She is at it again

[Hobbyman2]

20190707_150526.jpg (755.6 KiB) Viewed 18779 times

[BuckeyeDennis]

Restored to her former glory!

[Hobbyman2]

As to questions about how to remove the old stains in nooks and crannies, we use anything that works, we have small picks , like nutpicks , we have card scrapers and in some case's we make our own scrapers , I have flattened nails and sharpened the ends , just depends on what you need and what ya have available , small files ,what ever will work , I have had issues getting stripper from those nooks and crannies before ,so I shy away from i ton furniture with a natural finish , one suggestion I would give when it comes time to finish the project is to use a really good pre stain conditioner on the wood ,, then steel wool after every coat of finish .
if you use tong oil I would suggest using 1000 grit paper , when you use the tong oil you put it on using the sand paper , each coat increase the grit of the paper all the way to 2000 grit .like wet sanding a car ,, I think there are videos on youtube that describe this technique , it is much more durable and makes a good finish for antique tables . hope this helps .

[Hobbyman2]

Restored to her former glory!

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Thanks I dont think we could have matched the color any better , the mirror is all original finish.

[Hobbyman2]

I used the MKV for a couple replacement walnut brackets / strips that held the mirror to the vanity?? I used walnut instead of oak , it just looked more like it belonged and the walnut tree had to be close to the same age as the chestnut .

[wa2crk]

I love it when folks give an old thing a new life. (wish someone would do it for me ) Quite a few years ago my wife inherited some old furniture that dated back into the 20's from her grandmother. She was going to strip them and refinish them. I remembered that I had some stuff I think was called Bailey's Furniture Cream which consisted of an oil of unknown origin and some white cream that I think was a very fine polishing compound and some solvents. So, she used a white rag to apply some the stuff to the top of one of the pieces and the rag promptly turned black from the dirt she removed. The soil was a result of 70 years of using primitive oil burners for heating. Once the grunge was removed the furniture looked almost new.
So, a word to the wise. " try to clean old furniture before stripping it. You might be pleasantly surprised .
Bill V

[Hobbyman2]

I second that great advise !!

[Hobbyman2]

use of strippers depend on the situation ,I would try to save that for a paint removal , this one ,,sand paper,,, 220 grit and higher , along with card scrapers for the detail work ,then steel wool , strippers can be harsh and sand paper can leave marks . in this case after the wood conditioner is used it was stained again with American Chestnut to match the contrast of some of the grain , then a light steel wool and then we finished with a polly urethane ,,,since no one wants to wax their furniture any more,, , I would rather have finished it with shellac and wax , originally my best guess was it was a varnish or lacquer finish since it was done on a production line . also I like to mix and spray the finish using a gravity spray gun instead of a brush , the mirror was not touched in any way except several coats of paste wax to bring back its luster and amazing details . jmo

Thanks. I have two old radio cabinets. The first one, someone before me had ripped out the electronics and used it as a storage cabinet, so it has become extra storage in my dining room. I sanded off the old finish a long time ago, so at one point the cabinet looked very similar to your picture here. What do you use for the corners and crevices, a card scraper perhaps? I bought one of those detail/profile sanders and it helped, but it was still really difficult to get the old finish out of those crevices. Just wondering if you have any tips for that. On the large flat areas, sanding worked, but I felt like I had to remove too much of the wood to completely remove all of the old finish. This is why I was wondering if I should have attempted using stripper instead of sanding. The 2nd cabinet, I haven't gotten around to refinishing yet. It is an RCA Victor tube radio from the mid 1940's, I believe. I have been on again, off again restoring the electronics in it for many years now. Hopefully one day I will finish it and bring it back to life and restore the outer cabinet as well. I appreciate any tips you have for working on older furniture like this.

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Depending on what you need for the electronics here is a link to a vintage supply outfit that we have used fr tubes , there use to be a place in FL that sold tubes called Jim's tubes not sure if they are still around .

https://www.tubesandmore.com/?utm_sourc ... 3-38133623

[wa2crk]

Hobbyman2
When I moved to Florida I had to get rid of all sorts of electronic stuff. I gave two shoeboxes of tubes of the more modern sorts to a guy I worked with but he did not want the really older stuff. I thought the older stuff were real collector's items. I had a couple of tubes called "DeForest Audions" they were marked as type 1A1 as I recall and had DeForest's signature embedded in the bakelite base. Really cool stuff that went to the landfill.
Bill V

[jsburger]

Hobbyman2
When I moved to Florida I had to get rid of all sorts of electronic stuff. I gave two shoeboxes of tubes of the more modern sorts to a guy I worked with but he did not want the really older stuff. I thought the older stuff were real collector's items. I had a couple of tubes called "DeForest Audions" they were marked as type 1A1 as I recall and had DeForest's signature embedded in the bakelite base. Really cool stuff that went to the landfill.
Bill V

Oh my!! That is truly sad.