Hello to all. First time questioner /long time reader.
I have alot of teak furniture and I have no idea how it is finished. It is treated with commercial teak oil periodically. On the dining room table surface my daughter spilled some nail polish remover (acetone type-of course). This removed whatever finish was there and now there is a lighter colored “depression” where the finish used to be. I have received advice ranging from” leave it alone you’ll only make it worse” to “apply many coats of the teak oil and let it build the finish”. I can’t believe that the original finish is multiple coats of oil. It does not seem very profitable to finish commercial furniture that way. Any help is greatly appreciated.
Replies
Hi Chris, I'm just bumping this up a notch -- it could be with the 4th being tomorrow, there just aren't as many people reading the boards as usual. Someone out there can help!
I'll pose a question: Is the finish on the table pretty high-gloss, like most dining tables? If it is, it seem likely there's some kind of finish besides the oil lurking under there.
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Thanks for the reply. The finish on the table (as well as my other furniture) is a sort of matte/satin sheen. When the teak oil is applied it becomes more glossy. This fades as the oil is absorbed/evaporates?. I have refinished furniture before and used the typical shellac/varnish/polyurethane finishes but this doesn't look like any of these. Any further info is appreciated.
Teak Oil is generally an oil/varnish blend that forms a soft film. It will build up with multiple applications. Generally, once a year is plenty.
If the light colored spot is in the wood, you can touch up the spot with some Behlen NGR dye stain or other alcohol based stain. A lacquer based stain, like the ones from Mohawk, will also work. Use a color that is half as dark as you might expect and apply more than once if needed to build the color. Test the spot first by applying the teak oil to the spot. If the color returns (or makes good progress), you may not need the stain.
Re-build the finish on the low spot by applying the finish to that area in coats as recommended by the manufacturer (e.g., one coat a day). Once the finish is leveled to the surrounding finish (you may need to spot sand), sand the entire surface with steel wool or 400 - 600 paper and apply another coat to the entire surface for final blend.
If you read the labels on some finishing products, you will find that one suggested application method is dipping. If you run a large enough operation, you can dip/submerge your wood in the finish, allow it to penetrate, and then quickly remove the excess as it comes out of the tank - very low labor costs.
Paul
F'burg, VA
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