Thread: Finishing thoughts required

I would use the burnishing oil, apply with a rubber on the flat surfaces then use a brush in the corners, end grains and hard to get at places.

Originally Posted by Huon pine fan

The finish, which appears to be a satin varnish or similar, has a few minor dings and scratches. My thinking is to sand it back to bare timber and apply a new finish.

I would avoid stripping and sanding because its such a huge job . The few dings and scratches could be made to look OK and call it patina.
If you strip and sand your going to do all that work and end up back with what you have . The colour is going to be pretty much the same.

If you do want to go the whole new look, don't try just sanding off the finish. That doesn't work. You have to strip with stripper then sand the raw wood back to new.

If I was trying to revive that I would cut back the finish only by sanding with a 320 grit and oil and turps. Then give a rub down with fine steel wool. Then Id touch out the scratches with a fine brush to build them up . And give the whole piece a cover of shellac with a rubber to bring a shine back . Then wax it.
That could look good .

Or you could try and do a test and see if the burnishing oil sticks to the sanded cut back original finish . ( like double.d said ) That's only if I had to stick to a choice from your three cans of stuff.

I know Osmo has a hard time of sticking to anything but Osmo so Id leave that for just doing a raw wood finish from new if you do that.

Using the wax would only work going on top of a revived finish. If you touched out the scratches first with a fine brush and rubbed the whole thing back with fine wool then waxed it would have an effect but not good enough for what you may want I think .

I'm with AusCab, no way is that in need of full strip and refinish. At most touch out scratches so they're not so obvious. Less is more.