So I bought a BOD (big old desk) off of craigslist and thought I’d try my hand at refinishing. Turns out the dest was build in 1977 out of walnut, and the refinishing job has been enjoyable, except for the sand throught that happened when I tried to get out a pretty big gouge. No problem, I thought. The panel was removalbe and I re-veneered the piece. However, I discovered that walnut lightens with time and the new walnut veneer sticks out like a sore thumb.
So, I want to lighten the wood to blend better and was thinking about bleaching it…anyone have any recommendations on techniques or experience doing this?
Thanks,
Luis
Replies
Yes, it can be bleached using an A-B two part wood bleach. This has the potential of removing all the color from the walnut, whereupon you would have to dye and stain the walnut back to the matching color. (Partial bleaching is possible with this material, but there is a serious learning curve since the impacts will depend on the particular tree from which the walnut veneer derived and from it being a fairly tricky process to control accurately.)
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