This week, on the House and Home page we’ll take a look at refinishing antique furniture. How to proceed is dependent on how badly damaged your antique is. Most antique finishes turn dark over a period of time. This is caused by a variety of factors. Wax build up, dirt trapped in layers of wax, heat and the ultraviolet rays in sunlight reacting with the finish are a few of the reasons that this darkening occurs. If this is the only problem I wouldn’t do too much to your antique piece. Removing the old finish can decrease the value of your antique. You can rejuvenate the surface of your antique by very gently rubbing the surface with linseed oil and a powdered pumice stone. Scratches, dings and bumps only increase the attractiveness of an old piece. Don’t try to remove them.

If your piece is badly damaged or has been painted, and the finish is beyond repair, the job ahead of you is a much more complicated one. First you will need to completely dismantling the piece. I would take pictures of the piece before you take it apart. You may think that you know every inch of your great-grandmother’s sideboard, but once you have it apart you have no reference point for putting it back together. When your piece is apart, clean all of the old glue from the joins. Now you are ready to remove the old finish or paint. I use any of the commercial paint or varnish removers on the market. Follow the directions for the remover that you choose very carefully. Do not allow children access to the area in which you are working and wear gloves at all time. Be sure to remove all of the chemical at the end of the process. If you don’t the remaining solvent will affect the new finish and its ability to set. Also, be very careful not to get any of the finish remover on the areas that will be glued. The finish remover will impede the glue’s ability to dry, leaving your antique with lose joints. When the parts and pieces of your antique have dried they are ready to reassemble. Don’t sand out bumps and dings. They add character to your antique.

Start by re-gluing all of the joints. This is a very important step because the integrity of your antique depends on the sturdiness of the joints. Be sure to have all of your materials ready when you start this process. Do not try to re-glue all of the joints at one time. Do a couple of joints and then let them thoroughly dry before joining more. This does take time but you will save yourself a lot of work if you take your time. The types of clamps that you will need are dependent on the type of project that you are doing. Check with your local hardware store to see exactly what you will need for the piece you are working on. Again, your photographs will come in handy here. Take them with you when you go to the hardware store.

Start at the bottom of your piece of furniture and work your way up. Fit the two pieces of the joint together to be sure that they will fit together easily. You may need to do a little sanding.  The plastic wood glues do a fine job and be sure to apply glue to both surfaces. Have a few pieces of scrap wood around to place between the clamp shoe and the joint. This will prevent the clamp shoe from digging into your antique’s wood and damaging it. Be sure to clean any glue that might seep out of the joint when you clamp it. This can be done by wiping the joint with a wet rag. As you go, be sure to check and see that your piece is square. What may be “just a little” out of square at the bottom could cause great problems by the time you get to the top. Also, be sure to work on a level surface so that all the legs rest evenly on the floor.

When you have finished gluing your piece together, check the surfaces to be sure that no glue remains. You are now ready to give the surface of your antique a new finish. There are many finishes to choose from. Bee’s wax dries to a hard surface and it does a wonderful job of protecting the surface of furniture against moisture. You can also use varnish, shellac, lacquer, paint, oil, or one of the urethanes. The finish you choose really should depend on what the use will be for this particular piece of furniture. I have several pieces that I refinished several years ago when my children were small. I refinished a child’s rocking chair, bookcase and trundle bed. Because I knew that these pieces would receive a lot of rough and tumble wear, I chose to refinish them with polyurethane. The “Purest” out there will cringe, but polyurethane is tough and resilient against whatever children can dish out. It is also removable and the pieces can be returned to a more pure form, as with bee’s wax.