Miracles Do Happen

Yes, that's what I've had to perform on this Teak Dining Table.

As you can see for yourselves, just how bad this surface has become, and due to the surface being veneered I had to be extremely careful not to go through the veneer, not easy to avoid unless keeping a very close eye on the sanding stages.

After staining I coated over with several coats of hard-wearing finish for a durable surface.

Looks dreadful I know.

One of the legs was scraped off

Why do I get all the hard jobs?

Perhaps it's because I know what I am doing

"When only the best will do"

Recently I wrote about my impending retirement

Recently I wrote about my impending retirement, well that was just over a month ago now, it hasn't been a trauma that I thought it would be perhaps as I have been Self-employed for a very long time and take every day as I find has made for an easier transformation for me.

Together with the fact I get paid to do nothing also helps.

However, I think that if I had been working for a company for years and to have to stop work all of a sudden things might have been different.

Being new to retirement is an exciting time as I find myself or should I say tell myself that I am now retired it's a strange concept to grasp with but I'm told I will soon get used to the idea.

Somehow I think that I shall always be a French polisher at heart, as any of you that work with wood know only too well.

Thanking you for reading my posts I hope that you enjoy them?

Regards,
Andrew.

A change from my usual projects

I was asked recently, would I finish this Violin for a friend's Daughter and I thought why not, it makes a change from my usual furniture and repairs.

And was a good experience for me, to be able to work on such a nice object.

I had to very gently sandpaper the surface smooth to remove the finger marks that had occurred whilst handling by the owner.

After sanding, I had to stain the violin with a suitable colour and without damaging the carved patterned front. 
Then due to the awkwardness of handling the violin, I decided to hang the violin from a string and then this left me with free hands to be able to spray the finish over with several coats of lacquer.

I was asked not to stain the fingerboard and to leave it in its natural unfinished state. Usually, they are stained black.

The feedback from my friend was that his Daughter was "She really pleased with my work", and I was also was told that the violin Stringer was very impressed. 
Always good to hear.

Chair Refinishing

This lovely chair with its roots from Scotland, was a project I decided to take on and the needs must.

I enjoyed working on such a nice chair.

Firstly, I gently scraped off the old finish to avoid using the paint stripper and the smell and risk of burns associated with it.

Then when all the bulk of the finish was removed, I gently sanded down the wood with fine-grade sandpaper, in the direction of the grain as should always be done.

And once I was satisfied that the surface was as good as it gets, I had to stain the chair as per the client's wishes and best suited to the period of the chair.

Then for a much longer life span, I sprayed over the chair with several coats of lacquer.  This gives the chair a much longer span before it will have to be worked on again as opposed to a French polished finish that would deteriorate fast if not looked after or cleaned with the wrong products.

The chair as you can see has been beautifully upholstered and I think with a stunning fabric, needless to say, that my client was truly delighted with the finished goods.

I thanked the client for sending me the picture after the upholstery works.

Hoping that this will inspire you to take on such works and build up your confidence.

Thanks for your time.

Looking tired and worn

The usual thick colour everywhere

I am really pleased with my work

My Retirement is Looming

After Forty-Nine years in the Furniture business, and having worked for the past Thirty-Two years as Self-employed it's now time for me to soon take on board the prospect of relaxing and not having to get up early and carry a heavy polishing box all over Town.  Together with having to deal with Customers that wish to find any excuse not to pay for my hard-earned work.

You can read about me as I say, “My difficult customers” if you look at my Blog you will find it somewhere amongst the posts.

Also, I don't understand why do clients expect me and I'm sure other skilled people to have to wait weeks for payment, recently I waited Eleven weeks for payment, this is bad especially as the cost of living is so expensive, do they not think that I have bills to pay.

As for those who go out of their way to hide behind mobile telephone numbers and operate out of PO Box addresses so as to make it harder to trace them, well over the years I've had them all. If this happens to you, never be afraid to go to Court once you have tracked them down; try to get justice for your labours.

Too many workmen and women don't bother because of the expense and time consuming involved and not doing so only encourage them to get away with it.

I shall wish to continue to just work on a, very selective few items as this method has worked for me, and to help scan for tricksters.

French polishing has been a great career for me, however; it hasn't been as financially rewarding as I had hoped well I guess we can't have it all. I love the work even though it is very tough especially if you have to work on Church doors in the rain because they are too heavy to come off.

My work has been very varied as you can see from the pictures that I have posted.

Well, enough said, I shall add more information as and when I complete a project,  please keep visiting my site to keep updated with my exploits.

Thanking you all for your loyal readership, and especially those of you that follow me.

Regards,

Andrew.

I've never seen this before

As the title suggests, I've never seen this before and was so surprised to have come across this.

This flooring was sent all the way over from Brazil and was laid nicely, however, for the protection it was covered with plastic sheeting with the intention of keeping it from being damaged.

Unfortunately, when the covering was lifted it removed all of the floor coatings, and to make things worse it left an imprint throughout the whole room and every room that had been fitted upstairs. 

In other words a complete disaster, I was asked if I could do anything with this? And I thought to myself do I need a headache?  No, I didn't I suggested that a flooring company could sand off the surface and refinish it.  A major project and the colour would have to be matched exactly.

I was surprised as to why the flooring manufacturer did not stain the wood first and then coat it over with several layers of lacquer to avoid this happening.  Instead of just spray colouring the flooring I guess it must be easier for them.

The picture shows builders footprints and the manufacturers warning about the fact that the covering must be removed within thirty days.

What I think caused the damage, and why the film covering stuck so hard, was due to the extreme heat that we have had recently in the UK.  And as the room windows had no covering to stop the strong sunlight coming through and this led to the room temperature rising extensively and baked the coating onto the floor lacquer.

There is a lesson to be learnt here, don't use plastic film in hot environments, for a few pounds extra, Correx covering would have protected the flooring and as it's a little thicker this might have kept the Sun back.

I have worked on floor damage before, but on this occasion, I decided this was going to be too much for me. A wise decision I feel.

Someone will have a large headache sorting this out.
Thank you for reading my posts.

If you remember this furniture

If you remember this make of furniture then you have been in the furniture business for a very long time now, I used to work on this furniture back in the 70s.

The make/range of this furniture is called Stag, now that it's come back to you hasn't it.

I never liked working on Stag furniture why I hear you ask.  Well, it was I think the hardest colour to touch up due to the graining and the amount of sprayed on colours, which made it very difficult to make good any marks or scratches.

As you can see from the pictures and the poor state of this chest of drawers it definitely needs my attention.

After stripping off the entire surface finish, I sanded down by going through the various sandpaper grades, to achieve a super smooth surface.

As I stated earlier this is extremely difficult to replicate the original colour, lucky for me I found in my wood finishing store cupboard a bottle that had been there for years, I had no idea what was in it, so I shook up the bottle and tested the stain on some timber and a miracle happened it was absolutely perfect, I could never have matched this colour or it would have taken me ages to do so.

With my spirits lifted, I went ahead and stained the unit, and once it had dried out, it was then time for me to apply several spray lacquer coats as it had been finished that way when it was made.

I am so pleased with the way this unit came out, and better still my customer was delighted with my work.

Quality workmanship once again, thanks for visiting my Blogsite.

Mission impossible

These garage doors were in a dreadful condition, and with the wood surface being so uneven, it was too difficult to achieve a flat surface that could have been stained and varnished as was first intended.

Therefore, I had to paint the doors to cover up the stubborn varnish that could not be got at with my sander.
My client chose the paint colour, and as you can see, has really made a great improvement.

It seems even no matter how difficult a job can be, there's always a way to accomplish a fantastic finish.

As you can now see, just how bad a condition the doors were in, the one on the left is after I have scraped and sanded off the surface.  And the right-hand door has peeling coloured varnish.

After a wash down of the framework, and a touch up of the hinges makes for a clean and tidy finish. The rotten beading's have been cut level ready for replacement in due course.
As I have stated before, if you can polish you can and should be able to paint.

Another mission impossible job completed.  Why do I get hard jobs?

A Dog's Dinner

These arms from a Client's chair were badly chewed by their Dog, the repair was given to what turned out to be a less experienced French polisher, and clients were understandably very disappointed with the outcome. 

The works were then given to me to salvage, yet another tricky job.
However, the finished result was very satisfying to the client.

The underside before works

After scraping off the finish to see what's underneath

A difficult shape to work with

Sanded off

After staining and finishing

A close up of quality workmanship

I can never understand, why people choose to use inexperienced French polisher's in the first place, perhaps they are doing the work at a cheaper price. 

At least the Customer was very happy with my work, and that's all that matters I guess.

Thanks for reading my post's. 

Coffee table restoration

This Coffee table, as you can see is in very bad condition, it looks like it has been very badly touched up with what looks like the wrong colours.

I stripped off the old finish back to the wood, thankfully the surface was in good condition, then I had to stain match the colour with the base, and for a durable finish, I sprayed over the surface with several coats of semi-matt lacquer. 

The customer was really amazed at the outcome. 

It's best to strip off the old surface, to avoid adhesion problems between one finish and another.
Thanks for visiting my Blogsite. 

Gave up Teaching

Hello to you all.

Around this time last year, I decided I'd had enough of teaching and decided that after Fifteen-years as a Tutor running an evening class for Adults.  
(Teaching French polishing)

Despite my learners being keen to learn and being very nice people, I had enough of the seemingly endless paperwork involved whilst running my class.  Together with the ceaseless ongoing training, the last course I was expected to take part in was mental health awareness, and I was to feel that my time was being taken up as a surrogate Parent to my Adults.

My learners, never wanted or asked for all the paperwork that was put before them such as Individual Lesson plans, Scheme of works, and Record of achievement's to mention a few however, I do understand that some of the paperwork was necessary to be able to evaluate the learner's achievements.

I really loved to teach and pass on my knowledge of French polishing, and Wood-finishing, and have enjoyed my time running my classes.
Unfortunately, together with the disappointment as and when my course would or could be cancelled at the last minute through lack of learners didn't help.

It's my opinion that the teaching profession is tied up in overzealous bureaucracy and too much red tape that hinders learners progress.

The Management team, despite their best efforts to run and encourage the courses, are under too much pressure from the authorities to produce positive figures and outcomes for the various Government bodies.

I hope that throughout my time spent teaching, I have inspired many Adults to go on to produce some fine quality Wood-finishing.

Thank you, for taking the time to read my posts, I very much appreciate it.

  

Oak Cabinet restoration

How about this one, it came to me in bits, and as you can see needs lot's of work to put it back to its former glory. 
Had to be stripped off, and then I sanded it smooth but tried to keep some of the age as much as possible, then stained the cabinet and spent time to re-finish as required. 

I think that it was made around the 1930s but it's not always easy to tell.

Another happy customer!

Out with the big clamps

This is my recent project, once again not an easy one, as you can see that this is badly broken and made me wonder how this could have happened? Over 25 mm thick and made of solid Oak, how was this possible?  Guess I'll never know. 

It looks like a clean break however, this is deceptive as the surfaces have to be flush when glued together otherwise it involves lots of sanding down to bring them in line with each other. 

Also, I found out that some of my clamps were not tightening up properly as they were worn out due to overuse. Not good when you most need them.

After leaving overnight for the glue to dry, the next morning it was time to remove the clamps, I was left with only a very small raised surface that was easy to smooth down and re-finish. The customer was very pleased with the result.

I used PVA Glue, as it gave me time to work with whilst clamping up.

Thank you for visiting my Blogsite.