Furniture Detective: Patch up your respect for Bondo
Very often in the course of restoring a piece of antique furniture it is necessary to fill a nail hole, plug a crack, fill a divot or even replace a missing area of trim. For this purpose there is a variety of generically called “wood putty” or “wood dough” products available...
Furniture Detective: Furniture repair success takes product, patience and pride
When you embark on any project involving older or antique furniture, whether it’s just a simple repair, minor adjustments or a major recondition or refinish, your recipe will call for three main ingredients, the three “Ps” of successful work: product, patience and pride.
Furniture Detective: Simple home solution for bleaching wood
The best advice you can receive about bleaching wood is to avoid it if at all possible. Of all the things that are done to wood furniture by amateurs and professionals alike, bleaching is probably the most dangerous to you personally and potentially the most harmful to the wood.
Furniture Detective: Unconventional methods work when staining patch compounds
Any time you strip and refinish a piece of wood furniture, somewhere down the line you probably will need to fill a nail hole, patch a crack or fix a piece of trim.
Furniture Detective: Removing oil and dirt to preserve a ‘patina’ takes a slight touch
Well, you bought it, got it home, lubed the drawers, leveled the doors and it looks great, doesn’t it?
Furniture Detective: Rebuilding case good runners needs ‘new’ old wood – Part II
After taking care of the worn out runners on the bottoms of the drawers as discussed last week, attention must now be paid to the other half of the problem – the inside runners in the case itself.
Ask Antique Trader: Fumigation is only surefire way to solve termite infestation
Q Can you tell me what Regency furniture is? What period is it from and what country? I have seen lots of pictures of antiques that say “Regency” but often they don’t seem to have anything in common and are very hard to identify. Help.
Furniture Detective: Bring a steady hand to restoring 19th century case good drawers
When dealing with this period of case goods such as Empire, Late Classicism and early Victorian, often it is not enough to refinish or recondition the case and service the hardware.
Furniture Detective: Unlock the secrets of furniture locks
Most of us who are interested in antique furniture have, at one time or another, run across what seemed liked an intractable problem at the time — the locks on an antique chest or desk.