Thursday 19 January 2012

Stripping Antique Furniture





There are three degrees of stripping furniture.
1. A good clean to remove the dirt and wax built up over the years by using half a pint of white spirit and half a pint of vinegar with five tablespoons of linseed oil. Shake the mixture as you use it and use a clean cloth. Replace the cloth as it gets dirty as you go with a clean cloth you will be surprised.
2. The removal of the finish from the wood, but leaving the mellowed wood intact, where the finish is marked, scratched, etc. This can be done best with methylated spirits and fine oooo wire wool which will work on 90% of antique furniture, the remaining 10% can be removed with paint stripper. There are time when the finished can be restored either by adding polish to a scratch or by buffing the finish with a mild abrasive. (like pumice or rottenstone etc)

3.The mellowed wood is the top surface of the wood which has been faded by natural light, this faded look is 95% of the patina, the other 5% is the finish e.g. the aged French polish or aged wax polish.
N.B. It should be noted that all woods are affected by natural light to a greater or lesser extent, as a general rule all light woods darken and all dark woods lighten so they all end up nearly the same colour. The golden rule is NEVER EVER SAND THIS LAYER if you do you will create a nightmare to put right. This is because the mellowed wood is faded once you sand thought it the true colour will emerge and literally swear against the mellowed wood.
Woods which redden are :-cherry, yew, beech, kingwood, purpleheart, padouk,
Woods which yellow are :- African mahogany, sapele, walnut, agba, gaboon, maple, plane, sycamore, oak.
This mellowed wood should only be removed as a last resort as it is very difficult to make good or fake. But there are times where a repair has been carried out and the surface has been lost, such as when sanding down the new wood flush with the old. This faded look can be achieved by bleaching the wood with either a two pack bleach or a single stage bleach.

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