I’ve designed and am presently building a “French country” buffet. This is my first venture into “fine” furniture. I’m at the point now where I will be assembling the carcass and have a couple of questions. The finish will be oil/varnish.
My first question is would it be worthwhile to put a coat or two of finish on the interior surfaces to reduce wood movement?
My second (and last) question is real antiques that have dents, cuts etc on their surfaces are usually darker in the areas (distressed) that are below the finished surface due to the accumulation of dirt and wax over the years. Walnut is a darker wood and I need some method of darkening distressed areas. Is there something that I can use to darken these areas? If so, does it go on before the finish or after the first couple of coats. I plan to put on at least four coats of oil/ varnish finish.
Thanks in advance for your help.
Jon
Replies
I've always heard that whatever you do to one side, do to the other side as well. As much as you can, keep the finishing uniform over the whole piece.
Creekwood, Thanks for the response. I wasn't sure about finishing both sides, but thanks to you and the other responders I now know the right way.
jon
1. Both sides should always be finished. A good rule of thumb is "Whatever you do to one side, do the other." This applies to both lumber preparation as well as finishing.
2. I know you're going to have folks come down on different sides of this question, but I do not think "fine furniture" should be distressed or aged in any way. Patina is acquired over years of loving use and abuse. Fine furniture is made to last for generations and over those generations each piece develops its own unique character.
Gustav Stickley spoke of "honesty" in his furniture's design and construction - something which was lost in the Victorian era as mass production developed. Stickley's honesty applies not only to Craftsman design, but all good furniture and cabinetry. Fine furniture has - IMHO - little in common with factory made furniture and that's good.
Save the pre-made scrapes and splatters for the factory. Let your shop produce the very best it can.
Jeff
Jeff, I appreciate your response to my questions, especially my desire to distress the buffet surfaces. I saw a picture of the buffet in a catalog and decided to build it, so I drew up the plans. The picture in the catalog showed the buffet to be distressed, so I intended to "make it like the picture". My wife was with me when I read your post and we both agreed that your comments regarding honesty hit the mark dead center. The buffet will NOT be distressed. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.
Jon
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I tend to agree with Jeff on the distressing issue, both for the reason he cited and for a different reason. It's very difficult to produce natural-looking distressing unless you have detailed knowledge of how furniture ages over a century or two and you have lots and lots of practice. An unnatural distress mark (or many) are there to stay, for all the world to see. There goes all the hard work involved in building the piece.
--Of course, now that I re-read your post, it's apparent you didn't ask for an opinion about distressing. Oops.
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Edited 4/5/2003 5:24:37 PM ET by forestgirl
Forestgirl,
Thanks for your post. I've decided not to distress the surface. Jeff k.'s response sent me down the right path and I appreciate your comments whether asked for or not. One glitch in the distressing would bite me in the behind every time I looked at it. I've been reading knots for a few years now and this was my first post.
Hi, I don't think that I would want to "distress" a fine furniture piece either and like the others that have replied, I would go the honest route. The true patina, dings and dents that give furniture some caracter take years to obtain.
But, if you really wanted to age, distress or darken something, there are plenty of books out there on the subject and esp. for the distressing process, save your old sandpaper, cutoff blocks, old brushes, old shoe polish and be prepared to experiment. Good luck.
This post caught my eye because I have recently completed a sample for a potential new customer who wants to refinish a huge kitchenful of existing cabinetry (as well as a big addition to it) with a distressed finish. I had fun making up my sample piece and good results. I made up a list of types of marks or features of distressing and the tools to use for making them. I chose from the list several kind of light distressing chaacteristics that I included. She said that the more distressing the better, but experience has taught me that most people really like a lot less distressing than they think they will. I am rubbing on a glaze made of polyurethane varnish with a bit of linseed oil and Raw umber and Burnt Umber artist's oils. That gives me a nice darkening in the dents and dings on the pickled maple that I started with. If you begin with walnut then you will probably need a black glaze to darken your distressing marks. An alternative idea would be to use a color contrast or a pastel for antiquing your marks (red, buff, or gold, are combinations that I've seen used successfully with walnut).
I think it is a mistake to consider all distressing as "fake" aging or patination. Often people simply desire the warm ambience of having new parts that feel comfortable to use. I also feel that the variation of the markings adds interest to the surfaces ... gives the mind something to ponder. Personally I like the feel and look of hand tooling marks ... even rustic ones. From a practical standpoint, the distressing makes it easier to live with furnishings without worrying about them and lowers peoples stress levels. I do a lot of touch-up on high end cabinetry and I've noticed that quite a few people torment themselves trying to keep their cabinetry in like new condition. It's a pretty tall order even to get through the construction phase like that. I have been presented with pages of "flaw" listings in which each item required excellent lighting and really good eyes to see. I fix them all, but even the people that give me such lists know that they are tormenting themselves. So if a bit of preplanned distressing can alleviate such neurotic behavior It will be better for everyone involved.
BRichardson and Clay,
I,ve decided not to distress the buffet as stated in a previous response. This is my first large furniture project and I expect that some day it will be passed on to one of our kids and they will have a benchmark of my woodworking skills at this point in time. I also need more experience with different types and tecniques of finishing. Hopefully, I'll have other projects and opportunities in the future to try distressing as I'm hooked on woodworking. Thanks for your thoughts and opinions.
Jon
Good decision to keep it honest w/such a big piece. It will get its due distress marks in time. However, if you want to play w/distressing, start w/pic frames or a piece from scraps to get an idea of what you like. Also, will you be doing the dusting? ;-)
Distressing can be effective if it looks real, in other words if it looks like the old pieces. It requires study of how wooden objects wear with age, look at the old stuff to see what really happens. The following link might help.
http://www.ilovewood.com/alburnam11.htm#Distressing
Stephen Shepherd
Good info, thanks Stephen!
Kai, I'm not sure what you mean by "will you be doing the dusting?" in your previous post. If you mean dusting in my shop the answer is yes, I just open the doors, plug in the yard blower and let the dust fly out thru the doors. If you meant in the house, no, I would rarely dust furniture, etc. However, I usually vacuum the floors, clean the toilets, scrub the floors, and lots of other household chores. When I retired a few years ago, I decided that I would help my wife with those household chores that are more strenuous than dusting. Sharing the household chores (inside and out) works for us and it still gives me time to do woodworking.
Jon
Jon,
It's just that distressed surfaces collect more dust than flat. You sound like a prize, however, and I love your shop dust solution :-)
Stephen, Thanks for the reference on distressing. I do intend to try this someday.
Jon
There's distressing and there's distressing. And then there is the purely therapeutic effects of whaling the bejeezus out of pine boards with a four-foot length of rusty half-inch chain. Even my four-year-old wanted to help - sure, I said, everyone gets a turn. It does make a bit of noise, though.
Clay, I am with you - Imperfection is there in the boards (and in the assembled shelves), surely, and interest too, seeing how the dinted, scraped and untouched areas took the stain differently.
However, back to the original poster, I admit for a piece as large and painstaking (not to mention subject to examination) as a buffet, I might not get into the random distressing. Now, try to remember this conversation in the years ahead when the kids cause some unintentional distress to the piece, and please be gentle with them.
Cheers,
Chris
It is true that large panels such as table tops or the thick panels in a house door should be given the same type of finish on both sides to prevent warpage. Smaller pieces, such as cabinets, if they are designed to accomodate wood movement, don't have to be finished equally on both sides.
Many finishes have a faint but unpleasant lingering odor that can persist for years in the interior of a cabinet and the odor will be picked up by food or clothes stored in the piece. Traditionally shellac is used for the interior surfaces of cabinets because it dries odor free, Tried and True brand finishes which are made from linseed oil without chemical additives are also supposed to be odor free once dried (and don't smell bad even when they're being applied).
John W.
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