1900s homemade cabinet - touching up the finish

I posted in the Pics forum photos of a cabinet made in Holland by SWMBO's grandfather. I'm repairing the top which had split back into its three sections.

The timber is quite pale but the finish dark


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I'm I'm not sure what the timber is but this a pic. of the front in full light

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The finish rubs off when a rag dampened with metho. is rubbed on it (tried on the back) so I believe its shellac. There are some scuff marks that I want to touch up and maybe given the whole unit a brighten up but without destroying its "uniqueness", so what is the best technique?

Cheers

To this very amateur person it looks like an oak.
I'm cleaning 100+ yr old English table and using scourer with meths. Any serious knocks uncovered will be hit with hot sponge and water to expand it out again. Plan is to redo in shellac - 4 or 5 layers and then wax finish.

Cheers,

The cabinet had a centre shelf which was painted with a matt reddish paint.
Attachment 415920

After cleaning off the paint

Attachment 415919

WOW - solid, one piece of ?? Oak??

I will need to stain it and shellac it to match the rest of the cabinet. Ordered Ubeaut's book on finishes.

Sure looks like Oak to this amateur too.

Will follow with interest. A friend just showed me her 8 foot farmhouse table her late husband had in his shed for decades. He passed away at 82 and it was his Great Grandfathers so I'm guessing 1900 or prior. would like it at least to end up as a small breakfast table (huge bow in the top so likely). So I'm tuning in to everyone else's experience Lappa :)

I'm fairly sure its European Oak. It could be either Red or White Oak but my money is on White Oak. Now that you are "stripping" the finish what you have looking you in the face is a surface that has a patina that is darker than the timber beneath the surface. If you were to sand the surface to remove any surface marks the lighter colour will be produced. I doubt if you could apply a stain to fix it. Blackouts method of wet rag and iron will fix any dents and keep that patina

I only removed the finish on the shelf. I did this by removing about 0.5mm with the thicknesser. The shelf finish you see is after a run through the thicknesser. I'm leaving the rest of the cabinet alone apart from touching up some small areas hence my original question. There is minimal damage/dents but there are some borer holes on one of the side panels (has been fumigated years ago so inactive) and a couple of scrapes.
I'm fairly sure the rest of the cabinet has been coloured to give a walnut coloured finish but it's definately shellac. I will try and get the same finish on the shelf.
I have some Tas oak and the colour is a perfect match with the shelf, so I'll practise on that first.
I'm not sure whether to use blonde shellac with colouring tints or try the dark garnet? Shellac which I've read is used to brighten up walnut coloured shellac finishes.
Cheers and thanks for the replies.

Additional info.
Just received an email from Fine Woodworking re articles and videos on shellac finishes and how to mix and apply:2tsup: How fortuitous.

I was just cleaning a silky oak sideboard that was thick in I assume wax. Sadly underneath appeared 3 rings one either side and the side of a cup. I think I managed to clear them out while cleaning with meths and steel wool. The 3rd ring is large and think. Cleaning with meths and steel wool just wouldn't do it. Then I tried some gentle sand paper (120) and still affect (except smoothing the surface once again :) ).

Tomorrow I will look again in better like and under magnifying glasses. I really detest using a sander but this time I may have to follow SWMBO instructions. I really only wanted to clean with meths until waxes removed and then apply a fresh layer of shellac before polishing.

Like you I may finally have to look at tinting some French polish to get the surface close in colour to the rest. I only intend sanding the one surface (if I must :( )

I feel for you. Starting from scratch and finishing a whole project is one thing but repairing small to large abnormalities then trying to replicate the finish is another thing all together:(
That's one of the reasons I spent so much time aligning the top panels so I would have no finishing up there. There a 6 nail holes I have to fill and finish but other than that, my areas are small and the shelf will be inside :wink:
Keep us posted on your progress with some photos.

Probably known by many but new to me.
Last night I drilled some holes in a scrap of tas oak and put fillers in both; one was walnut/dark oak and the other oak. I have read somewhere that you fill after you apply stain to match the colour. I'd imagine this would only be for fillers that didn't take stain and I wasn't sure about the fillers I had. The Wattyl oak was spot on and the Cabots walnut/dark oak showed a darker colour after drying overnight and being sanded back. Put some proof tint "walnut" on a rag and wiped the timber. The fillers both certainly take stain as the walnut/dark oak stands out like the proverbials with the filled patch much darker than the stain. The Wattyl oak blended in beautifully.

Lappa,
Very helpful :)

I was watching a fine woodwork video that came by email regarding using shellac. He recommended buying and using blonde dewaxed shellac. The reason for blonde was there would be little colour change. He also talked about getting garnet variety to freshen up full walnut finishes but not much was said re std. vs dewaxed shellac.
From reading, it appears that some final finishes such as poly won't go over std. shellac but will go over dewaxed shellac. So it would appear that dewaxed would be more universal although it needs a final costing of something to seal.
If I was just going to wax the finished item, would it matter which shella?. The reason is that my local paint guy, who stocks shellac, says dewaxed is getting very hard to come by and he stocks std. orange shellac. Is he having a loan?
Blonde shellac is apparently dewaxed and bleached.
So I'm turning to the formites that regularly use shellac to seek their advice.
The other question; my wife's Mother, who the cabinet came from, used to use polishes and maybe Mr Sheen so what would be best to clean the cabinet with to remove any traces before fleshing the coating?

My wife told me the sideboard was looked after using " O'Cedar" furniture polish. I'm spraying mentholated spirits on the old furniture and rubbing the waxes or whatever has gone on. Takes some effort and you have to remove it quickly (before meths evaporates.) That's my experience.

I don't see any photos. Does this have anything to do with the photobucket issue?

Only photos are in the first and third post. Their still there.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Lappa

Only photos are in the first post. There still there.

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Hi,
Sorry I am not seeing any at this time.
Regards