Hello, I’m visiting from breaktime to ask a question. I’ve just repaired a friend’s 80 year old maple rocking chair by replacing one of the rockers (?) a leg, and three of the horizontal dowels. The chair looks good, works fine but the wood I used is new and bright, while the orig. piece is oxidized to a light grey/brown and covered with a dilapidated, flaking finish of some sort. This job is being done as a favor to my friend, but it has taken a long time and she wants it back, saying she’s not too particular as to how it looks. Time will not allow me to mess around too much with this, but I’m trying to avoid returning her chair with such an obvious repair. I was hoping – rather than scrape and refinish the entire bottom half – to quickly “match” the look of the old components by darkening the new wood and slopping on a finish. (I’m willing to refin the bottom half if that’s what i’m recommended to do, but my friend stresses that she’s really REALLY not concerned with the way the old finish looks.-rustic is okay.
Please, good people, give me some ideas for quickly aging these parts? Sorry, no pics. The old finish is a hard, flaky, clear product, that’s all I can tell from it (amber shellac?)
Thanks
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Replies
Beat up the repairs a bit with a bicycle chain and knobbly concrete.
Slop on some oil based paint here and there that's roughly the right colour-- mix up some if needed. Wipe it off immediately with cotton cloth. Don't wipe it too well and leave build up in the corners.
Get some furniture paste wax and apply it sparingly and very strategically to sharp corners and a few other places.
Gash on a bit of varnish with a brush and wipe it off with nylon abrasive pads and a bit of cloth. Maybe do two three coats, and get them a bit uneven.
That'll probably get it something like. Slainte.
Richard Jones Furniture
Hey, thanks. Sounds like you've done this before, so I'm going to take your advice and run with it. What's the pastewax for, a resist befrore the varnish? If so, do you ever feel the need to remove the wax from the "vulnerable" areas, to complete the dull effect?
It'll cause the varnish to not stick helping to give the failing flaking look you described. Test it out on a bit of scrap first to make sure it works as you hope. Slainte.Richard Jones Furniture
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