How can I identify the finish on a piece of furniture? I inherited a
couple of pieces of oak furniture made by the Sumter Cabinet Co. I did a
web search and they're still in business, but could find no contact info
for them. There are two problems; blotchy fading due to sunlight, and
scratches on the top surfaces. I can probably live with the blotches for
now, but would like to sand out and refinish the tops. This is some really
nice stuff, all oak except for drawer bottoms, and blind dovetails on the
drawer sides. It's high enough quality that eventually I want to refinish
all the surfaces to even out the color, but I don't want to make a mess of
it now, trying to fix a few scratches.

"Smaug Ichorfang" wrote in message
...
How can I identify the finish on a piece of furniture? I inherited a
couple of pieces of oak furniture made by the Sumter Cabinet Co. I did a
web search and they're still in business, but could find no contact info
for them.

You could try and Google them for a phone # or address. Chances are that
they would help you identify the finish.

In article ,
Smaug Ichorfang wrote:
How can I identify the finish on a piece of furniture? I inherited a
couple of pieces of oak furniture made by the Sumter Cabinet Co. I did a
web search and they're still in business, but could find no contact info
for them.

You didn't look very hard. grin

Sumter Cabinet is out of the furniture business.

They were a division of 'Chromcraft Revington'.

Furniture-making gear auctioned a bit over a year ago. see:
http://www.irsauctions.com/past_auctions/all_sumter.asp


Phone for their Lincolntown NC headqarters: (704)745-2276
supposedly good as of 12/12/2007

http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/product-compint-0000654240-page.html


Good luck.

Find an place that won't show on the piece. If you can dissolve the
finish with alcohol you have a shellac finish. If it dissolves with
laquer thinner you have lacquer. I suppose others might know some
tests for varnish or polyurethane.