Hi All-

We spilled some liquid that removed the finish from a piece of our
furniture. It's burnished oak. Can this be repaired? Here's a
pictu

http://img474.imageshack.us/img474/1...efinish5zx.jpg

I'm freaking out here. Any advice anyone could provide is apprecaited!

Thanks,
Kevin

I think you will end up needing to strip at least the top surface
to get a uniform finish that won't show up.

Whatever you spilled obviously works and I would use the same
stuff. Tape or make a clay dam to keep the remover from getting
on anything else. You may or may not need a light sanding once
you have the finish off.

It would be nice to know what the original finish is, but it is
probably a lacquer finish. The color may have been in the
lacquer. I don't know what all needs to match = can't see what it
is in the picture; but matching finishes is tough. I think I
would work with a gel stain, they are forgiving. Make sure you
stop when it just a bit too light, as finish will usually darken
it a shade or so if you use solvent based polyurethane. Water
based urethane is much more transparent and may even benefit from
the addition of bit of umber/amber to richen the wood tones.

(top posted for your convenience)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Keep the whole world singing . . . .
DanG (remove the sevens)




wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi All-

We spilled some liquid that removed the finish from a piece of
our
furniture. It's burnished oak. Can this be repaired? Here's a
pictu

http://img474.imageshack.us/img474/1...efinish5zx.jpg

I'm freaking out here. Any advice anyone could provide is
apprecaited!

Thanks,
Kevin

Thank you very much for your feedback.

Here's what the rest of the collection looks like.
http://www.basista.com/VaughanBasset...oire_large.jpg

I'm not sure what the chemical was. It was from one of those scent
things that you plug in the wall and give off an aroma. Some type of
oil or something is inside them and it leaked when set on the dresser.

I wonder how much it would cost to have someone fix this for me? I
don't want to make a mess of it w/o knowing what I'm doing...

Kevin

Here's another picture that is zoomed out a little more so you can see
more of the dresser:

http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/7...damage25gp.jpg

Thanks,
Kevin

Kevin,

Contact the manf of the bedroom suite and ask to speak to someone in the
finishing dept. You should have all the info from the tags that tell the
model, color finish. They are the best ones to tell you how to do a repair.
Some offer a repair kit for scratches etc. but this will probably require
more than a simple repair. It looks to be fairly new and you may be able to
get a quart of stain from them. I was lucky enough to get a quart of stain
from the same batch my kitchen cabinets were finished with.

Won't cost you much to call and ask and you'll know you're getting the right
info. Even if they say it needs to be professionally done at least you'll
know if stain is available and what the finish was and how it was applied.
If you hire a pro, get recommendations and check out his work.

Bob S.


wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi All-

We spilled some liquid that removed the finish from a piece of our
furniture. It's burnished oak. Can this be repaired? Here's a
pictu

http://img474.imageshack.us/img474/1...efinish5zx.jpg

I'm freaking out here. Any advice anyone could provide is apprecaited!

Thanks,
Kevin

Vaughan-Bassett is the manufacturer of the furniture. Unfortunately,
I'm having a difficult time finding contact information. I will follow
up with the place I purchased the furniture from.

I'll also be having these guys look at it:

http://www.professionalfurniture.com/

Thanks again for your feedback.

Kevin

http://www.bassettfurniture.com/
http://www.vaughanfurniture.com/

http://www.ihfc.com/Index.cfm?Sectio...er=V&ID=645456
Vaughan-Bassett Furniture Co. of Galax, Va
300 E. Grayson St.
Galax VA 24333

276.236.6161 . Phone - Corporate
336.841.2073 . Phone - Showroom
276.236.0385 . Fax - Corporate

Bob S.



wrote in message
oups.com...
Vaughan-Bassett is the manufacturer of the furniture. Unfortunately,
I'm having a difficult time finding contact information. I will follow
up with the place I purchased the furniture from.

I'll also be having these guys look at it:

http://www.professionalfurniture.com/

Thanks again for your feedback.

Kevin

Thanks so much for the info. I ust emailed their sales department.

Kevin

Contact the manf of the bedroom suite and ask to speak to someone in the
finishing dept. You should have all the info from the tags that tell the
model, color finish. They are the best ones to tell you how to do a
repair.
Some offer a repair kit for scratches etc. but this will probably require
more than a simple repair. It looks to be fairly new and you may be able
to
get a quart of stain from them. I was lucky enough to get a quart of
stain
from the same batch my kitchen cabinets were finished with.

A quart of stain is not the answer. That finish is a toner. That is, the
color is *in* the clearcoat, rather than a clear coat applied over a stain.

This is *not* a DIY job. Your local furniture place should be able to refer
you to a reputable repair person. I suspect that an on-site repair would do
an OK job of making it considerably less noticable. To return it to like-new
condition, they will have to strip and resinish the top (likely) using
professional-grade spray equipment. Color matching could be achieved by
finding the right color and then spraying additional coats until the correct
amount of color has been aplied.

_Steve

Thanks for your feedback. Yes, it does look as though the finish is
tinted to color.

Bummer is this is a 6-drawer 41" dresser and my local store (Art Van)
requires me to bring the piece in to them for them to give me an
estimate for repair. I then would have to make an appointment and then
take the piece back to them AGAIN to actually have the repair
performed.

Ugh. Dammit this sucks.

What do you think is the possiblilty for me to strip the top and then
stain and finish it to get a close match?

Thanks,
Kevin



This is *not* a DIY job. Your local furniture place should be able to refer
you to a reputable repair person. I suspect that an on-site repair would do
an OK job of making it considerably less noticable. To return it to like-new
condition, they will have to strip and resinish the top (likely) using
professional-grade spray equipment. Color matching could be achieved by
finding the right color and then spraying additional coats until the correct
amount of color has been aplied.

_Steve

I was wrong on the dimensions. It's a 66" dresser. This is getting
better all the time.

KH

Contact the manf of the bedroom suite and ask to speak to someone in the
finishing dept.

LOL. I hope he speaks chinese. :-D

I think the only fix is to run through the grits with an orbital
sander, then try to match the top stain to the rest of the piece, then
seal with poly.

brian

If you do resand/refinish yourself, just verify before-hand that it's
not an oak veneer on top of some other substraight. Otherwise you may
end up sanding through the veneer, especially if you use a belt sander.
It's a pretty rare piece of furniture these days that's solid hardwood
everywhere.

brian

That may be but at least they're located in Virginia and High Point, NC.
Last time I was thru that part of the country there weren't to many Chinese
restaurants around and I doubt there ever will be in that burg.

But seriously, if you follow the links you will see that they have been
involved with fighting the dumping of Chinese furniture in the US market.
They have closed some manufacturing facilities and one article said they
only make the particle board furniture now. That doesn't surprise me since
if you look real close at even some of the high-end name brands, the real
wood turns out to be the veneer over the termite barf.

Bob S.


"brianlanning" wrote in message
oups.com...
Contact the manf of the bedroom suite and ask to speak to someone in the
finishing dept.

LOL. I hope he speaks chinese. :-D

I think the only fix is to run through the grits with an orbital
sander, then try to match the top stain to the rest of the piece, then
seal with poly.

brian

What do you think is the possiblilty for me to strip the top and then
stain and finish it to get a close match?

Short answer: no.

Stripping is a easy.

Here are some of the challenges: "stain" typically has a combination of dye
and pigment. pigment lodges itself in the grain and accentuates it
(particularly with the big pores of oaks which you have). By contrast, the
dye component will color evenly. Therefore over the counter stain is
unlikely to reproduce a match. Basically, you are tying to match 2 colors at
once, the color in the pores and the color around the pores. That's tough.

To get the best color match, you would most likely have to mix dyes (or
stains) and do a bazillion tests on scrap (which you do not have) to arrive
at a close recipe.

If you really want to do it yourself, I would consider stripping followed by
one or more of the aerosol toner products. think of the as lacquer-based
minwax polyshades in a spray can followed by some more aerosol top coat from
the same company. The aerosol will allow you to gradually add color and
sneak up on it.

In could give you a pretty good color match, which will probably OK if it is
just one plane of the piece. The sheen of the finish is unlikely to match.

About 20 years ago I had a cat badly scratch a new cherry bedroom set. The
furniture place sent over a guy to do an on-site repair. He custom mixed
some "paint" (opaque finishing product) and painted in the lines. The
indents remained and he used and aerosol lacquer to recoat the top. The
sheen in the top was not the same.

This is not to say that this guy was a hack. I think he did a decent job a
camouflaging the problem. I just want to set you expectations for what a
can be accomplished with (an experienced) on-site repair.

If they're fighting the manufacturing move to china, then my hat's off
to them. Of course, if they gave in and are doing the particle board
thing then I think they've already lost. That was my main motivator
for getting into woodworking. I hate particle board. People just
don't want to pay for good furniture when they don't know the
difference.

My wife's grandparents wanted to buy some "nice" furniture for their
favorite grandchild. It was a name brand bedoorm set for a little girl
(can't remember the brand) and a short book case. They asked, and were
assured, that all the pieces were "solid oak". To me, and to them,
that means no particle board. Sure enough, the only real oak on any of
the pieces were the edge banding used to hide the particle board. We
didn't have the heart to tell them. They paid an arm and a leg for the
real thing. The backs of all the cases for the bedroom set was 1/8"
mdf. One move was enough to pull the staples out. I repaired most of
it. The drawer slides were one metal track stapled to the case. A
couple of those came out. And even though the drawers used halfblind
dovetails, one of the sides warped so badly that it pulled the dovetail
apart. Fixed that one also. This was supposed to be the good stuff.

From the pictures he posted, it sure looks like a solid board on top,
but I still have a hard time believing that. If he paid less than
$10,000 for the bedroom set, I bet it's particle board. He needs to be
real careful when he sands it. My wife and I bought a pine bedroom set
many years ago. They originally wanted $6000 for it. I think we paid
$2500. It has no particle board, but it's still just pine.

brian

Brian,

I believe the article said they closed down some plants because of the
dumping of Chinese goods in the states. You can't compete against that for
long. Amazing, good looking junk sells and top dollar can be had by the
retailers. We were in a name brand furniture store last year and my SIL was
looking for medium sized desk/table. She found what she wanted in a painted
piece and asked the salesperson to tell her about it. Got the full story,
solid wood, hand painted, hand made and no two are alike.

I started looking after I heard the price and asked the salesperson to
please identify the type of wood that was used in it's construction. After
awhile she came back and said the turned legs were made from poplar and the
rest was a wonderful new product made in Australia and gave me the name of
the item. I don't recall the name, but its harvested, ground up and is what
MDF is made from... Everything, drawer, top, frame, fold-down lid and all
the shelving was made from MDF and then painted. I would guess less than a
full sheet was used and 4 poplar simple-tapered turned legs. All that for
only $1,900 - plus delivery of course!

I too would doubt that the OP's furniture is made from "real" un-composted
hardwoods since he didn't say he had to give up his first born just to
purchase the suite. That doesn't make it bad if it's got a good hardwood
veneer but I've seen plenty of pieces that use a photo process to create
grain on some material and that is glued down to the substrate then
finished. You can bet, they have the wording so it's legally correct but
ambiguous for the consumer to discern whether it's made from solid
hardwoods, veneers and other composites....

In fact... how would you pose the question? If you asked is this made from
real, hardwoods - it could be a "composite" or other man-made product
composed of ground up hardwoods. So how do you ask the question?

Bob S.


"brianlanning" wrote in message
oups.com...
If they're fighting the manufacturing move to china, then my hat's off
to them. Of course, if they gave in and are doing the particle board
thing then I think they've already lost. That was my main motivator
for getting into woodworking. I hate particle board. People just
don't want to pay for good furniture when they don't know the
difference.

My wife's grandparents wanted to buy some "nice" furniture for their
favorite grandchild. It was a name brand bedoorm set for a little girl
(can't remember the brand) and a short book case. They asked, and were
assured, that all the pieces were "solid oak". To me, and to them,
that means no particle board. Sure enough, the only real oak on any of
the pieces were the edge banding used to hide the particle board. We
didn't have the heart to tell them. They paid an arm and a leg for the
real thing. The backs of all the cases for the bedroom set was 1/8"
mdf. One move was enough to pull the staples out. I repaired most of
it. The drawer slides were one metal track stapled to the case. A
couple of those came out. And even though the drawers used halfblind
dovetails, one of the sides warped so badly that it pulled the dovetail
apart. Fixed that one also. This was supposed to be the good stuff.

From the pictures he posted, it sure looks like a solid board on top,
but I still have a hard time believing that. If he paid less than
$10,000 for the bedroom set, I bet it's particle board. He needs to be
real careful when he sands it. My wife and I bought a pine bedroom set
many years ago. They originally wanted $6000 for it. I think we paid
$2500. It has no particle board, but it's still just pine.

brian

So how do you ask the question?

I've thought about this too. How do you phrase the question to remove
all wiggle-room? For me the answer was easy: it doesn't matter.
They're all either clueless or lying anyway. So I'll just make what I
want the way I want.

I freaked my wife out a few months back. We were in a furniture store.
( we don't buy furniture from stores now, we just go there for ideas )
And there was this armoire. This is what I said to her:

Let me tell you the history of this piece of furniture. It was
manufactured in the summer in a southern provice of china in an
unairconditioned factory. (she said, oh really? like I was insane)
During the manufacture, they assembled the piece, with raised panel
doors, then applied the finish. Then the piece was placed in a cargo
ship and sent to los angeles where it waited for a few months, drying
out, before arriving here in this store.

I knew this because the panels in the doors had strunk exposing some
lines on each side of the panel. When the finish was applied, the
panel was wider, with more of it obscured by the styles. Now, there
were these light-colored stripes on the panels where there was no
finish.

Now I could be wrong, but assuming that it was made in china was
probably a good assumption. And the summer plus no temp control plus a
southern provice makes for a humid environment. And most stuff from
china comes through LA, where it's dry.

Had I been the furniture store owner, this would be unacceptable
quality to me. But I'm sure the salesman will come up with some story
about how it adds character or something.

brian

"substrate" (sorry to correct you )

Just to follow up on my original post. I'm able to purchase a new
prefinished dresser top from the manufacturer for $100 via Art Van. I
will remove the original top myself and replace it. Very nice option
and I'm glad it worked out so well for me.

Thanks again to all.