Blackwood dining table finish

[sawdust 4 brain]

Hi , recently purchased a blackwood 1930/40's dining table in need of TLC. previous owner has refinished top with a shabby one coat PU. luckily legs were not attacked, legs are coming up beatifully with the restoration polish (linseed, brown vinegar & Methylated Spirit). what can i do to restore the top - dont want to french polish as it will be in daily use but want to use a traditional finish that give a nice gloss and patina which will service daily use.

thanks guys in advance

[LGS]

Hi,

Have a look here. The results are excellent. See my Web page for examples, particularly the Blackwood Dining Table, which is my own table and has been finished with Hard Burnishing Oil. It was finished with the oil in 2007 and has not been redone since.

Regards,

Robv

[Xanthorrhoeas]

Hi, I respectfully disagree with the earlier post and would like to make four points.

1. Blackwood is the perfect candidate for a good shellac French polish as it takes it well and the finish lasts very well/is very hard wearing on Blackwood;

2. A lot of unfair criticism has been levelled at shellac "French Polish" over the years. In my experience a good, hard coat of shellac will stand up to extreme treatment while giving a lovely old lustre. I have an 1830's Australian cedar dining table that is French polished. We live with it, use it and over many years of our family growing up have had children tip fruit juices, hot tea, coffee etc. over it, (maybe even some red wine by yours faithfully!) all without lasting harm. A quick wipe clean and no harm done.

3. The wonderful thing about a traditional shellac finish is that it is so easy to repair and freshen up if it does suffer damage. I also have a 1930's Tasmanian Coogans labelled table that the antique dealer had damaged the polish on part of the top. I tried to patch it, but it did not work so I cleaned off the old shellac with metho and re-polished the top about five years ago. No one can tell, now, that this is a new finish because Blackwood takes the finish so well.

4. Antique and almost antique furniture with a new technology finish has very little resale value. It becomes merely "second hand" furniture and is valued as such. Antiques and vintage furniture with an appropriate, preferably original or else original style finish is much more highly valued. That is because those finishes are proven performers over long-time. Contemporary finishes are not proven long-time and make any item of old furniture look "new". If you want new, buy new, if you want old then finish with a traditional finish IMHO. (Now, if you want pub furniture for the swillers it may be different but I am talking domestic use).

I hope that this helps.

Regards

David

[Horsecroft88]

I must say I too am in total agreement with David re the use of shellac (French polish) for such furniture. I have a couple of cedar (1840-1860s) dining and kitchen tables as well various cedar side tables, all are shellac finished. And sure they occasionally may get the odd scratch but seriously it is not hard to live with and/or repair as necessary.

You can even get Hard Shellac from Ubeaut, which would provide even more protection from potential damage if one was worried about this. My attitude is that old furniture (antiques) are to be fully enjoyed as they were designed and made in the first instance. I respect them and so am careful with them but never to the point I feel I can't use them.

[ubeaut]

I have to agree wholeheartedly with David and Horsecroft88 replies above. Not just because we supply shellac and make our own hard shellac, but also from having spent many years in the past restoring and making pieces of furniture.

There is a place for all sorts of finishing products and at some time I have had a go at most of them up until about 17 years ago when I stopped doing all that hard yet very rewarding graft. My favourite finish of all is shellac here's just a few of it's amazing qualities:

• It's a natural product
• It's food safe
• It can be polished to a brilliant piano finish or adjusted to an eggshell finish and anything in between
• It can be coloured with
• It has the ability to stick to almost anything including itself. Something that many modern finishes can't do.
• It is still one of the most waterproof finishes around today.
• If treated right it will outlast almost all modern finishes and has stood the test of time for a couple of centuries now.
• It is easy to repair, unlike most modern surface coatings.

One of the biggest enemies of shellac is modern society. People who buy a piece of furniture and have no idea how to look after it. When I was young you wouldn't ever think about putting a drink, or hot plate straight onto the good table. You would use a place mat and drink coaster, usually on top of a table cloth. Best thing and worst thing was the invention of laminex around then people got lazy and just did what they wanted with their table tops and to a certain degree this has been handed down through the last few generations.

I used to call the furniture I made "Generation Furniture" not a brand name but the type of good solid furniture that would be around for generations. Ninety percent of it was finished with shellac/French Polished.

Just a note on Hard Shellac.
There is a business in Melbourne that made a lot of tables for a restaurant in Sydney some 10 years ago, these were all finished with our hard shellac and I was told when the restaurant closed about a year ago and the tables etc were sold off that they all still looked like brand new. Now that's saying something for a shellac finish. Just have a look at almost any cafe or restaurant using wooden tables, and most are pretty disgusting even after a couple of years. The surfaces are sticky and often so soft you can scrape a layer or two off with your thumb nail.

OK that's my little bit. I could go on for pages about shellac and the wonders of using it but I'll leave that for another time..... Not.

Cheers - Neil