Restoration or Refinishing

  Hi, I have been quite busy around the house the past two weeks but I did get time in the shop.

  Does refinishing mean restored. No not really. I can show you the difference here. I can also show you why one would be much more costly than the other.

  For instance a friend came to me with a problem. He and his brothers were having a little too good of a time when one brother sat on the other brother on a kitchen chair. Well you guessed it. Single chairs are designed for one rider. They don't stand up to well when you work them like a rodeo clown.

"No problem", I told him. "Bring it by".

  Well he showed a few days later with two chairs. One was in real bad shape missing stretcher between the legs, all but one was kindling and the rest of the chair was barely holding together. The second chair was not so bad and gave me a guide to rebuild the one.

  So the picture below is what a restoration entails. Dismantle, make new parts, remove old finish, new stain, use good glue and reassemble parts into functional chair. Top off with clear coat. Just like new.

  You should get something like this in the end. Beauty eh, the father sure was impressed when I showed up with them. He had been away for the winter and had just returned two days previous and hadn't yet talked with his son who was away for the weekend.
I felt like Santa.

    Refinishing does not always call for dismantling the piece you are working on but any parts you can get loose from each other sure help.

   I have two nightstands with faux drawers that came with a bedroom set I picked up a few weeks ago. I felt like leaving them there but I took them anyway. I had a closer look at them once I was back at the shop and found these were solid mahogany. Sweet.

   After lots of sanding and minor dismantling I ended up with a pair of these.

Mahogany is such a nice wood. Anyone interested, they are for sale, no room here.

So there you have it. They look like new in the end but one takes many more hours than the other.

Thanks for reading
Ken