Steve's TOTD - How to wreck two weeks' work

[Steve Maskery]

This is my Tip Of The Day in 10 easy steps.

1. Take a Victorian table that used you be your grandparents'. Lets assume it's spent many years in a bay window getting bleached by the sun, had a few water marks from vases of flowers and a big ink stain from homework some time in the 1960s or 70s.

2. Strip off all the old shellac. Bleach out the ink with oxalic acid, realise it now has pale areas so bleach the whole lot.

3. As it now looks insipid, buy some potassium permanganate, because some other bar steward has the tub you already own.

4. Apply several washes until the mahogany looks rather wonderful again.

5 Apply many, many coats of shellac with a brush, to build up a body.

6. Denib with P600, apply many more coats, denib, more coats, denib.

7. Decide to paint the outside of your workshop, where the cempanels were jointed with filler, which is a bit rough and needs sanding. Switch your Abranet pad to 80 grit to try to sand the filler, doesn't touch it, it's like concrete. Go back to the table.

8. The table is looking good, so denib it to start polishing.

9. Look at the furrows of P80 and swear loudly.

10. Start again.

 

[AndyT]

Ouch!

 

[Nelsun]

Oof! There's always paint

 

[rafezetter]

Oh no - omg Steve, how infuriating!

Here's hoping those bar stewards that took your potassium permanganate and tried shoving up thier noses.....

 

[monkeybiter]

Can you face starting again yet? Maybe a decent dram or two to put it behind you.

Changing the subject; do you have heating in the workshop? Will you be a winter worker or will you hibernate?

 

[Steve Maskery]

Changing the subject; do you have heating in the workshop? Will you be a winter worker or will you hibernate?

Hi Mike
Yes and no. There is no "proper" heating, but I do have a couple of oscillating halogen heaters and one of those cylindrical fan heater things from Lidl. The halogens don't do much, not yet tried the big fan. I suspect that it will mean only that the ceiling gets toasty, to be honest.

Last winter I don't think it got below 7C in there, but that is not exactly comfortable.

 

[lurker]

That cheered me up no end, not that I'm laughing at your misfortune; its just nice to know that I am not the only idiot doing these stupid things.

 

[monkeybiter]

Do you have tube lights in there? I think I might invest in some daylight fluorescents as I don't have any windows and winter can get a bit grim sometimes.

 

[custard]

Steve, did you go right through to bare wood? If not you can sometimes "spirit off" shellac scratches, especially in recently done work.

At least the job will be faster second time around.

Good luck!

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

Classic "Gumption trap" Steve.

A bath, some Scotch and a few nights away from the job is my prescription.

 

[Stanleymonkey]

Feel for you

 

[Harbo]

What a bummer!

Rod

 

[Steve Maskery]

Do you have tube lights in there? I think I might invest in some daylight fluorescents as I don't have any windows and winter can get a bit grim sometimes.

Yes I do, but TBH I wish I'd gone down the LED route. But even two years ago there was not the range of fittings that there are now. As soon as one of them starts to go, I shall replace them with LED tubes. You can get strips that fit directly into existing battens.

Steve, did you go right through to bare wood? If not you can sometimes "spirit off" shellac scratches, especially in recently done work.

No, I don't think so, I wasn't pressing very hard. I have sanded it back a bit and given it another coat. I think it is salvageable.

I was very annoyed with myself, I can tell you.

 

[Steve Maskery]

Job done.
I've only refinished the top, but I wish I'd done the edges as well, now.
The inkstain is still visible, just, but it is nowhere near as bad as it was. There are also dings and a wonky groove that happened sometime during me moving addresses, but to get rid of those would have meant sanding the wood and I didn't want to remove all traces of its life.

I'm sure a professional restorer would look at it and think it was a very poor job, but I'm very happy with it. It certainly has never looked this good in my lifetime.