The Craftsmanship

The famous cabinetmaker Tage Frid once wrote, “Treat the wood as if it were alive.”

When I read those words many years ago, I knew this was the advice worth keeping. Not only had I found a catch phrase that would appeal to the customers and look great on my business cards, but I had stumbled upon a philosophy around which I could build Antique Restoration. It is the motto that headlines our advertising. It is lithographed over our artisan’s workbench and it is something of a religion in our shop.

Nowhere is Frid’s commandment more strictly observed than at our stripping station. The part of our operation where a simple system enables us to remove old finishes quickly while treating the wood with respect it deserves. In 40 years, not a single piece has been subjected to “dipping” or submerging to remove the old finish. Dip stripping is the most damaging thing that one can do to hardwood furniture. The piece is subjected to caustic chemicals, and then it is rinsed with high-pressure water, then dropped into a bleach tank to stop the chemical reaction, pressure-rinsed again and left to air dry. I’ve never met a piece of furniture that enjoyed any of the above.

The best advice we could give anyone who is contemplating having a piece of furniture refinished is never to let anybody put it in a tank. It raises the grain and causes warping, and shape change. It attacks the joints and turns most woods gray.

We strip with a system called “flow over.” The system consists of a galvanized metal table. It is about 6x9 feet and has a 10-inch lip. The worktable sits on a gentle slope with a drain on the low end. Liquid paint remover is pumped up through a large scrub brush. With a constant flow of liquid, we scrub the piece until it is absolutely clean, leaving nothing to be picked or sanded away. Finally, we give it a rinse with fresh remover.

The next stage is what separates us from the rest. We rag the piece dry. Then with hot high-pressure air, we aggressively dry all the details. This aggressive drying prevents the grain from rising and retains the old, natural color that only light and time provide - and it reduces abrasive sanding to just smoothing.

At this point, we begin to smooth the piece. Our meticulous stripping and drying reduces the sanding time. By just smoothing, we do not interrupt the outer membrane of color and retain the old, rich color. We then stain the piece and finish by spraying in nitrocellulose lacquer, the traditional hard finish that is the most enhancing finish on wood.

Structural Repair

All the stripping, sanding and staining is done by one craftsman that has been with me for over 25 years. All of the structural repair from refitting case work, dressers, tables, veneer and cabinet work is my responsibility. We specialize in chair repair. In my career, I have repaired about 15,000 chairs. In 40 years, I have never found anything we could not mend, fix or re-fit. Nothing gives us more satisfaction than to let a customer know that we can fix her grandmother’s treadle sewing machine, restore the family heirloom or save about anything wood.