Expert: Greg Scholl - 2/28/2011

Question
We have beautiful teak veneered kitchen cabinets (trimmed with solid black walnut). They have only been stained i.e. there is no finish. They are forty years old and in great shape except for a couple of things.

Firstly, all of the doors and cabinets have become stained with human oil and grime where the fingers repeatedly touch the doors (there are no handles just grips on the door bottoms) and drawers which are solid walnut.  It has come to the point where we think we should strip the cabinets and drawers to make them look new again as there is also fading caused by the south facing sun exposure.  All of the walnut is stained darker than the teak and provides a lovely contrast and enhance the beautiful colour of the teak.

We are terrified of ruining the cabinets!  Do you have any suggestions on how to safely strip and refinish and what products should be used?

Secondly, the veneer is splitting where the backs of the lower cabinets have been exposed to sunlight.  The surface size is counter height x 7 feet.  Again any suggestions on how we can re-glue and what type of product.  Or should we try to find some veneer and replace this large piece.  If so, again what type of glue should be used?

Thanks in advance,

Ingrid
Ontario, Canada

Answer
Hi Ingrid, it would be uncommon for your cabinets not to have a finish.....unless you know this because you did it yourself. An oil finish may have been applied, as this is a very common teak finish, and is a penetrating finish, so it does not look like a surface finish, but it is a finish, and will harden like a varnish...in fact it can look like no finish.....especially after some time. What you're proposing is fairly advanced stuff...repairing/replacing a veneered panel, and stripping/refinishing the cabinets.....are your skills up to this type of work? I agree with your assessment, in that I think stripping and refinishing is the way to go, but it's a huge job and can be tricky if you're having to restain and finish it all to match again....it takes a pretty high degree of skill and experience to pull this off....have you tried cleaning one door with mineral spirits, rags and some 0000 steel wool?(start with just a rag wet with the mineral spirits and see what happens)...if it cleans off the grime and the door looks good when wet all over with the mineral spirits, then an oil finish may be the way to go, as it can just be applied over the existing surface once cleaned.Watco or Waterlox are good choices, and the Watco is available in colors...post back- regards- Greg