Mahogany Veneer Drawers

[NZStu]

I've acquired a set of Mid-Century style drawers made by a New Zealand manufacturer called Airest, from 1970 or so. Overall condition is pretty sound, but they need some cosmetic restoration.

Construction is mahogany veneer on particle board, with pine for drawer sides etc. I've established that the original finish is shellac (see first pic, where I've rubbed the top with metho to see what I'm dealing with).

Now, there is what looks like a water stain or something on the top (second pic). Before I get stuck in removing the rest of the shellac and sanding the surface, does anyone have any hints for dealing with stains like that on veneer?

There are also a few small chips in the veneer here and there. My plan with those is to source a little bit of appropriate veneer and splice it in. Finish will simply be more shellac (never used it before, but have been wanting an excuse to give it a go - just like this!)

Any hints or tips for this little project would be gratefully received. :)

[NZStu]

Right. I've stripped and sanded the top of the carcase. The water stain didn't go too deep and is now only faintly visible. I obviously don't want to push my luck and risk sanding through the veneer trying to remove it totally.

As I suppose is pretty typical for the era, the shellac finish has an opaque reddy-orange pigment in it, which obscures a lot of the grain in the wood. I shan't be replicating that!

[NZStu]

Finished them. First try at using shellac, and was pretty impressed at how easy it is to use. The mahogany came up quite nicely I thought, once the red oxide grain filler was removed. Also did a few patch repairs by splicing in a scraps of veneer.

[petersemple]

Looking nice

[vaneer]

I came across this thread when researching how to restore my own set of drawers identical to these, I also have the 9 draw size. I have never done any kind of restoration work on furniture. Was re-doing the drawers as simple as sanding them down and then applying shellac? Any tips or tricks would be fantastic :)

[NZStu]

The key is absolutely minimal sanding. You need the strip the existing finish off entirely, and the way I did this was using meths and fine steel wool. It did take a lot of work and the trickiest bit was getting rid of the orange/red colour. You might not need to do this, but I had to as it would have finished up an uneven colour otherwise. Once you've got the finishe stripped off entirely, it's a simple matter of giving it a light sand with 240-400 grit paper and putting on the shellac.

I have some left over mahogany scraps if you need to do any patch repairs too.

[vaneer]

Awesome thanks for that. Thankfully there is no damage to the vaneer in this lot, the second lot I am doing are still in Auckland....so their condition is a bit of a mystery for now, it is apparently good. I'm quite keen to get the orangey-red pigment out too, not my cup of tea. Really impressed with the pics you posted, the colour looks really nice! Might try get some before and after pics to post. Cheers for that advice :)

[NZStu]

Yes, getting rid of the colour is highly recommended! The natural mahogany really does look fantastic and I was very pleasantly surprised at how well the restoration went. Thinking about it again, I used a tungsten carbide scraper to get the bulk of the original finish off: just softened it with meths, scraped the worst of it off, then more meths with steel wool (00 or 000 I think) to get it back to the bare wood and clear the pigment out.

Whereabouts in Wellington are you?

[vaneer]

Using the steel wool and meths wasn't too bad, we got 3 out of the 9 draws done in a reasonably short space of time. The handles were fiddly to do! Seeing the colour underneath has made me really glad I decided to get rid of the red. Really warm colour under it all. May try the scraper for the top part of the drawers, that is going to be a big job.

After seeing how much these drawers tend to cost already re-finished I would have thought it was a much bigger and more expensive job to get them in good condition! I'm located just on the edge of the city.

[NZStu]

Good to hear the job's going well. I'd be keen to see some before (and after) pics. I like the old Airest stuff!