Expert: Eileen Cronk - 8/9/2007

Question
I recently purchased a dining set from the late 1950's. The chairs are Windsor style with a crisscross of two spindles at the back of the chairs. They are the Early American style. Their condition is pretty good but they suffer from typical age. The varnish has turned dark to black in many places, the finish is worn where it was touched most. There are superficial scratches in the finish that don't penetrate into the wood. They are real wood and are quite heavy pieces.
Over all they look okay considering their age. Without fully stripping them down to bare wood what can be done to "restore" them to their former look from the 50's?


Answer
Hi Ari
Nice to hear from you.
My gosh this is so strange.
I am currently working on my 1960 maple chairs.
Like you I hated the thought of stripping.
Now I do not mind stripping one chair, but 6...forget it in this heat LOL.
So heres what I did.
Give the chairs a heavy duty scrubbing with mineral spirits. I used a medium grade steel wool pad as a scrubber dipped in the spirits.
Wow..the dirt that came off my chairs was embarassing.
Use no water at all. Simply wipe back with rags.
Some of the chairs got a second going over..I guess the ones used the most were dirtiest.
When Dry, I wiped on a Minwax stain. I used Colonial Maple color, but your chairs may need a different color.
This took 48 hours to dry.
Then I wiped on 2 coats of low luster tung oil.
My chairs are beautiful now. Four down and 2 to go.
Good Luck with yours.
Regards
Eileen