Oh, behave! I'm talking about this idea floating around the ether that if you get your wood wet you'll destroy it. Sometimes you need to get it a little wet to see what it's capable of! Is your brain still going where I think it is? That's by design. I really need this blog to get more readers. Cha-ching, ye olde pervs.
Have you ever seen an awesome old piece of furniture and thought, 'If they just took better care of it, it would be perfect'? Sometimes what an old piece needs is a thorough cleaning. I've read a handful of tutorials, tried a bunch of different things, and I find what works best are these steps: We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. 1. Assess the damage: a little mineral spirits rubbed into the wood will give you a clear picture of how far gone the wood is. If wetting the wood with mineral spirits reveals its beauty, it really just needs a thorough cleaning and some new clear coat. If the mineral spirits doesn't make any sort of a difference in the way the wood appears, you'll need a different and more time consuming approach. 2. Get it wet: No matter what I plan to do with a piece I always clean it. I prepare a bowl of water, a bowl of water/ dish soap, and have a sponge and a toothbrush handy. I lather up sections of the piece at a time with the soapy mixture, and then rinse with the water mixture as I go. You don't want to drench the furniture, nor do you want to leave soap scum or scrubbed off residue on your piece for any length of time. The toothbrush will help clean out any detailed areas of your piece. 3. Determine what's next: (1) If a piece looks too far gone for a simple rejuvenation, I strip it and start fresh; (2) If it looks like it cleaned up well, and just needs a little love, I go straight for the Howard's Restore-A-Finish, and Feed-n-Wax. I've had great luck with the Howard's restoration line. 4A. Howard's Process: Once your piece has had time to dry from the thorough cleaning you've given it, and you've decided you can either live with a few minor scratches or there aren't any, you can apply Howard's Restore-A-Finish. Always match up the Howard's to the piece's existing finish, and choose a color a shade lighter. I chose a color I believed matched perfectly for my first time around, and any parts where there wasn't any stain left appeared darker than the original. It wasn't very noticeable to the naked eye, but with practice I've learned that a lighter shade blends much better. It's messy, so applying it requires gloves or filthy fingernails. Its application requires a fine steel wool (0000). You just apply the Howard's to the steel wool, and rub in the direction of the grain. I let it sit for a few minutes, and then wipe it off (in the direction of the grain). These are some photos before and after an application of Howard's:
Once you've wiped the Howard's off completely (like stain, you want to remove it all) you can apply the Feed-N-Wax to seal your piece. I let it sit for quite a while before I wipe it off. It does a nice job conditioning the wood.
4B: Howard's cant help me: If the piece is too far gone for a simple clean up, you'll need to figure out what steps to take. Most antique pieces will look great cleaned up; afterall, the 'character' scratches, dents, and gouges are what make it so special. Once it's cleaned they look like they were intentional, like the jeans our grandparents make fun of us for wearing because we paid extra for the holes. There are plenty of products out there to fill holes (like Kwikwood: a fast acting epoxy that I've used many times), and fill cracks (Home Depot and Lowes sell lots of them, it's the application that's most important). There are also many techniques to cover up the restoration work you've done (like painting stain on epoxy with a craft brush). If retaining the integrity of the original piece is not on your list of priorities, you can always start fresh. Citristrip is a mild stripper that will remove paint, varnish, stain, etc. but won't send you to the ER with a bloody nose and half of your skin melting off (hehe). If you want to start fresh, and you're not worried about devaluing an antique piece, get r' done. Strip that sucker and then evaluate whether you want to do any major repairing, or just camouflage the damage with a new look. Most pieces from the last thirty years can have a lot of added aesthetic value when re-stained, whereas a piece from the 1800s or early 1900s shouldn't be changed too much. Nothing hurts my eye balls more than a painted tiger oak dresser. The moral of the story here, kiddos, is that 276 layers of gunk will make a piece look really sh**ty. Clean it before you write it off, and for heavens sake: get it wet. Here are some pictures of a cool set I used the above process on! You can see, in one picture, that half of the chair has been cleaned and the other half has caked- on black gunk from decades of neglect. The chairs originally appeared to have a dark stain, but once thoroughly cleaned they were much lighter, and richer. Enjoy, and thanks for reading. ; )
2 Comments
Kerin
3/23/2017 03:36:42 pm
Awesome tips! I plan to give 'em all a shot!
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Alyssa
3/23/2017 04:18:41 pm
Great! Thanks for reading, and I hope that piece is working out! :)
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AlyssaMama to a beautiful and hysterical toddler. Owner of Young, Wild and Thrifty. Archives
May 2018
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