Topic: Anybody here do furniture refinishing before?

[JMM]

I hate waste, especially of antiques, and Vicky's sister gave her some items that look very old. Carving details, the whole works. Varnish remover is easy, brush on, wipe off (wearing protective gloves of course). Now the stain remover is another story, very acidic, and boils at 75-80 degree temps and can explode! I already watched it boil and pop the top off like a skyrocket. Anyways, you brush that gunk on, let it dry, then you are supposed to sand or scrape it off. Not too cool in my book because if I do that I will destroy some details in the wood.   Why should I care? I like doing things the right way the first time for one, and two, I'm proud to be an American, and I'm going to show them Mexicans how to take an abused piece of furniture and transform it into it's near original beautiful state when it was created!

Any recom on a really good stain remover that does not need to be sanded or scraped off?

Thanks for any advice! This is all new territory for me.    

[JMM]

Since I have to shower and leave soon, I'll take the piece to Home Depot with me, and give you guys an update when I get back. You never know, you may have a valuable antique at your parent's house or grandparent's house and not even know it just because it needs to be restored.    

[Corbomite]

JM a bad restoration job will ruin the piece and make it lose any value it has. I would seriously recommend not doing it yourself if you care about keeping the piece an "antique". I know of several instances where people have ruined pieces worth thousands because they got it into their head to "clean them up a bit". The pantina (dirt, oil, and wear) are the things an antique collector uses to determine if the piece is real or not. Taking that off usually devalues the piece, not the other way around. I would get professional advice on this if I were you.

[JMM]

I hear ya Corbo, but believe me, they already abused it enough to where it would not be worth anything, I'm going to have to use filler in places and such, I just want it to look outstanding, ya know?  

[JMM]

I hate waste, especially of antiques, and Vicky's sister gave her some items that look very old. Carving details, the whole works. Varnish remover is easy, brush on, wipe off (wearing protective gloves of course). Now the stain remover is another story, very acidic, and boils at 75-80 degree temps and can explode! I already watched it boil and pop the top off like a skyrocket. Anyways, you brush that gunk on, let it dry, then you are supposed to sand or scrape it off. Not too cool in my book because if I do that I will destroy some details in the wood.   Why should I care? I like doing things the right way the first time for one, and two, I'm proud to be an American, and I'm going to show them Mexicans how to take an abused piece of furniture and transform it into it's near original beautiful state when it was created!

Any recom on a really good stain remover that does not need to be sanded or scraped off?

Thanks for any advice! This is all new territory for me.    

[JMM]

Since I have to shower and leave soon, I'll take the piece to Home Depot with me, and give you guys an update when I get back. You never know, you may have a valuable antique at your parent's house or grandparent's house and not even know it just because it needs to be restored.    

[Corbomite]

JM a bad restoration job will ruin the piece and make it lose any value it has. I would seriously recommend not doing it yourself if you care about keeping the piece an "antique". I know of several instances where people have ruined pieces worth thousands because they got it into their head to "clean them up a bit". The pantina (dirt, oil, and wear) are the things an antique collector uses to determine if the piece is real or not. Taking that off usually devalues the piece, not the other way around. I would get professional advice on this if I were you.

[JMM]

I hear ya Corbo, but believe me, they already abused it enough to where it would not be worth anything, I'm going to have to use filler in places and such, I just want it to look outstanding, ya know?  

[JMM]

I hate waste, especially of antiques, and Vicky's sister gave her some items that look very old. Carving details, the whole works. Varnish remover is easy, brush on, wipe off (wearing protective gloves of course). Now the stain remover is another story, very acidic, and boils at 75-80 degree temps and can explode! I already watched it boil and pop the top off like a skyrocket. Anyways, you brush that gunk on, let it dry, then you are supposed to sand or scrape it off. Not too cool in my book because if I do that I will destroy some details in the wood.   Why should I care? I like doing things the right way the first time for one, and two, I'm proud to be an American, and I'm going to show them Mexicans how to take an abused piece of furniture and transform it into it's near original beautiful state when it was created!

Any recom on a really good stain remover that does not need to be sanded or scraped off?

Thanks for any advice! This is all new territory for me.    

[JMM]

Since I have to shower and leave soon, I'll take the piece to Home Depot with me, and give you guys an update when I get back. You never know, you may have a valuable antique at your parent's house or grandparent's house and not even know it just because it needs to be restored.    

[Corbomite]

JM a bad restoration job will ruin the piece and make it lose any value it has. I would seriously recommend not doing it yourself if you care about keeping the piece an "antique". I know of several instances where people have ruined pieces worth thousands because they got it into their head to "clean them up a bit". The pantina (dirt, oil, and wear) are the things an antique collector uses to determine if the piece is real or not. Taking that off usually devalues the piece, not the other way around. I would get professional advice on this if I were you.

[JMM]

I hear ya Corbo, but believe me, they already abused it enough to where it would not be worth anything, I'm going to have to use filler in places and such, I just want it to look outstanding, ya know?