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The Poor Chest of Drawers Update
7/23/05 04:27 pmWell, I finally have the top, it's edges, and the bottom of the shelf frames stripped. There were no less than FIVE coats of paint on the poor thing, and then it had it's original varnish at the very bottom, which is lost. Hopefully I won't strip the stain and kill the patina too much...
Let's see... there was the brown glaze (1), ivory (2), salmon pink (3), white (4), and a horrid institutional green (5), then the original varnish which is very dark. The top has a really interesting figure on it, I do believe it's red oak, rift sawn, and made of 3 separate planks, all from the same log since the distinctive figure is mirrored.
The top has several decorative skirts beneath it, which of course were an absolute bitch to strip. Luckily, some stripper and the help of a butter knife and a steak knife, followed by a good scrubbing with stripper and 00 steel wool got it de-painted. I have to strip the top edges of each shelf rail and that will be it for the face up parts; then I'll turn the thing on one end and strip the other. I'm finding it's easier to strip stuff if it's lying flat than depending on gels to actually STAY where they're supposed to.
Also, Citristip is fine if you're taking off one layer of finish. If you want to get rid of LOTS of layers, BIX is the way to go. I'm using BIX semi-paste, and it's doing a fine job. Cheaper than Citristrip, too.
I told Mike that it's a lot of hard work, but it's so rewarding to see the beautiful wood emerge from all that crap.
Back to the mines...
Lorri
Let's see... there was the brown glaze (1), ivory (2), salmon pink (3), white (4), and a horrid institutional green (5), then the original varnish which is very dark. The top has a really interesting figure on it, I do believe it's red oak, rift sawn, and made of 3 separate planks, all from the same log since the distinctive figure is mirrored.
The top has several decorative skirts beneath it, which of course were an absolute bitch to strip. Luckily, some stripper and the help of a butter knife and a steak knife, followed by a good scrubbing with stripper and 00 steel wool got it de-painted. I have to strip the top edges of each shelf rail and that will be it for the face up parts; then I'll turn the thing on one end and strip the other. I'm finding it's easier to strip stuff if it's lying flat than depending on gels to actually STAY where they're supposed to.
Also, Citristip is fine if you're taking off one layer of finish. If you want to get rid of LOTS of layers, BIX is the way to go. I'm using BIX semi-paste, and it's doing a fine job. Cheaper than Citristrip, too.
I told Mike that it's a lot of hard work, but it's so rewarding to see the beautiful wood emerge from all that crap.
Back to the mines...
Lorri
