I was tasked with this repair on a table from the 60’s (?) with a colored lacquer finish. Thier cat threw up on the table and when he cleaned it off it removed the finish and delaminated the veneer. I replaced the missing veneer and reattached old and new with hide glue. On trying to match the finish, I was able to get the color close but lost the definition of the grain. I have very limited experience with lacquer. I believe I will be able to fix the overlapping of the colored lacquer coat which I put down on the bare wood using a sanding sealer I tinted with blendal powders. I stopped here hoping I might be able to further fix it, but I knew from the beginning that I might have to strip the whole top and then refinish. But I also need to understand what steps I need to take. The top only seems to have lacquer as the finish. I don’t see evidence of a layered finish with an oil glaze.
Can you help me?
Replies
Repair
It looks to me like a stained and lacquered finish not a colored lacquer finish. The easiest way to repair the finish is to refinish the whole top. Trying to blend the damaged part to existing will never work.
SA
Repair
I pretty much figured that out after I applied the lacquer and the grain did not color. My question now is, would I apply a stain first to color the grain and then shade with the lacquer? Or the other way around? Do I seal the veneer first before I stain? I have very limited experience with not only the lacquer but also with veneer. I would appreciate any of your advice as I have spent a lot of time on trial and error to get this far. I wouldn't be so hesitant with solid wood, but don't want to do damage I can't recover from. The color that matches seems to be a Van Dyke brown with green undertones. Thank you for any guidance!
Jay
To start - I would have tried to better match the veneer patch grain and ran the patch right to the table edge. Staining is done before shading because shading will seal the grain. After the repairs and final sanding wet the entire top with mineral spirits to see how the repairs blend with the existing wood. That is how you decide your plan for coloring.
SA
Yes. I agree with you. It is better to refinish the entire top of the table. It is not easy to get back the original look of table. But refinishing the top can also give a new look to the table.
Io think last option can work
I think last option can work well. Oil based stains are permanent and gives good results. Then you can use shellac on it fr coating.
After taking a short hiatus from this project I started to experiment again. I took the advice of previous posts and stripped the table top to bare wood. I had trouble finding a suitable match with oil based stains. I had a stain available to me from a project that I did for our church. What I knew about the stain was that it was nasty but easy to apply and it gave a very satisfactory even application. Most of all it matched beautifully .After prepping the top I applied the stain and am very stisfied with the results......so far!
I still need to apply a toner coat to make the match complete. I wonder if I need to seperate out stain and toner and top coats so that if I have a problem in any of the steps I won't have to completely strip the table down to bare wood again. Or am I overthinking this. I have been thinking I could apply a tinted layer of shellac that would give me the color match I need and and still allow me to backtrack if needed, (I'm also more comfortable with spraying the shellac) but is it the way to achieve the best finish.
Sorry for being so wishywashy but I really just want to avoid any obvious pitfalls that I'm not aware of.
Stain
I think you're on the right course and with your finishing work as well ! Faith & Doubt !
You need to add color; and a glaze is a safe method. Seal the stain with the shellac and let it dry for a day. Make a glaze with the color you need and apply. If it is not right you can wash it off with paint thinner back down to the shellac.
SA
The problem is I have worked out a very good match when I first started this project with blendal powders as I was initially trying to blend in the repair of the original damage. The color was perfect but I neglected to address the underlying grain. So I already have that part of it worked out to where I'm comfortable with it. My main issue is to whether or not mix the powders with shellac or lacquer. I have just enough of the green colorant left to do this after all my trial and errors.
This also seems to me the way it was originally done. Any glazing I tried to mix and match with just did not look right. It seems to just be a slight change in the tone of the next coat to even out the undercolor of the stain. Do you know of any problems with using a shellac toner coat?
Problems
I would go with the lacquer. Both finishes will tone well but lacquer has the advantages being able to use fish eye, retarder, thinner, etc. I might seal the repair with a spray coat of shellac and tone the entire project with lacquer toner
SA
Yes. Use of lacquer will be beneficial for this task. It will also give a nice finishing coat on table.
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