Furniture restoration

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mattc

MB Enthusiast
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Audi A4, 1994 E320 Coupe, 1995 E300 estate
Anyone know anything on this subject?

I have an old love seat frame (caning has gone) which I would like to re-cane but, prior to that, I need to clean and re-finish the wood.

The item has no particular value; I just fancy doing it as a challenge.

At a guess what would the original finish have been - wax, boiled linseed?

Any help/pointers gratefully received,

matt
 
Simple answer: it's hard to say...

I'm no expert, and it will depend on what finish you are looking for as an end result: shiny vs matt. A traditional finishing cleanser and wax treatment uses equal amounts of:

Beeswax
Turpentine
Linseed oil

To which I'm sure you could mix a stain if you were so inclined. :dk: There's some debate regarding the long-term effects of repeated applications of this preparation. By that I mean museum-pieces which may be subject to multiple polishes over the years whilst in a collection.

I rejuvenated my dad's rosewood furniture to good effect using it.

I applied it using a psuedo French polishing technique using a sock stuffed with old t-shirts, balled-up and knotted to make a nice soft buffer. You work it thoroughly following the grain of the wood, and apply a decent amount of pressure. I think the heat generated by doing so has some bearing on the final result. Anyway I ended-up with very shiny finish, though it was a lot of effort.

This brought the tops of the chairs which had the appearance of being sanded to raw wood by sun damage, back to as new condition. Very satisfying indeed.

For high usage furniture like coffee table tops, and isn't antique/heirloom, I use good ole Collinite 476 car wax that I use on the MB. It's very durable and goes some way to preventing stains from spilled liquids/water rings. Just stay away from those spray can silicone all-in-one jobbies (idk why, that's just what I've been told). I've heard you can use it to coat the insides of glass shower enclosures so you don't get limescale stains. Can you tell I've been on detailingworld? :rolleyes: EDIT: Oh god, I've just read that back and I'm so sad.:eek:

Oh yeah, I used beeswax ready mixed to a paste with turps, (I think you can find it in any hardware store), and unboiled linseed oil. I don't know what the relative merits between boiled/unboiled, teak/linseed/tung oils are, but that's all I had available as I use it on the stocks of my Lee Enfield and Mauser...

Also be wary of disposal of cleaning cloths saturated in linseed oil as it has a tendancy to self-combust.
 
Google "Liberon" and read up on their products, lots of good info there.
 
thanks for the replies guys - I will take some decent pics tomorrow and post them so you can see exactly what it is I am on about and what I am trying to achieve.
 

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