Damage from lino removal on top of Fed table

[Thomidog]

Okay all you shellackers, please help if you can! I have this lovely old pine table with a thick, dark and quite damaged finish. I think it's black japan but then I wouldn't know how to tell the difference between black japan and simply darkened shellac - does it matter? The table has a range of damage, some appealing and some not so, and I want to try and even out some of the worst dings and unsightly bits while preserving most of the finish. I'm having some success with dabbing diluted black japan over the chips to recolour the wood, but I'm stumped on modify the damage left by removal of old lino... the lino glue has dissolved the surface of the shellac and left patches of criss-crosses with a corresponding light/dark mottling. Needless to say as they're quite textured these patches are dull even when I polish them up. Now shellackers say you can repair shellac... How please? Using metho on a few tiny test patches it's clear it will strip the old finish quite quickly... When shellacking over this I've achieved a result that's a bit better than before, but not great, as you can see the edge of the shellac having gone outside the edge of the really damaged bit and onto a previously fairly good bit.
What's the protocol for doing this kind of thing? Would I better sanding than using metho? How do I get the shellac to blend seamlessly with the previous finish? Is there a method of simply dissolving and redistributing the existing dyestuff on the thing - I had some success doing that with some 1930's chairs once using metho but it isn't working the same on this table. Am I attempting the impossible?

[johnc]

I am out of my area on this one as I have tended to avoid restoration. Having recently restored a shellac finish on three mantle pieces the process was straightforward, raw metho no shellac to loosen and redistribute what remained of the old surface, I used a small rubber of cotton tea shirt with some cotton wool stuffing and tried to remove as little as possible. Once even several coats of new orange shellac where applied and the final finish came up very well the extra bonus of old wood smoke and old finish left a very rich and attractive finish. I have no experience with black japan and if what I have described will do the trick or wreck the finish you are chasing, so I would suggest other posts might be of more use.

JohnC.

[Thomidog]

Hi John C, thanks, I think I might just do nothing except polish this table for a while. I tried to get rid of a tiny cloudy patch (that I'd produced by using some 0000 to get rid of some fine paint splatter) by shellacking over it and - well it just sent the remaining bits of good finish in that vicinity cloudy, as well as taking some of it off along with the brown colour. I've decided I don't think the table is black japanned as the colour seems to go all the way through the shellac, and when you accidentally remove a bit it comes off erratically, leaving an interesting streaky effect. So I think I'll just leave it awhile a live with the bloomy bits. Ta