I am repairing and refinishing a carpetbagger’s chair that is made from cherry. This is not a restoration job. It just needs to look nice and rustic. I did not disassemble the chair because I didn’t want to get into re-riveting the moveable joints. Also, I did not expect to uncover a lot of cracks in the wood. So far, I’ve replaced a couple of rungs, re-glued joints, and glued and screwed major cracks. I used West Systems epoxy to glue joints and cracks. Now I have to think about a finish.
The current finish appears to be either cellulose or catalyzed lacquer, since nothing would soften it and scrapings are like white powder. There are several areas that have red splotches, probably from previous stain. I have sanded the piece with 80 grit to get through the lacquer. I plan to follow with 100 and 150 grit. However, I cannot be sure that all old lacquer is removed.
There is a lot to hide, including epoxy fillings.
I would like to use wipe-on gel varnish because of the many surfaces and hard-to-get-at places. I read an article that suggests touching up light areas and new wood with gel stain, coating the whole piece with clear gel varnish, restaining the whole piece with gel stain, then finishing with 3 or so coats of clear gel varnish.
Does this sound like an approach that would work to give a fairly consistent finish?
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What's a Carpetbaggers chair?
It is a relatively small fold-up rocking chair. The hinge joints are rivets. When you pick it up by the crest rail, it drops into folded position lengthwise. Originally, this chair had tacked down leather seat and back. The back has short spindles framing the leather back and beaded sidepieces that function as sloping arm rests, eventually tying into the rockers. The story is that cartpetbaggers used these chairs in their travels.
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