Sunday, August 31, 2003
I need to get the shelves done for Ellen today. A person gave me a old historic red door (six inch tongue and grooved.) that she wanted for an out side bench. She said that I could have the rest of the door for doing it. That sounded like a lousier from the start. So I started the project, not knowing what I was doing. Now I think that I can get four benches and two lamp tables w/drawers from it. I will leave the old red paint on it and use some of the red paint that I use on my furniture for the rest of the bottoms and maybe put a satin polyurethane finish on it. The polyurethane finishes I have left outside for 3 years and they have still been good. I will have to check with her first on that. I could do one with that finish and then let her compare the two finishes. I think the new paint will match fine. Once in a while you need some thing strange to get you going again.
Wednesday, August 27, 2003
woodshopnotesI did get the bench made that I tried to make a table top out of. It does make a great bench, or better yet a coffee table with a shelf below. There is a picture of it on my main Web Log. People seem to like the benches as coffee tables when made wider.
I spent most of the day cleaning out the shop, rolling everything out side, picking up, blowing out all the dust with my leaf blower and organizing it neatly. Tomorrow at 4:30, hopefully, a bunch of guys will come over for a traditional beer 30, which means seating around eating snacks, and drinking beer. Having it here this time means that I should not have to drive very far to get home.
Work projects will be finishing the captains chair that I stripped last week. Making a shelf and curtain rod for above two windows for Ellen, and starting the cabinet work for the doctors office. I do need to strip the large rocker that I put too dark of stain on and refinish it before I cain it. I also need to order more spline for it. Dumb, I just ordered two feet of spline and I need four foot, it only cost a few cents a foot and there is a minimum order amount. George has a rocker that needs the same work done on it so maybe we can combine the orders.
This is Wen. when our local weekly newspaper came out, they had a special, 15 words for $6.00. For this I was able to get my product description, Web Log address, and phone number all under the Antique section. Last week they neglected to put my add in the paper so they have given me an extra week. So this week the advertising cost will be $3.00.
The first week that I tried this I did get one email response which is great and I really appreciate it. Before when I advertise in this this section with telephone # only I never get a single call. Therefore I am not advertising with the expectation of selling any of my products in our local paper. But it does put the pressure on me to get my things listed for the Wen.'s morning paper deadline. When I get a better number of my items listed I will go to the larger more expensive markets where these products sell.
This means getting my pictures taken, description written and getting the items posted in my Web Log. Along with this I am still in the beginning phase of learning how Web Logs work, I have just scratched the surface of that one.
I spent most of the day cleaning out the shop, rolling everything out side, picking up, blowing out all the dust with my leaf blower and organizing it neatly. Tomorrow at 4:30, hopefully, a bunch of guys will come over for a traditional beer 30, which means seating around eating snacks, and drinking beer. Having it here this time means that I should not have to drive very far to get home.
Work projects will be finishing the captains chair that I stripped last week. Making a shelf and curtain rod for above two windows for Ellen, and starting the cabinet work for the doctors office. I do need to strip the large rocker that I put too dark of stain on and refinish it before I cain it. I also need to order more spline for it. Dumb, I just ordered two feet of spline and I need four foot, it only cost a few cents a foot and there is a minimum order amount. George has a rocker that needs the same work done on it so maybe we can combine the orders.
This is Wen. when our local weekly newspaper came out, they had a special, 15 words for $6.00. For this I was able to get my product description, Web Log address, and phone number all under the Antique section. Last week they neglected to put my add in the paper so they have given me an extra week. So this week the advertising cost will be $3.00.
The first week that I tried this I did get one email response which is great and I really appreciate it. Before when I advertise in this this section with telephone # only I never get a single call. Therefore I am not advertising with the expectation of selling any of my products in our local paper. But it does put the pressure on me to get my things listed for the Wen.'s morning paper deadline. When I get a better number of my items listed I will go to the larger more expensive markets where these products sell.
This means getting my pictures taken, description written and getting the items posted in my Web Log. Along with this I am still in the beginning phase of learning how Web Logs work, I have just scratched the surface of that one.
Friday, August 22, 2003
I took the top off the black table base. I will make a new pine distressed top for it latter. I decided to make a long bench with a shelf below from the warped table top. So I cut the warped top in half and made a bench bottom and attach abot half the top to it. It took just about all the warp out of the top by cutting it down. I did take off 1/4" on one leg so it set flat on the floor. I think that I will do the base of the bench in a worn distressed red. I put a dark stain on the base before I paint it tomorrow. The stain should be dry by then so I can paint it. I want to finish the red base before I put on the shelf. Normally the shelf below it is painted.
I had to belt sand the the raw edge of the top and shelf where I ran it through the table saw. I rounded the edges to give it a worn look and put a coat of stain on it. Tomorrow I can distress the edges and rub in the darkening stain mixed with the polyurethane to match the rest of the top. The top has gotten a few more scratches in it from all the handling. I will darken these scratches then when I darken the edges. This will add more character to the top. Then 2 coats of satin Polyurethane and rub it down. I hope we get some good sunshine so things dry quick. A lot of work just to get a bench. Should be great tho.
I had to belt sand the the raw edge of the top and shelf where I ran it through the table saw. I rounded the edges to give it a worn look and put a coat of stain on it. Tomorrow I can distress the edges and rub in the darkening stain mixed with the polyurethane to match the rest of the top. The top has gotten a few more scratches in it from all the handling. I will darken these scratches then when I darken the edges. This will add more character to the top. Then 2 coats of satin Polyurethane and rub it down. I hope we get some good sunshine so things dry quick. A lot of work just to get a bench. Should be great tho.
Thursday, August 21, 2003
Well, attaching the table bottom to the old table top did not work. I was trying to reuse a table top that had a warp in it. It was a top for a hutch table I made last year and I had to make a new top for the hutch table. I thought I would be smart and use the old one for a kitchen table top. Well the warped table top lifts the legs off the ground. It takes some of the warp out of it but not enough. Now I have to turn it upside down and knock off the glue blocks and take out the screws and start all over. Anyway I now have a black table bottom with a drawer. So I need to make a new table top for the new black table base. I sort of wanted to do a kitchen work table anyway.
I am going to cut the old table top in half and make two benches from it. They will be pretty wide. The shop lady said that people like the wider coffee tables made out of the benches. I usually use a piece of 1" x 12" for making benches and they are pretty narrow. The trouble with not using 1" x 12"s is I have to go through the process of gluing up two pieces to make them wide enough. A couple weeks ago there was a shop over on Bainbridge Island that had painted benches priced at $40.00 with 30% off. The warped table top has a great natural wood finish on it, so I hate to waste it. Well back to work. It is a great day outside.
I am going to cut the old table top in half and make two benches from it. They will be pretty wide. The shop lady said that people like the wider coffee tables made out of the benches. I usually use a piece of 1" x 12" for making benches and they are pretty narrow. The trouble with not using 1" x 12"s is I have to go through the process of gluing up two pieces to make them wide enough. A couple weeks ago there was a shop over on Bainbridge Island that had painted benches priced at $40.00 with 30% off. The warped table top has a great natural wood finish on it, so I hate to waste it. Well back to work. It is a great day outside.
Tuesday, August 19, 2003
Well another day or part of a day in the wood shop. Maureen Jacobsen, my sister in law, bought an oak captains chair at one of the garage sales Sat. for $3.00. It had 2 coats of paint on it, otherwise it is in real good shape. Solid pine seat. It will be for sale once I get it done. The other day I used a paint scraper and scraped off all the paint that I could, mostly off the rungs and legs. Today I used the nasty paint stripper and got all the paint loosened up and washed down and off with TSP. It is setting out in the driveway now in the sun. I will go out in a minute and take it into the garage. It should be sun dried by now. We have two other captains chairs for sale. One with the old varnish and and good cained seat and the other one that needs to be cained with the old varnish on it. OK, I just moved the captains chair and table into the garage just now. I will leave the captains chair out in the sun tomorrow and let it dry real good to see if any of the legs, back etc.need to be re-glued.
Earlier I had attached the bottom of a table, that I am making, to the top to and put a coat of Early American Minwax oil stain on it. It has been out in the sun drying this afternoon and needs to be moved in also. The dark color stain is a base coat for two coats of paint tomorrow. Not sure if the color will be Mustard, Brick Red or Black. These are the three colors that have been selling the best. Also a dark green has been good. No one wants white or a cracked finish any more.
I let the paint dry for an hour or so then put on a second coat of paint. I let that dry over night and then the next day use 0000 steel wool and alcohol and rub off the paint where I consider that wear marks would be and years of wear. I let that dry for several hours and then use my hunting knife, screw driver and tack hammer and beat up the wood. Then use burnt umber Universal Paint Color and mix it in with the polyurethane. Then work that over the whole piece a little at a time and wipe most of it off with paper towel or a rag. That is the tricky part, leaving a little on here and there and working it into the distressed areas. I usually let that set over night and then put on two more coats of polyurethane. If it is a sunny day you may get two coats on a day. Once it is dry I use 0000 steel wool and some semi-solid wax and rub it down.
However if you want to sell things and make money you just put on a coat of water base paint and once it is dry rub the edges off with a little sand paper.
I would also prefer to use square nails and let them show of effect. I use the belt sander and distress the piece also before I start carving it up with my hunting knife. Generally I round the ends and flatten the tops down on the ends. Half way down the length I also sand it thinner on the top. Also wood pegs in the mortis and tendons helps some and then you rub them down with the steel wool to expose the pegs here and there. Rub the paint off around the drawer knobs, edges of the doors and the bottom of the feet, etc.
Where two cupboard doors come together be sure to install a mouse hole at the bottom and rub off the finish where the mouse would go in and out. If you want to be real picky nail a piece of rusty metal over the mouse hole, which was done quite often. A mouse likes to chew its way into the top of drawers also if you are so inclined. Of course you will only get paid for one coat of pain and quickly sand the edges. However the high end antique shops are starting to carry the good reproductions, if you can find a high end antique shop rather than garage sales.
The top on the table is 5'-3" and 3'-0" wide. It has a pine distressed top with a polyurethane finish. They like that type of finish at the Country Shop over in Sumner, Wa. It is a satin finish, water and alcohol proof and holds up really good. It is not the water base polyurethane type finish. I am using some of the water base now and then. It dries fast and if there are any runs in the finish, they stay white for a while and you can fix them. On the other hand it is hard to see the runs using the other finish. However the finish is real shinny on the water base finish for satin finish they call it. I don't like it to shinny and I have not been able find it in a real satin finish.
Things have been slow this summer. Now all of a sudden it is going to fast.
1. Peggy's son Rickey needs some 20 pc 8'-0" battens cut for the side of his house and some paint to paint his small cabin. I have plenty of old paint for a primer and maybe enough for the battens.
2. Peggy's office needs another book case, a serving table and some shelving made up to match the other book cases that I did for them a couple years ago, out of birch wood. I need to spread the two old book cases apart as far as I can, then put some shelving in-between for more file space and screw them to the wall so they do not fall over in an earthquake. The bookcases are 30" wide 83" tall with 5 adjustable shelves.
3.I need to email Ellen and ask her phone number. She emailed me from my newspaper add and picked me up for my web log. She came over to look and my stuff and wants a shelf for over a bedroom window with a curtain rod in it. Also a quilt rack 102" tall made of weathered barn boards. I did not get her phone number when she was here so I need to email her and ask her what it is. I need to go to the job site and measure up the exact width of the window trim because there is no room for error.
4.Marline called the other day from the Country Store in Sumner and said that she had sold the large two piece red cupboard and a dark green end table with a drawer. Yesterday she called and wanted to know how much I charged her for the slant back cupboard and a lady was interested in the red bench. She has just gotten back from a trip back to New England and took a lot of pictures of Country Furniture. So that will keep things moving. Now all I have to do is to get me moving. And so the day goes on.
Earlier I had attached the bottom of a table, that I am making, to the top to and put a coat of Early American Minwax oil stain on it. It has been out in the sun drying this afternoon and needs to be moved in also. The dark color stain is a base coat for two coats of paint tomorrow. Not sure if the color will be Mustard, Brick Red or Black. These are the three colors that have been selling the best. Also a dark green has been good. No one wants white or a cracked finish any more.
I let the paint dry for an hour or so then put on a second coat of paint. I let that dry over night and then the next day use 0000 steel wool and alcohol and rub off the paint where I consider that wear marks would be and years of wear. I let that dry for several hours and then use my hunting knife, screw driver and tack hammer and beat up the wood. Then use burnt umber Universal Paint Color and mix it in with the polyurethane. Then work that over the whole piece a little at a time and wipe most of it off with paper towel or a rag. That is the tricky part, leaving a little on here and there and working it into the distressed areas. I usually let that set over night and then put on two more coats of polyurethane. If it is a sunny day you may get two coats on a day. Once it is dry I use 0000 steel wool and some semi-solid wax and rub it down.
However if you want to sell things and make money you just put on a coat of water base paint and once it is dry rub the edges off with a little sand paper.
I would also prefer to use square nails and let them show of effect. I use the belt sander and distress the piece also before I start carving it up with my hunting knife. Generally I round the ends and flatten the tops down on the ends. Half way down the length I also sand it thinner on the top. Also wood pegs in the mortis and tendons helps some and then you rub them down with the steel wool to expose the pegs here and there. Rub the paint off around the drawer knobs, edges of the doors and the bottom of the feet, etc.
Where two cupboard doors come together be sure to install a mouse hole at the bottom and rub off the finish where the mouse would go in and out. If you want to be real picky nail a piece of rusty metal over the mouse hole, which was done quite often. A mouse likes to chew its way into the top of drawers also if you are so inclined. Of course you will only get paid for one coat of pain and quickly sand the edges. However the high end antique shops are starting to carry the good reproductions, if you can find a high end antique shop rather than garage sales.
The top on the table is 5'-3" and 3'-0" wide. It has a pine distressed top with a polyurethane finish. They like that type of finish at the Country Shop over in Sumner, Wa. It is a satin finish, water and alcohol proof and holds up really good. It is not the water base polyurethane type finish. I am using some of the water base now and then. It dries fast and if there are any runs in the finish, they stay white for a while and you can fix them. On the other hand it is hard to see the runs using the other finish. However the finish is real shinny on the water base finish for satin finish they call it. I don't like it to shinny and I have not been able find it in a real satin finish.
Things have been slow this summer. Now all of a sudden it is going to fast.
1. Peggy's son Rickey needs some 20 pc 8'-0" battens cut for the side of his house and some paint to paint his small cabin. I have plenty of old paint for a primer and maybe enough for the battens.
2. Peggy's office needs another book case, a serving table and some shelving made up to match the other book cases that I did for them a couple years ago, out of birch wood. I need to spread the two old book cases apart as far as I can, then put some shelving in-between for more file space and screw them to the wall so they do not fall over in an earthquake. The bookcases are 30" wide 83" tall with 5 adjustable shelves.
3.I need to email Ellen and ask her phone number. She emailed me from my newspaper add and picked me up for my web log. She came over to look and my stuff and wants a shelf for over a bedroom window with a curtain rod in it. Also a quilt rack 102" tall made of weathered barn boards. I did not get her phone number when she was here so I need to email her and ask her what it is. I need to go to the job site and measure up the exact width of the window trim because there is no room for error.
4.Marline called the other day from the Country Store in Sumner and said that she had sold the large two piece red cupboard and a dark green end table with a drawer. Yesterday she called and wanted to know how much I charged her for the slant back cupboard and a lady was interested in the red bench. She has just gotten back from a trip back to New England and took a lot of pictures of Country Furniture. So that will keep things moving. Now all I have to do is to get me moving. And so the day goes on.
Wednesday, August 13, 2003
Well, this is the first day that this web log "Wood Shop Notes" has been up for public viewing. The following are just misc. notes made at random days ago. Happy viewing. This will be changing quite often.
Saturday, August 02, 2003
This is about a walnut chest of drawers that I am repairing and refinishing for Kurt, a local Port Townsend resident. Previous to this I have done a large Old German walnut burl book matched wardrobe, an antique oak ice box, an antique pine kitchen bin cupboard with a drop leaf in back. That was the first drop leaf bin cupboard that I have ever done. Also a walnut dining room table with leaves. Several of these require extensive restoration before I could refinish them.
This chest of drawers is from his families home in Amana, Iowa in the late 1800's. The drawer bottoms are not hand chamfered but has square nails and the drawers are hand dovetailed front and back. The walnut bracket feet are also hand dovetailed which is unusual. The four wide drawers are of different heights. There are two small width top drawers and a 5 1/2" high back board above the dresser top. All of the drawers, back board are book matched walnut veneer. The top is one piece cherry 47" x 20 1/2", the two edges and front of this top has walnut veneer. Very nice. The sides of the chest are paneled and made of cherry except for the bottom dovetailed foot brackets which are made of walnut.
I needed to replace all but two of the small brass lined key holes. The drawers all have two hand turned walnut knobs.
Most of the drawer knob screw holes had be redone at some time, some where drilled to 1/2", plugged and re-drilled for the screw size long ago. Some had metal back washers at the head of the screw to keep the screws from being sucked to far into the drawer back. The drawer sides, backs and bottom are made of poplar. On one drawer two sides had been worn down and rebuilt up to 1/4". On one drawer some one had put a 1/2" metal band down the bottom edge and one inch up the back to help on the wearing. They had also put a metal piece on top of the wood drawer slide for the drawer to slide on.
An interesting way to tell what the book matching of the veneer will look like before you cut it. When you buy the veneer you can get matching layers. You can take a mirror, put it on edge and move along the veneer to see what it would look like if you split it at that point and laid a matching piece on the other side. You could also do that in a many piece pie shape veneered pieces.
The refinishing process was stripping of the several coats of varnish with paint stripper, flame proof/triple strength/fast acting/no degreasing by Farwest Paint Manuf. Co, 4422 South 133rd st. Tukwila, Wa 98168 it contains methylene chloride and methanol. I open the garage overhead door, window and turn on the fan when using. also some heavy rubber gloves. To much of the stripper on the gloves will penitate the gloves and make your hands sting. I usually wash stripped things off with TSP and hot water. But you can not do that on veneered items.
I put on one heavy coat of stripper and let it set for a while, maybe put on a little more and brush it around. I would bubble up and after a while I used a 4" puddy knife and scraped it off into a old coffee can. Then applied a heavy 2nd coat and let it stand for about 15 minutes. I used about a 00 steel wool and scrubbed it good to loosen up and remaining varnish. Then removed that and wiped it down with an old rag. Then used the steel wood soaked in alcohol and scrubbed off the stripper good with that. The alcohol dries fast and does not loosen the glue under the veneer. It was then sanded down with the elec. palm sander and 120 sand paper.
For a finish I used the Farwest Paint co.'s Wonderglow Polyurethane finish #677 semigloss finish from Tukwila, Wa. They bought out Jarvie Paint Co. 25 years ago and use their chemical mix. It contains petroleum distillate. Jarvie's products where my favorites for years. Old man Jarvie, in his 80's, liked to talk to all of his customers. Farwest has keep their products real good, prices reasonable and ship UPS same day pretty cheap.
The #677 semigloss finish I divide up into about 4 glass containers with a piece of tinfoil under the lids to help seal them. The polyurethane being a semigloss you can see the satin part sitting on the bottom of the container. It needs to be stirred good before using. Having stripped this piece and cleaned it with alcohol I like to thin the first coat of polyurethane first then wipe it lightly off. After that I put on two more coats of polyurethane. Usually stirring up a full jar does not mix it well enough and it turns out to glossy. So I talk off some of the glossy part off the top first then stir it up good. If the finish needs more gloss I can add it to the next coat.
I usually use a 2" foam brush to put on the finish. After the first coat I wrap in in tin foil and then use it again for the following coats. WSI Distributors, Antique Restoration Supplies, has a sale now and then. The brushes are cheap at that time. I find that WSI Distributors are the best for antique reproduction hardware. They have a web site also but I like their catalog much better. They are at 405 North Main St., St Charles, MO 63301. Their web site is www.wsidistributors.com the toll free telephone number is 800-447-9974 the FAX number is 800-974-3291 and their Local St. Louis/St. Charles number is 636-946-5832. Their hours are Pacific time 6:30 am - 3:00 pm Mountain time 7:30 am - 4:00 pm Central time 8:30 am 5 :00 pm Eastern Time 9:30 am - 6:00 pm. Once you have their catalog it has a customer number on the back they ask for. They keep your credit card on file. They are quick and mail out the same day. Their Wholesale Catalog for now is #24 good through December 2003.
Van Dyke's Restores also have a larger catalog and their phone # is 1-800-558-1234.
So much for that.
Peggy's daughter, Angie, called and wanted to check to make sure where she would be the next couple days. Peggy works the next couple days 7:30 to 5:00. Angie expects a baby this next week and the next two days are the last two days of beer hunting season. Her husband, Richard, is going hunting these last two days. The hunting group have gotten 4 deer so far. A couple days ago a beer fell out of the tree and bit up one dogs pretty bad. So it has been in the house rather than in the kennels with the other hunting dogs. Angie lives in Squim, 40 miles away.
-- posted by claude at 8:05 PM
I got the 3rd of 4 pieces of furniture done today. I may be able to get the 4 th and final piece done tomorrow. She is chomping at the bit for me to get them done. I am doing them for one of her customers. She is the interior decorator for this person. They are copies of other furniture she has in her shop. The customer wanted them all a little different in color and size, etc. The basic color on 3 of them are black distressed. Black is in now, then red and mustard. One of these is a dark green.
It is hard to get the right color.
Decorators and hard to satisfy then you have to please the customer on top of that. So far I have been lucky because Early American Country distressed and painted help it is pretty hard to goof up. It is the artists discretion. The natural Sugar Pine tops look the best. I get the wood a full 4/4 thick and sort of rough cut. I belt sand it fairly smooth but leave some of the roughness. It will pick up some of the dark stain latter. Then I carve the tops with my belt sander. Rounding the ends and flattening them some. In the middle of a run on the edges I will belt sand a strip down a quarter inch or so.
Then do the fine sanding. Some times I have to hand scrape in order to get the sanding marks out that show up when you put on the stain. So when the sanding is done I put on coat of Puritan Pine from Minwax. Then I take my hunting knife and put knotches in the edges and some 1" slices in the middle here and there, then tap the knife with a hammer to get some more cuts. Then a large screw driver and make dents with its edge, I finish up with a small tack hammer and make a bunch of dents. Then comes the Polyurethane with burnt umber to darken it. Rub that in with a tight piece of paper towel into the dents and over the rest of the surface.
It is hard to get the right darkness some times. If it is to dark you can just take some pure Polyurethane and wipe it over the surface to lighten it. Once that is dry I put on 2 coats of satin Polyurethane then touch it up with some worn out sand paper just to knock of an high rough spots very lightly. Then rub it down with 0000 steel wool and liquid paste wax. Nothing to it. It is one big mess and is depressing until the end and then it looks great.
The painted part, is the legs, apron, shelf etc. Under the painted part I sand it out then put on a dark stain, then a sealer. When you rub though the paint it looks better if the wood underneath is dark rather than light pine. When I use cedar it is about the right under color.
Then two coats of paint and let it set over night. The next day I use 0000 steel wool and alcohol and rub through the paint on the edges and other spots like the bottom of the feet and around the knobs to show wear. Some times to expose a knot, peg or square nail. On cupboards I put in mouse holes at the bottom of the doors. etc. etc.
Fathers day went fine. Son Brads's daughter, Cloie, and wife Pamm had an dancing event at Fort Worden State park. The dancing event went on for 3 hours. Hard to belive that they could do so much with so many people from 2 years of to 80 years old. Then to Peggy's son, Sammy, for dinner. He is a great cook. Fresh shrimp, chicken wings and ribs with asparagus for a vegetable. He is a wine expert so we had good wine and hard booze. He has a cigar bar at the local country club so some good Cuban cigars.
All for now. I should be able to rub out the last piece of furniture and get two coats of finish on it. The warm dry sun helps out a lot in the driveway.
This chest of drawers is from his families home in Amana, Iowa in the late 1800's. The drawer bottoms are not hand chamfered but has square nails and the drawers are hand dovetailed front and back. The walnut bracket feet are also hand dovetailed which is unusual. The four wide drawers are of different heights. There are two small width top drawers and a 5 1/2" high back board above the dresser top. All of the drawers, back board are book matched walnut veneer. The top is one piece cherry 47" x 20 1/2", the two edges and front of this top has walnut veneer. Very nice. The sides of the chest are paneled and made of cherry except for the bottom dovetailed foot brackets which are made of walnut.
I needed to replace all but two of the small brass lined key holes. The drawers all have two hand turned walnut knobs.
Most of the drawer knob screw holes had be redone at some time, some where drilled to 1/2", plugged and re-drilled for the screw size long ago. Some had metal back washers at the head of the screw to keep the screws from being sucked to far into the drawer back. The drawer sides, backs and bottom are made of poplar. On one drawer two sides had been worn down and rebuilt up to 1/4". On one drawer some one had put a 1/2" metal band down the bottom edge and one inch up the back to help on the wearing. They had also put a metal piece on top of the wood drawer slide for the drawer to slide on.
An interesting way to tell what the book matching of the veneer will look like before you cut it. When you buy the veneer you can get matching layers. You can take a mirror, put it on edge and move along the veneer to see what it would look like if you split it at that point and laid a matching piece on the other side. You could also do that in a many piece pie shape veneered pieces.
The refinishing process was stripping of the several coats of varnish with paint stripper, flame proof/triple strength/fast acting/no degreasing by Farwest Paint Manuf. Co, 4422 South 133rd st. Tukwila, Wa 98168 it contains methylene chloride and methanol. I open the garage overhead door, window and turn on the fan when using. also some heavy rubber gloves. To much of the stripper on the gloves will penitate the gloves and make your hands sting. I usually wash stripped things off with TSP and hot water. But you can not do that on veneered items.
I put on one heavy coat of stripper and let it set for a while, maybe put on a little more and brush it around. I would bubble up and after a while I used a 4" puddy knife and scraped it off into a old coffee can. Then applied a heavy 2nd coat and let it stand for about 15 minutes. I used about a 00 steel wool and scrubbed it good to loosen up and remaining varnish. Then removed that and wiped it down with an old rag. Then used the steel wood soaked in alcohol and scrubbed off the stripper good with that. The alcohol dries fast and does not loosen the glue under the veneer. It was then sanded down with the elec. palm sander and 120 sand paper.
For a finish I used the Farwest Paint co.'s Wonderglow Polyurethane finish #677 semigloss finish from Tukwila, Wa. They bought out Jarvie Paint Co. 25 years ago and use their chemical mix. It contains petroleum distillate. Jarvie's products where my favorites for years. Old man Jarvie, in his 80's, liked to talk to all of his customers. Farwest has keep their products real good, prices reasonable and ship UPS same day pretty cheap.
The #677 semigloss finish I divide up into about 4 glass containers with a piece of tinfoil under the lids to help seal them. The polyurethane being a semigloss you can see the satin part sitting on the bottom of the container. It needs to be stirred good before using. Having stripped this piece and cleaned it with alcohol I like to thin the first coat of polyurethane first then wipe it lightly off. After that I put on two more coats of polyurethane. Usually stirring up a full jar does not mix it well enough and it turns out to glossy. So I talk off some of the glossy part off the top first then stir it up good. If the finish needs more gloss I can add it to the next coat.
I usually use a 2" foam brush to put on the finish. After the first coat I wrap in in tin foil and then use it again for the following coats. WSI Distributors, Antique Restoration Supplies, has a sale now and then. The brushes are cheap at that time. I find that WSI Distributors are the best for antique reproduction hardware. They have a web site also but I like their catalog much better. They are at 405 North Main St., St Charles, MO 63301. Their web site is www.wsidistributors.com the toll free telephone number is 800-447-9974 the FAX number is 800-974-3291 and their Local St. Louis/St. Charles number is 636-946-5832. Their hours are Pacific time 6:30 am - 3:00 pm Mountain time 7:30 am - 4:00 pm Central time 8:30 am 5 :00 pm Eastern Time 9:30 am - 6:00 pm. Once you have their catalog it has a customer number on the back they ask for. They keep your credit card on file. They are quick and mail out the same day. Their Wholesale Catalog for now is #24 good through December 2003.
Van Dyke's Restores also have a larger catalog and their phone # is 1-800-558-1234.
So much for that.
Peggy's daughter, Angie, called and wanted to check to make sure where she would be the next couple days. Peggy works the next couple days 7:30 to 5:00. Angie expects a baby this next week and the next two days are the last two days of beer hunting season. Her husband, Richard, is going hunting these last two days. The hunting group have gotten 4 deer so far. A couple days ago a beer fell out of the tree and bit up one dogs pretty bad. So it has been in the house rather than in the kennels with the other hunting dogs. Angie lives in Squim, 40 miles away.
-- posted by claude at 8:05 PM
I got the 3rd of 4 pieces of furniture done today. I may be able to get the 4 th and final piece done tomorrow. She is chomping at the bit for me to get them done. I am doing them for one of her customers. She is the interior decorator for this person. They are copies of other furniture she has in her shop. The customer wanted them all a little different in color and size, etc. The basic color on 3 of them are black distressed. Black is in now, then red and mustard. One of these is a dark green.
It is hard to get the right color.
Decorators and hard to satisfy then you have to please the customer on top of that. So far I have been lucky because Early American Country distressed and painted help it is pretty hard to goof up. It is the artists discretion. The natural Sugar Pine tops look the best. I get the wood a full 4/4 thick and sort of rough cut. I belt sand it fairly smooth but leave some of the roughness. It will pick up some of the dark stain latter. Then I carve the tops with my belt sander. Rounding the ends and flattening them some. In the middle of a run on the edges I will belt sand a strip down a quarter inch or so.
Then do the fine sanding. Some times I have to hand scrape in order to get the sanding marks out that show up when you put on the stain. So when the sanding is done I put on coat of Puritan Pine from Minwax. Then I take my hunting knife and put knotches in the edges and some 1" slices in the middle here and there, then tap the knife with a hammer to get some more cuts. Then a large screw driver and make dents with its edge, I finish up with a small tack hammer and make a bunch of dents. Then comes the Polyurethane with burnt umber to darken it. Rub that in with a tight piece of paper towel into the dents and over the rest of the surface.
It is hard to get the right darkness some times. If it is to dark you can just take some pure Polyurethane and wipe it over the surface to lighten it. Once that is dry I put on 2 coats of satin Polyurethane then touch it up with some worn out sand paper just to knock of an high rough spots very lightly. Then rub it down with 0000 steel wool and liquid paste wax. Nothing to it. It is one big mess and is depressing until the end and then it looks great.
The painted part, is the legs, apron, shelf etc. Under the painted part I sand it out then put on a dark stain, then a sealer. When you rub though the paint it looks better if the wood underneath is dark rather than light pine. When I use cedar it is about the right under color.
Then two coats of paint and let it set over night. The next day I use 0000 steel wool and alcohol and rub through the paint on the edges and other spots like the bottom of the feet and around the knobs to show wear. Some times to expose a knot, peg or square nail. On cupboards I put in mouse holes at the bottom of the doors. etc. etc.
Fathers day went fine. Son Brads's daughter, Cloie, and wife Pamm had an dancing event at Fort Worden State park. The dancing event went on for 3 hours. Hard to belive that they could do so much with so many people from 2 years of to 80 years old. Then to Peggy's son, Sammy, for dinner. He is a great cook. Fresh shrimp, chicken wings and ribs with asparagus for a vegetable. He is a wine expert so we had good wine and hard booze. He has a cigar bar at the local country club so some good Cuban cigars.
All for now. I should be able to rub out the last piece of furniture and get two coats of finish on it. The warm dry sun helps out a lot in the driveway.
This is my first post to this blogg
