Unpleasant Bug Surprise

We had an unpleasant discovery while working on this Oak Dining Table.  The table top was stripped before we did any other work.   Once it was dry and we moved on to do the next repair steps we found that there was some dry rot on the underside.  -groan-   All those dark areas you see

(where the extension slides attach) are dry rot.
To deal with the dry rot we began to pull the damaged layer of veneer of the underside of the table.  All the veneer would need to be replaced instead of just the top surface as we had originally planned.  

As that veneer came off, it exposed another issue. Bug Damage!  Not good.  All that powdery stuff is the wood that has been eaten away by bugs.  Fortunately there aren't any living bugs still in the table.  But now we have to repair all the bug damage, as well as the dry rot damage.

As you can see in the picture, those were some busy bugs!   The odd thing about this table is that none of the bug damage was visible until the veneer came off.  It was all hidden between the veneer and the hardwood surface.  They really are fortunate that there was no bug damage to the top surface as well.    It is going to be quite a job to deal with all those bug canals, but never fear, the craftsmen are here to save the day.  Before you know it, this table will look amazing again and will be ready for many birthday, christmas, thanksgiving and easter celebrations to come!

Imagining the Origins of an Old Bench

 We got this really neat bench in for work recently and it has really captured our imagination.  We are going to be stripping the beat up paint off of it, so it is not the work we are doing that has our imaginations going, but it is the interesting details which peak our curiosity.

It has been in our client's family for many generations so we have a rough estimate as to it's age.  There is plenty of speculation about where the bench came from but the current theory is that it was probably a 'salvation army' pulpit seat.  The shield was probably not always blue, and the carving was likely added later on.

The style of the bench is quintessential 'early american' with it's rustic lines and home made appearance.  And with it's tall back, it does make sense that it would be up at the front of a church for the preacher to sit on, rather then a low back that the congregation would use.  At some point it was likely taken home and the inscription was added.

Of course all of this is just theory, guesses, based on the little information we have.  But that is probably part of why our imaginations have gone wild.  We have just enough information to speculate, but not enough to know for sure.   Do you have any guesses about this bench's origins?  We would love to hear them!  Leave us a comment below!

Refinished Gate Leg Table

 This is a really cool table, but when it came in to the shop,  it's unique qualities were overshadowed by the damaged old finish.  As you can see, the table top had quite a bit of water damage and in some places was getting flakey.   There were areas where the wood grain was barely visible through the finish.

We stripped the table with our high tech water based finishing system and it came out so well, that there was really no additional work needed to fix the water damage.  We did however need to do quite a bit of work on the base. It has a swiveling 'gate leg' which allows the table to open up into a square.  This wooden mechanism needed work as well.

The gate leg feature is what makes this table really unique.  This table can be used against a wall, or behind a couch, but then can open up for more table surface.  It is almost like a drop leaf, but when it is closed, you would never notice it's special talent.

The stain on this table is our darkest shade, called 'Jacobean'  It is almost black and you have to look closely to see the wood grain.  The dark finish gives this table a very formal/modern vibe, but if you are wanting to see the grain easily, then it is not the stain for you.  Over the stain there is a 'Semi Gloss' sheen finish, which adds to the formality of the table.

Now all this table needs is it's new set of shiny casters and it is ready for display!

'Pie Crust' Tilt-Top Table

 We just completed work on this beautiful Mahogany 'Pie Crust' table and I thought I would share it with you all.

When it came to us it had a broken leg and very bad water damage on the top surface.  There are two kinds of water 'rings' we see.  The first is a white ring, usually from leaving a cup on your wood surface.  A white ring is much more easily fixable because the damage is still in the finish.  Check out this blog post for more info on fixing white water rings.

Black water damage is much more difficult to fix because the damage has gone through the finish and into the wood.  The minerals in the water turn the wood black.  To fix damage such as this, we have to strip the finish off completely.  In the photo to the left we have stripped off the finish and can now deal with the black rings.  As you can see they are diminished, but not gone.  Sometimes we have to then use an Oxcalic Acid to bleach out the stains,  and sometimes they can be removed simply by sanding the wood.  We never know though until that finish is off.

 As you can see, the stain is gone!  We can now prep the wood for finishing.  At this point, our client can come in and see stain colors applied directly to their furniture.  This way they can actually see what their piece will look like, instead of trying to guess from a hand full of stain swatches.  We also had to do some repairs to the table leg before any staining began.

For this Mahogany table our client chose a Cognac stain color with a Gloss sheen finish over the top.  The color choice really looks beautiful on this wood.  To enhance all the beautiful little carved details we highlighted the pie-crust edge and the legs with a layer of Black Mahogany Glaze.   As you can see from the photos below, the highlighting was just enough to push this table from beautiful, to show stopper!

Two Of A Kind Louis XV Desks

There are some styles that come through our shop  that come in so often that become quite familiar.  We see quite a bit of Duncan Phyfe tables with broken legs.  We see lots of Oak Pressback Chairs with loose joints or broken spindles, and frequently we have brewer chairs come to us with big holes in the seat.

What is quite Uncommon is for a beautiful Louis XV writting desk to come in, and then before it leaves to have another Louis XV writting desk to come in.  But that is just what has happened.  They have their differences,  one has straight sides while the other has curved sides,  but they both have intricate marquetry, Cabriole legs and brass decor on the corners and drawers, and they both have three drawers on the front and 3 faux drawers on the opposite side.


Not only are these desks clearly made in the same era,  but we are also doing very similar repairs on each one.  They both will have new leather applied to their writing surface.  (Each customer get to choose the color of leather and the gold tooling design around the edge.)  We are also doing repairs to the veneered wood band around the leather on the top surface of each of the desks, and both desks will have their bases refurbished.  The refurbishing will not make them look brand new, but will instead give them new life, while preserving their old antique finish.

Be sure to check back soon, so that you can see the 'after' pictures of these Louis XV writing desks.

Fancy Jewelry Box

'Before'

 I am sure this has to be one of the smallest pieces of furniture we have worked on.   It is a little jewelry box, designed to look like a chest of drawers.  Our client wanted to refinish the outside, while preserving the cloth covered inside.  We were able to do exactly that for her.  The inside was masked off and then we stripped the box by hand.

Hand stripping allowed us to get the outside very clean, while avoiding the masked off area.  This is  very sensitive work.  We then did our regular prep sanding.  At this point the client came in and chose her stain color and finish sheen.

'Stripped'

 The box was finished in a 'Pecan' stain.  This color really gave beautiful contrast between the wood and the veneer marquetry, and  allowed the veneer to look it's best.  Over the stain we applied a 'Satin' sheen finish.  Once these coats were dry, all the hardware was put back on and voila!  You can see the beautiful completed effect below.  Lovely right?

'All Done!'

Restored Mirror Frame

#1, A sadly broken frame.  With so many small broken pieces, we had to start from scratch.

#2, The mold we made so that we could exactly re-create the scroll work.  We put this mold over a wooden base for stability.

#3,  The new scroll work has been attached to the frame, now it needs a very skilled hand to match the color work.

#4  The frame is done!  Looking at it now, no one would ever guess that it had been broken.  The new scrollwork matches seamlessly with the original frame.  Each frame we restore here at the shop has it's own problems needs it's own special approach.  But we love a challenge and are so happy with how this challenge came out.

1930's Dining Table

 We just completed work on a stunning 1930s dinning room table and buffet server.  We only worked on the top surfaces, as they were the parts that had become worn and marred with age.  We took the finish off so that we had bare wood to work with.  It was then sanded and and prepped.  This time our 'prepping' required some extra work because our client really wanted the smoothest appearance possible for their pieces.  We used a purplish 'pore filler'  which goes on like putty and then has to be sanded off.  This filler makes the surface really smooth and hides the porosity that is a normal wood characteristic.

We used a 'natural' tone stain on this table, which means all that gorgeous color is from the Mahogany wood itself.  No dyes on this table!  Over that stain we applied a 'semi-gloss' sheen finish.  This finish was then hand polished to bring up the shine.   The hand polishing + the pore filling gave this table a very high shine. It is almost reflective.

The photo below really shows off that 'reflective' quality of the table's new finish.  I can't help but imagine the elegant dinner parties of old that were centered around this dinning table.  It is now in beautiful enough condition again that hopefully it will host many more festive soirees.

A Resurrected Parlor Organ

We have been going through some of our old film photos and scanning them into our computer.  This beauty came up in the stack and boy did it bring back memories.

This Parlor Organ was in pretty decent condition when it came into our shop.  It didn't really have any missing pieces or significant structural damage.  The key reason it's owner brought it to us, was because it was black in color.  He thought it was painted and wanted it stripped and refinished.   We would have happily performed this service for him... but instead we suggested to him an even better rout to go.

You see, once we raised the music stand, we could see a beautiful walnut veneer underneath which gradually faded to black as it got closer to the edge of the stand.  We realized that this Organ was actually coated in an original shellac finish.  Shellac will oxidize and darken with age,  and on this piece, it had oxidized so much that it looked like black paint.

So we used our special chemical blend to clean the shellac. This cleaning/revitalizing process is extremely labor intensive and requires a significant amount of elbow grease.    But all that work produces a beautiful reward.  Once we had rubbed and rubbed and rubbed, the shellac came back to life and began to glow again.  We love being able to preserve a historical finish such as this.  It isn't always feasible but when it is, we sure like to take advantage.  This Parlor Organ is one example of a restoration job done very right!

Secret Finish On An Old Rocking Chair

The owner of this rocker came in with the intention of having it stripped and refinished. This is an example of one of the rare instances where we do our best to persuade the customer to take a different approach. The alligatored finish on the seat of this chair is not a worn out aged finish, but a very intentional decorative design. She was easily persuaded  to save the original, and we simply cleaned waxed, and polished the chair.

While the chair looks beautiful, and we were clearly able to preserve the finish,  the customer really just didn't feel happy with the black.  So she brought it back to us to see if there was anything else we could do to keep the chair's historic quality, but not have the chair black anymore.   

We could see a little bit of a greenish color under the black, and where the black was more worn, we could see little areas of green.  So we decided to try and remove just the black by scrubbing by hand, without having to put it through the stripping system, which would have removed everything!  Once we got below the black layer, we could see a beautiful old green painted finish appear, and a very cool red 'alligator' painted finish on the seat.   What also emerged was some striping over the green paint, and what looks to be an old decal on the center of the back.   Once we successfully removed all of the black coating, we cleaned the rocking chair and then proceeded to wax and polish it.    Waxing and polishing is very labor intensive work, especially on a piece such as this with all those spindles and stretchers.  But, it really is the best way to make an old finish look beautiful again, while still preserving the historical value of the piece. 

The chair really looks beautiful now, and we have succeeded in making our customer happy.  We retained the original historical value of the rocking chair, while getting rid of the black she so disliked.  Of course,  this chair's own unique history helped us achieve that aim.  Without that beautiful green and red layer hiding under the black coating, we would not have been able to accomplish our goal. 

Restoration of A 1900's Armoire

 We are moving along on the restoration work of an 1900's French Armoire.  I don't know if you can understand the scale from the photo above, but is is a very large, tall, impressive piece of furniture.  Unfortunately someone left it stored where it sat in water and the intricate veneer work became damaged as you can see in the two following pictures.  These photos capture just a small percentage of the really quite extensive veneer damage.

 Any veneer that has turned grey and lifted away from the base wood, has been damaged by the water.  It turns brittle, discolored and has to be completely replaced.  Because of all the precise angles at which the veneer was originally cut,  this made our repair job much more difficult.  We had to exactly match the original cuts and angles, any error and it would stand out like a big reg sign.

 Besides all the veneer that had to be repaired,  some of the doors and panels were warped or swelled, because of the water damage.  In some cases we needed to plane the edges down to fit into their frames,  in other cases such as in the photo to the left, we had to re-soak the wood and clamp it down as it dried, so that it would dry flat.   We also had to completely replace the veneer on the doors which was lengthy work.

Now that the repairs are just about completed, it is time to move on to the next phase.  The entire piece has to be prep sanded, stained and finished.  Our client is coming in this weekend to choose her stain color and I am looking forward to seeing what she decides to go with.

Seth Thomas Clock Restoration

 This beautiful old Seth Thomas clock came to us needing a number of different things worked on.  The case was loose and easily came apart into multiple pieces,  the lower part of the door needed to be re-veneered, and the back panel was raw wood.
To finish the back panel, we used shellac which really let the burl shine through, and gave a beautiful contrast with the rest of the clock case.

Gluing the case together was fairly simple as we do that kind of work every day.

The tricky aspect of this job was really the re-veneer work on the door face.  What made it so tricky was the corner details.  There was an recessed area that needed to remain without veneer, but the leaflets needed to have the same grain pattern as the rest of the door.

So what we ended up doing making a tracing of the exact shape of each corner and then mask off (very very carefully!) the recessed area.  We could then glue a sheet of veneer over the door face.  Then, once the glue was set and dry our craftsman used the tracings to cut the veneer away and expose the masked off areas.  It was a tricky process, but did produce the results we were looking for.   Then the leaflets had to be carved to create depth and texture.  Finally, once the newly veneered door panel looked just how we wanted it, we stained and finished it to match the rest of the clock.

As I said, it was a tricky job.  But the end result was a beautiful clock with great detail and wonderful textural and color contrasts.

Duncan Phyfe with Water Damage

I think you may be able to see what was wrong with this table when it came in!  Major water damage to one of the drop leaves.  Plus, one of the 4 curved legs had glue failure and had fallen off.  This is a case of a very nice, high quality piece of furniture, being badly taken care of.

We began our restoration work by stripping the old damaged finish off.  This gave us a much better idea of what we were working with and what we needed to do, to give the table a uniform coloring once we were done.

The table leg repair was a simple one.  It is fairly common for Duncan Phyfe tables to sustain some kind of leg damage, and in comparison to some breaks we have seen, this was minimal.  Often the leg will actually break in half.  This is due to the fact that the grain runs across the curved leg, and so in some places is very weak.

The stain color we used on this table is a combination of Royal Oak and Brown Cherry with a pore filled Gloss finish.  Pore filling is a fairly time intensive job but when it is done, the wood becomes perfectly smooth.  This set up the wood beautifully for the Gloss finish and gave the table a very formal look.

A Drum Table That Got Some Luvin'

 This Duncan-Phyfe drum style table came to us as part of a large collection.   This table has a unique rotating base and false drawers.  We see a lot of Duncan-Phyfe, but this is the first time we have seen this feature.  The table's owner had just inherited her mother's estate and the furniture was all high quality, but badly in need of  some restoration.  We have done our best to bring her pieces back to life.

We started out by stripping the old worn out finish off of the piece.  The old leather top had stiffened and the gilding had turned to black.  We knew we would be replacing it, so we weren't worried about it during the stripping.    When we replace leather, each piece is cut to order, so our client gets to choose the color and the gilding pattern.  It then arrives at our shop already in the basic shape, with the gilding exactly the right size. This particular leather is called 'Oxblood' and has two different gilding patters around the edge.  Prior to attaching the leather, our craftsmen have to treat the wood surface to ensure that it is perfectly smooth.  We can then glue the leather on, and trim any excess.

The finished result of the new leather and the beautiful new water based stain and finish is just gorgeous.  The stain on this table is custom 1/2 Teak 1/2 Brown Cherry with a Gloss sheen finish over top.  The wood grain on the false drawers and around the leather really pops with this treatment.   With this restoration that we have done,  our client should be able to enjoy her furniture for many many years, and pass them along so that someone else can inherit them one day.

Second Life of a Lamp Table

This table has been a little pet project of mine, and I am so glad to finally have it finished.  It kept being put off, as there  were more important things to work on.  It came into our shop about 12 years ago and the customer decided not to have the work done and abandoned it.  After eyeing it for  years, I finally decided it was (potentially) to beautiful to sit lonely on our shelves any longer.  It needed a lot of work.  The first thing we did was strip it so any remaining finish or accumulated junk was gone.  I then completely dis-assembled it, sanded it with 120 and 180 and then it was ready for repairs. The old top was so badly warped that I ended up cutting a new one instead of trying to fix the old.  I was able to keep the raised edge pieces, but all the corners had to be cleaned up.

The new top received a redwood burl veneer treatment with a band of walnut around the outside edge.  Once the table was re-assebled,  we attached new beading around the top edge, as the old had pretty much disintegrated.  So there is old beading on the legs and the bottom edge, and new beading on the top.  Not ideal, but there was no other way.

For a stain I chose to use a 'natural' (or clear) stain on the redwood/walnut top and a teak stain on the rest.  This helped to balance out the color between the 3 different kinds of woods.  The color is really beautiful and vibrant.  The burl veneer needed a pore fill treatment to smooth it out a bit and fill in the voids, and that treatment actually helped to bring the grain out even further, which is of course a plus!  The beading is highlighted with a Van Dyke brown glaze and a water based Semi-Gloss finish was applied overall.   The table looks gorgeous, I am so pleased with how it turned out.  Now instead of sitting lonely and broken on a shelf it can stand proudly in the finest living room.

Antique Veneered Chair Set

We are just beginning work on this beautiful 'his and hers' set of chairs.  This old set is made of walnut which has gained a lovely hue as it has aged.  They came in to us with two different stain colors and now that they are stripped, we can see some interesting information about the set.  

You can see in the second picture an image of the side rail of the arm chair.  The upholstery attaches to the upper section of the rail, and the lower section is exposed.  We can tell that this set was made in Europe because they implemented a practice that was never done in the United States.  While the entire chair was made of solid walnut, the rails around the chair were made with a 'cheep' wood and then covered in a walnut veneer.    They did this to save in cost, but here in the US, that was always way to much hassle.  If it had been made here, it would have been all solid wood and no extra step of veneer.

The veneer on this chair has been damaged, and part of our repair process will be to either replace the veneer or do some color touch up to make the damage blend with the rest of the piece.  Be sure to check back often as work on this beautiful set continues.

An Old Clock Gleams Again

This beautiful old clock's finish had a dark brown tone when it came in to the shop, but that was not how the finish looked originally.  The finish is made out of shellac which will darken over time.  It also will bead up, sink into the recesses and loose it's glossy sheen.  To restore this clock, we didn't strip the old original shellac finish off, instead we put it in our cleaning tanks which got all the years of grime off.  There were a few minor repairs to the decorative leaves on the top which had to be done.  Then the entire wooden face was coated with 3 layers of an Orange Shellac which is as close as we could come to the original color of shellac on the clock.    The new coatings have smoothed the old to some degree but the texture of the old shellac is still visible underneath, which keeps some of the character of age.

The clock of course needs to have the door put back on,  but before that happens,  the inner workings of the clock will be repaired by a local clock company.  Once that is done, this clock will not just look beautiful but it will function properly and sound good as well.

The label on the back of the clock.

The owner of this clock is fortunate in that the original label is still in place.  Gilbert Clock Company used a number of different labels on the back of their clocks throughout the life of their business, which can help to identify what year the clock was made.   The style of this label tells us that the clock was made between 1885 and 1895.

From Antique Clock Price Guide's Site

AntiqueClocksPriceGuide   has a helpful page with photos of many of these labels.  If you have an old clock who's age you would like help identifying, you might check them out. 

The Desk that Rose From The Ashes

 This is a story about a desk, that thought it was a Phoenix.  You see, sometimes a fire destroys things, but sometimes it gives something the opportunity to be even more beautiful when it comes out, then when it goes in. Such is the case with this desk.  Time has a way of causing things to get a little shabby looking, and this desk was no exception.  But when it survived a house fire and was scorched,  it was sooooo shabby that the owner of the desk decided it was time to get it fixed up and beautiful again.  So they brought it to us and the phoenix-ifying began.  In the first picture you can see all the parts it was in when we got it.  The one pedestal was still mostly together,  and the frame for the top was together, but everything else, the drawers, the cubbies, the side panel,  were all in pieces.  The desk had to be stripped  and then sanded, giving extra attention to the scorched areas.   The owner of the desk chose a dark stain color which also helped to hide the appearance of the scorched, fire damage areas.  We also replaced the leather writing area which was gone.  The desk owner chose the color of the leather from a selection, as well as the gold embossed print around the edge.  The most important step in the process of applying the leather is prepping the surface.  We have to make sure it is as smooth and as flat as possible, any bumps will be felt through the leather's surface.

The desk looks beautiful now that it is done.  One would be hard pressed to see where the fire damage once scarred it.  It is ready  now to be taken home and given a place of distinction in it's new residence.