Oak dining chairs

[Darryl]

I have English Oak dining chairs to restore.

I attacked the first one with turps (or was it meths?) and steel wool to remove all the shellac and grime. After about two sessions of this all over it seemed to dry the wood out too much and showed some small cracks. So I gave it about 4 coats of shellac and sealed it with beeswax.

For the next chair maybe my approach should be to repair all the joints etc, then use a restoring type polish over the lot.

Any comments much appreciated.

Darryl

The climate is pretty dry here (Central Queensland)

[ubeaut]

G'day Darryl - CLICK HERE then on the links to Polish Reviver, Traditional Wax, Shellac, Hide Glue and A Polishers Handbook.

Firstly check to see if your chairs are valuable, if so be very careful with the restoration. Badly or amaturely done restoration could make them virtually worthless. It sounds like you have already devalued one of them.

The glue joints will most likely be hide glue and should be repaired with hide glue and nothing else. Try using Polish Reviver first it will clean and restore much of the original finish without damaging the surface. Keep steel wool away from oak as it can have a reaction with the tanin in the wood and make it go gray or even black. Use metho, not turps. Or use a good paint stripper. Don't use caustic or an acid bath strip.

Finish with shellac and Traditional Wax. Preferably get a copy of the book.

If you find the chairs are valuable and you really don't know what you are doing, give them to someone else to restore who does. I wouldn't want to be in your shoes if the $10,000 set of chairs go back as a $1,000 set.

I hope this helps a bit.

Cheers - Neil