Mixing stains with tung oil?

[DrRob]

Greetings
My wife is restoring a family heirloom walnut dining table. It has solid walnut legs and frame and a walnut veneer top. The top was water damaged and bulged. We have carefully sanded it flat, but the veneer is very thin in parts.

It needs to be re-stained and then finished. We usually use Tung Oil on our furniture. However, a friend with restoration experience feels that using oil will raise the grain on the veneer too much. He recommends using dark shellac and wax.

What is your advice? Oil or shellac? Does she mix the first stain coat with thinned out finish (tung oil or shellac)?

If this fails or is not recommended, does anyone know where we can get walnut veneer and someone to apply it, or walnut veneered board?

Looking forward to your responses...

[auscab]

Shellac is the way to go. Can you french polish as well ?
Tung oil wont raise grain. keep anything water based well away .

Can you put up a few pictures of the table and the damage .

[DrRob]

Shellac is the way to go. Can you french polish as well ?
Tung oil wont raise grain. keep anything water based well away .

Can you put up a few pictures of the table and the damage .

Hi Robert
My wife has done some french polishing, but years ago. She feels that french polishing is not appropriate for a dining table. Here are some photos of the damaged corner, and the solid walnut frame. It may be impossible to do a perfect job just in finishing. What do you think? is it worth trying to get a 95% job done, or should we replace the whole veneer?
The table is 1400 x 1400mm.
Are there suppliers of walnut veneer in this size in Oz (especially WA)?
IMG20210724150930.jpgIMG20210724151107.jpgIMG20210724151121.jpgIMG20210724151234.jpg
Rob

[auscab]

It may be impossible to do a perfect job just in finishing. What do you think? is it worth trying to get a 95% job done, or should we replace the whole veneer?
The table is 1400 x 1400mm.
Are there suppliers of walnut veneer in this size in Oz (especially WA)?

Rob

Repair veneer and touching out with the right colours , possibly first correctly bleaching the repairs is what id suggest first . Finish with what ever your comfortable with . keep it simple as possible and fast I reckon , its a cheap looking piece from what I can see. Re veneering the whole leaf or top is a bit of a big job for such small damage. 1400 x 1400 is a decent size to re lay too. What method of re laying a table top that size would you be thinking of using ? It took me 3 years watching older guys doing that before I could do it . We hammer veneered with hide glue back then. Pressing is a better way though. 40 years later and I still don't have a press big enough for 1400 x 1400. 1200 x 2400 is what I have. I have vacuum too but don't like it as much as a screw press.

I have no idea about veneers available in WA. Its a pretty straight plain Walnut . And glued down to chipboard with no solid edge . Looks easy to reglue down using PVA and a block of wood with paper in between . Chipped end grain edges are harder to hide though . Little V patches and careful colour matching under the finish will hide it . I may have suitable stuff for patching it . Id have to go look . May take a day or four to do that though.

Rob

[DrRob]

[QUOTE=auscab;2248087]... its a cheap looking piece from what I can see. ... And glued down to chipboard with no solid edge /QUOTE]

Thanks for the helpful feedback. We'll try the v-shaped repair technique.
Just to clarify. The original table had solid walnut edging glued on with animal glue. We took that off to start the restoration...
Rob