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Next question comes from Brian
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Good morning, Steve. We have recently acquired a 1920 to 1930 rocking chair
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which has been in an attic for about 50 years. The finish is very coarse and feels like sandpaper
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through exposure to the attic temperature variations and possibly some dampness, although no signs of mold
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Sounds promising. I would like to refinish it, but have not no idea what would be the best way. Someone suggested I painted but I'm very
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loath to do that. Once painted there's no going back it has a very nice
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carving on the backrest any advice would be very much appreciated. Well I agree
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with you Brian I would not paint that two reasons like you say once you've
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painted it it's a huge pain to remove that paint again if you want to
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renew the natural wood finish but more importantly than that who wants to have
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a painted rocking chair that feels like sandpaper. Clearly this old finish has
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deteriorated in a not that unusual way. It's not unusual to see old finishes go
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kind of crinkly and rough. So I would recommend a two-step approach to preparing
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the rocking chair for refinishing. First you want to chemically strip off any
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old finish that's there. Once upon a time, chemical stripping involved, products that contain methylene chloride which is pretty nasty stuff and really
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you can still buy it but technically it should only be used outdoors not even in a
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building with open window is there enough ventilation to protect you now thankfully there are much friendlier and in fact more effective strippers that are on the market Now some of them are based on citrus solvents
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One that I have used involves a soybean product, believe it or not
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These things smell a lot less than the methylene chloride. They're much safer
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And they actually work better because unlike methylene chloride strippers, these ones stay wet
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They're kind of a jelly or a thick liquid and you brush it on, but they stay wet for a long time
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and it's the wetness that indicates that it's working. The methylene chloride stuff is effective at first for a short time, but then it dries up quickly
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And once it's dried, it's not going to work anymore. So you want to tackle that ugly old finish first with some kind of a stripper
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You're going to want to get a bunch of pretty heavy paper shop towel so you can wipe
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and work around the spindles and the handles, maybe a little bit of light scraping
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But one thing you want to do is you don't want to go through what's called the patina of the old finish
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So this would be a natural darkening of the wood that takes place slowly over decades
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And it gives that antique look. So you don't want to get down to bare bright wood, which you could do if you stripped too vigorously
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So do what you can with a stripper. that's going to remove 90, 95% of the gunk that's giving you grief now
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And then follow up with some kind of non-woven rubbing pad. I use stuff from 3M
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It works really well, especially on your project, because there are all kinds of round surfaces
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Sandpaper may be for the flatter surfaces but nothing too coarse I wouldn use anything more than say 180 If that proves too soft too gentle then try 150 but I wouldn go any coarser than that
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That might be fine for the seat, maybe the back of the back, flattish areas like that
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The rubbing pads are going to be much better for getting right back down to a clean surface that still has the patina on it
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So now you've got your chair, you've got rid of that ugly sort of rough sandpaper thing
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what are you going to do with it now? Well, if this were my chair, I would be finishing it with something called wipe-on-poly
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This is a fairly unique product. It's made by min-wax, and it's essentially a very low viscosity urethane
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But unlike regular urethane, which you brush on and form a kind of a film on the wood
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you put on the wipe-on-poly, you let it soak in, and then you gently wipe off any excess
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that exists above the surface, and then set the chair aside and let it dry. I usually leave
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it for a day or so. The wipe-on poly is kind of like finishing oil, except it's better and more
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reliable and that it dries quicker and harder and with a little more strength. Now you're still
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going to have to put on at least three coats of this because it doesn't actually develop
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much protection with just one coat. It does take a while to build up sufficient protection
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And I think you may find that after that first coat has dried, the chair feels somewhat
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rougher than it did when you start it with the white line poly That normal That what called raised grain So the fibers of the wood grain that were laying flat before you put on the wipe on poly They absorb the liquid
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and then they stand upright. This is all in a microscopic level of course. They stand upright and then
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they harden that way. So you're going to feel a probably feel a little bit of additional
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roughness. That's where you go back with the with the rubbing pads again. It doesn't take very much just a
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couple of passes in any given spot and now you've got a nice smooth surface again vacuum
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the chair because there's going to be little bits of stuff left behind by your rubbing vacuum it
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all off make it surgically clean and add another coat of wipe on poly that one probably won't
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raise the grain since you've already raised the grain and knocked it back again so give it maybe
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three coats in total maybe a fourth if you want some some extra extra protection but you're
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can end up with a really nice chair. It's going to look great. Just one other thing. Wipe on
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poly, like a lot of urethane products, comes in a mat version, satin I think they call it, so it's
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not very glossy, and then a gloss version. I really like matte finishes on everything, not just
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furniture or walls, interior painting, stuff like that. The reason is because non-glossy surfaces
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show up imperfections much less frequently, much less obviously. So that's my
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recommendation. I think you'll be really pleased and it's certainly going to be
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worth the effort, especially if as it appears here you've got some attachment to it
