Hi,
I am new to this forum and to working with wood.
I recently purchased an old two tier oak servery and while the top tier is in good condition the bottom one looks as if it has been exposed to too much sun it is much lighter than the other and has lots of sratches and other marks on it. Not sure about the best way to repair/restore it. Any help would be appreciated I have purchased some Howards Restore a Finish and their Feed and Wax for the rest of my furniture which is French oak so am trying to match it.
I also have a nest of tables which were claimed to be oak I have sanded down one and not sure what they are the timber is very light with good grain maybe pine but no knots so not sure I also wish to match them to my other furnitre. Hope someone can help me

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There are several guys on the forum who are experts in this field. Probaly one of the best in the business is a foruum member "woodwould" I am sure he will probably see this thread and offer some advice, if not you could do a search for him and send him a PM. He is very approachable. Good luck. Welcome aboard by the way.

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Cheers John

While waiting for other and possibly more experienced advice, may I offer a few comments. In the first instance (oh and of course welcome on board ), if you wish to try to match the bleached out wood to the darker one, use of stains either directly or included in the re-finishing product can help. The problem being though which stain to use and/or at what strength, how to apply etc.

From my experience, this is possibly a trial and error exercise. If so and especially as you want to get it right, it could be worth trialing on some scrap timber to see how best to achieve the desired result. Most hardware shops etc carry a range of stains.

Re the piece you have stripped back, I would have to say to me it most definitely looks like pine, not oak, as the grains for each timber from my experience are totally different. Happy to be advised otherwise.

The Howards products are supposed to be excellent, though I don't have any experience with them. Ditto the Ubeaut products advertised through this site/forum moderator.

What finish to use, to restore, that I guess depends on what you wish to achieve with, durability you are seeking etc. At a basic level french polish (shellac based finish) is the most typical for antiques, but it is vulnerable to marking due to water, heat, and/or just scratches. It is easy to repair though, and when done well, complete with a bees wax polish IMHO is superb. It is what I mostly use. UBeaut also sell a hard shellac finish, which I believe negates some of the problems with heat and water. I intend trying it.

Other finishes though more typically involve oils, such as Tung, Danish or Linseed, or even Organoil. I have used Tung for floors, and wet surfaces (ie. bench tops/cupboard doors) etc. I have also used organoil also for a benchtop, next to a stove to see how it worked. I wax it pretty regularly and it seems fine. Linseed from my experience, is pretty short life and not all that user friendly from a drying perspective. I am sure Danish is good also, and I have known of people to apply it to furniture.

The one product personally I would stay away from is polyeurathane based finishes for old furniture. Good luck with your projects.

Thanks for your welcome and I will try to contact the chap you mentioned

Thanks for your help.
I think you are correct that the stripped timber is pine but still nice little tables so need to get them as close as possible to a match. I don't know what you call the finish I have but it is a very soft subdued shine not a highly polished finish and needs waxing from time to time not really sure what a shellac finish is I tend to think that is a high shine but may be wrong as I said I am really new at this stuff.

Hi mate, shellac is usually known as French polish, however, in truth the shellac flakes are the product of beetles which cover a specific tree in India. The shellac is stripped from the trees, goes through a process to produce a flake product, which is then dissolved in methalyted spirits to make a solution, with a consistency/thickness of say milk. You can buy shellac at hardware and paint shops either as flakes or as ready made solution.

It is normally applied by hand, either by using a pad and rubbing it over a wooden surface in multiple coatings, you can also brush it on. It needs to be sanded back (fine sanding) in between every 3-4 coat applied. Due to the metho it dries really quickly. Eventually after between 2-4 sets of coatings it should be ready for 0000 superfine steel wool sanding and bees waxing. In simple the more coats applied the deeper the lustre of the finish you get.

This sort of finish to furniture has typically been applied over the centuries, it is a true and tried method, and especially most prevalant in its use for antique furniture restoration. I use it all the time but as well for much joinery (architraves, skirtings, doors, fire surrounds) but then again I am restoring old houses.