Expert: Eileen Cronk - 2/18/2009

Question
QUESTION: I have inherited a relatively new bed frame that has seen some wear and tear from two beautiful bulldogs. What I would like to do is repair the damage they have caused to the bed frame and restore the mahogany finish. The bed frame in question is the Sumatra Bed from Pottery Barn, http://www.potterybarn.com/coll/col/colbed/f023/index.cfm, and according to the product information the frame has been built using Indonesian hardwood (manayo) and mahogany stained with a lacquer sealant.

As you can see from the attached image there are two major issues:

1.) A lot of the stain has been scratched off and there are several deep scratches as well. I am assuming I will need to strip the old stain off and sand down the scratches?
2.) In the picture you’ll see that the dogs did some serious chewing on one of the edges of the bed frame. I have no idea how to deal with this.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

ANSWER: Hi Bobby Joe
Nice to hear from you.
If you ever read my posts I have always maintained I have never ran across a piece of wood that could not be repaired but I darn near ate those words when I saw your picture LOL.
OK..first things first.
All the finish must be completely stripped off this bed.
Use an MC stripper for this (ask at the hardware store.
Next the corner must be replaced.
It appears there is a good overhang on the damaged corner. Get someone good with a skill saw to cut the damaged corner off. This cut will de diaganol. The cut off piece will be pie shaped (hope you clearly understand the cut).
Then get your handy skill saw man to cut you a replacement piece from a piece of similar thickness wood. You may not find hardwood, and there is no hope of getting this "manayo" wood so softwood will do. Glue and clamp the replacement piece on.
Next come some sanding and sanding LOL.
A random orbit sander is the only tool for this job. You will never sand this by hand.
And be advised that the wood under the top rail appears to be veneer so not a lot of sanding on that. If there are holes in the veneer you will have to use wood filler as you cannot sand the holes out.
Next comes the staining.
It looks to me like this really is mahogany veneer and it will take a stain very well. The top rail is likely this "manayo" wood and I don't know how it stains. But apply the stain over the entire piece.
Use Minwax Special Walnut stain.
When this has dried you can evaluate the color on the "manayo".
Perhaps it will be fine. If so you can proceed with your top coats.
I would use low luster tung oil applied with a rag. 4 to 5 coats.
A really fool proof finish and it looks lovely too.
Now I will tell you what I think is going to happen with this top rail.
The repair is going to be clearly visible after staining and the manayo wood will not take a stain like the mahogany will.
Heres what you do (only after the entire piece has been stained with Minwax Special Walnut).
Get a can of this
http://www.constantines.com/browseproducts/Behlen-Jet-Spray-Lacquers.HTML
You must get this color "Walnut Dark/American B101-0809"
This lacquer spray has color in it.
You will mask or tape off all the lower portions as you will only be spraying the top rail with the lacquer (several light coats).
Then you apply the tung oil to the entire bed. One coat over the sprayed area is fine.
Follow directions on the lacquer spray can as they are vital.
Good Luck and get back to me if this is not clear.
Regards
Eileen


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi Eileen

I have some Western Red Cedar left over from a decking project I did in the summer and was wondering if this would be good enough for the replacement piece of wood?

Thanks for all your help!

cheers,
Bobby-Joe

Answer
Hi again Bobby Joe
Yes the red cedar is an excellent choice as it will be very easy to sand once it it glued in place.
Heres a suggestion.
When you glue the piece on, if it happens to be a tad thicker than the bed board, keep the bottom join flush. That way you can easily sand out the top to match the bed board. Cedar is easy to sand.
Get back to me if you run into any problems.
Regards
Eileen