Re-finishing and darkening

[Groggy]

I have been repairing a very old music box that has been in the family for three generations. The side of the lid had to be remanufactured and replaced but I have not been able to match the timber or the colour of the original timber.

Any ideas on what would be suitable to slowly darken the new timber? I have thought of some brown boot polish but it needs to be a bit redder.

Once I've darkened it I need to clean and re-finish the outside - any suggestions? I was planning on shellac.

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

Have you tried tannin?

My gramps used to do a lot of fine restoration work, he was an expert at french polishing and I remember he used a rubber filled with tea-leaves just for colour matching.

I know there was more to it than that, though... at the time I was old enough to be interested but too young to listen. One of my many regrets. Experimenting by myself I've found it works well with aging Oak but isn't much use on most Aussie timbers.

[Luddite]

Hi Groggy,

Not sure if I will be shot down for this suggestion, but here goes anyway;

Something that has worked really well for me is to buy some oil based artists' paint in the smaller tubes (like the size of toothpaste). You can purchase them in a range of colour, but ask the store for the basic browns. I think they may include raw umber, burnt umber and a type of brown (I forget what it is called, but they will know). You can buy the red colours to add at the same time.

Then, mix up a few of the colours into a paste on the lid of an old ice cream container. Add a little boiled linseed oil to thin it a little bit, but try to make it the consistency of, say, yoghurt. Then on a scrap piece of the same timber apply it, leave it for a while then wipe it off with a soft cloth. Just darken it a little or whatever you think needs to happen. Once you are happy with the colour apply it with a sponge type paint brush.

I try to keep the mix a bit thick. You will only need to leave it on for maybe 5 -10 minutes on the first run...better to sneek up on the colour than to go too hard early.

When the mixture is too thin it tends to soak in differentially and then it becomes blotchy. Oh, and on the end grain you can use some turps to smooth the colour a little if needs be.

Once it has has dried and you are happy you can wack on our favourite wax!!

Hope this helps,

Anthony

[Groggy]

Thanks for some good ideas guys. I'm going to look around using Google a bit and see what else there may be. I still can't 'picture' in my mind the right colour. I'll get a pic of the box and post it later on.

[scooter]

Groggy, read an article in a mag a while back about using artists oil paints for colouring wood, heaps of colours available & easy to apply & work up to the colour you want.


Cheers...............Sean

[scooter]

Whoops, beaten to it !

[Groggy]

Groggy, read an article in a mag a while back about using artists oil paints for colouring wood, heaps of colours available & easy to apply & work up to the colour you want.

It seems I need an artist then, trouble is, this forum is full of the wrong kind of artists!

[scooter]

Nah,.... you reckon??

[ubeaut]

The oak was most likely dyed using potassium bichromate. This reacts with the tannin in the timber to give a rich reddish brown. It is a little dangerous to use and hard to get now but can still be obtained if you try hard enough. There are a number of other chemical mordants that will have a similar effect on oak and any other tannin rich timbers.

No matter what you use you will need to make sure it is applied to clean raw timber that has no trace of wax, oil or the old finish on it.

Cheers - Neil

[Wood worrier]

I have been repairing a very old music box that has been in the family for three generations. The side of the lid had to be remanufactured and replaced but I have not been able to match the timber or the colour of the original timber.

Any ideas on what would be suitable to slowly darken the new timber? I have thought of some brown boot polish but it needs to be a bit redder.

Once I've darkened it I need to clean and re-finish the outside - any suggestions? I was planning on shellac.

Van Dyke crystals can be used to makeup wood dye of pretty much any intensity - as ever try the solution on scrap first. Resulting finish takes shellac well.

[Robert34]

I have been repairing a very old music box that has been in the family for three generations. The side of the lid had to be remanufactured and replaced but I have not been able to match the timber or the colour of the original timber.

Any ideas on what would be suitable to slowly darken the new timber? I have thought of some brown boot polish but it needs to be a bit redder.

Once I've darkened it I need to clean and re-finish the outside - any suggestions? I was planning on shellac.

Groggy

There is an article on some wood staining methods that were used in Olden Times at I Love Wood that you may find useful for your current project. See artcle #83.

One of these methods might have been used on your music box. As it must be about 100 yrs old by now.

Rober34

[Auld Bassoon]

G'day Groggy,

If it's a tannin-rich timber such as Oak, the old fashioned way was, I understand, to fume the piece in a sealed chamber with strong ammonia.

A longer period of fuming leads to a darker colouring. However, the use of strong ammonia is quite dangerous (the fumes are bad news, and skin, or worse, eye contact, is especially to be avoided).

One major issue is that not all of the timber in the piece may have the same levels of tannin present, so the darkeing would thus be somewhat variable. Not good, methinks!

[Groggy]

Thanks to all for the help and advice.

I finished it this afternoon and made a right mess of it. I can easily tell where the repair is and the texture of the wood is also different. I used stain, wax, shellac and polish.

On the plus side, it now looks clean but old. It was almost black when I started, with most things loose, especially the hinges, strapping and the activating mechanism for the music box.

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