flattening was probably due to the chair being pushed back against a wall.

If you look at old pictures you'll see that chairs were generally against the wall rather than at the table like we do now days. The Shakers used to hang their chairs high on the walls to keep them out of the way. The chair rails were just a finished board at about the height of the chair back and was to keep the wall from being damaged by the backs of chairs.

The second place to look is the fronts of the bottoms of the front legs. If the chair is very old the fronts of the bottoms will be more rounded than the sides or backs. The rounding is from the way that chairs are generally picked up. Most people will pick up a chair by its back, which will rock it forward on the fronts of the front legs before it lifts off the floor.

The rocking forward will compress the wood over a long period of time and give good evidence of age. The flat area on the upper back is from compression of the wood fibers too. It takes a lot of years of light touching and rocking to give that type of evidence.

This is just one of myriad reasons to not sand antiques. If that evidence is sanded away it's just a loss of a way to tell a general age.

There are sometimes items that are difficult to find that you need to replace when you're restoring and refinishing. Bed bolt covers and bullet latches don't seem to be standard hardware store stock items. We've found a supplier with a plethora of Latches, Catches and Bolts. They're fun to look at even if you don't need any right now.

Open the extension on your dining room table at least once a month and clean the edges of the table halves. It's surprising how much stuff can get stuffed into that little crack when you wipe the table surface, no matter how tight the fit. The particles of things can react with the finish to loosen and soften it and can cause chipping to start on the edges.

Hi my name is mandy and i wish to strip my pine units in my bed room and make it look like a limed oak affect with the white and a pink colour through it, can you please tell me how to do this as i can't find any information about this.

Hi Mandy

You won't be able to get the pine to look like the limed oak, because of major differences in the wood. The oak is open pored, where the pine, although soft, is more dense.

The limed effect on the oak is from pigment in the open grain of the wood and wiped off of the top surface.

You could get an interesting effect on the pine by using colored stains. The effect can come from taking advantage of the different densities of pine and I would suggest that you go to the lumber yard and get at least an eight foot 1 x 4 pine board (economy grade) to practice on.

The pine goes from very soft and porous, almost like a sponge, to very hard and virtually non-porous. The hard part is the dark amber color and the softest part is almost white.

I would suggest These Stains and I would suggest using the extender shown too.

You'll need to do some experimenting on your pine board to get the effect you want. Try each experiment on about one foot of the board so you'll have plenty of experimenting space, yet there'll be enough done to give you an idea of what it will look like.

Try applying pink to two one foot sections and wipe the excess. Immediately apply white to one one foot section and let the other dry for an hour or so before you apply the white. Try it the other way around with white first. Try all sorts of combinations until you get the effect you want. You might try another section with pink on the raw wood, then when it's dry apply a coat of shellac and after the shellac dries apply a wash of white. Just apply the white and wipe the excess. Try the opposite combination too, with white on the raw wood with a pink wash over the shellac.

The application of a clear finish will make a difference too. The clear finish will generally brighten the colors and bring out contrasts.

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.

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.

I really like the articles with referenced products in restoring and refinishing. Have ordered two products so far and am looking forward to the new additions to the site.
Thomas

I would like to hear more about gadgets and helpful hints for stripping chairs. For example, the use of sharpening a dowel is great. I've tried it and it works.
Bonnie

I've learned a great deal reading this site. I've always loved wood and since I've been laid off from work I've been experimenting with some old furniture I had in my attic and my furniture looks better than ever.
Kim

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