Thread: Should I revive this Georgian period mahogany to ?

Originally Posted by Anotherplane

. Should I use reviver and 0000 wire wool and cut through the dirt and grime or would that go too far with removing the age ?

.......As I didn't get any advice I will just have to dive in . I think the reviver can't do any real harm so here goes...

Originally Posted by Anotherplane

Should I use reviver and 0000 wire wool and cut through the dirt and grime or would that go too far with removing the age ?

Hi . Nice table .
All those white spots are water marks by the looks . I always try some heat on them first to see what they do . Just test one with a heat gun or if you don't have one a dab of metholated spirits and light it . You may have to do that a few times taking care . Heat sometimes makes them dissapear before your eyes . If not then sometimes metho bt itself re disolves them back to what they were . And if that doesn't work then rubbing into them with a reviver or just an oil / turps mix works with fine sand paper. Then polish it back up lightly with care . The dark marks and the rest are all part of it . Those ones do look pretty severe though. It could be they are more than just water marks as well .

Another thing .
Sometimes stuff of that age and older turns up with its one off original finish still on it. With nothing else added on top over the years . And its not a shellac finish . Plenty of old oak was just wax finished. And in Georgian times Oil finishing was done on Mahogany. Friction rubbing or a finger nail can show up a wax finish . You cant really go using oil based revivers on wax finished stuff . It'll turn it to mush.

Oil finishes are a bit harder to tell . They are thin and dry looking. Metho / Alcohol rubs them off with a rag from what I have tried. And a light polishing with shellac can bring them up or you could always re oil them. They are the finishes Thomas Sheraton described in his book . He talked of Oil and Brick dust . I think it was boiled linseed Oil . And it took some time to dry between coats .
Not much information about it exists that I have seen. Using a reviver on that would probably be good . And a wax finish after that .
Or light shellac and wax after reviver.

Revivers Ive used have been a roughly Oil 15%/ turps75% / metho 10% mix and for some reason some acetic acid . Vinegar . No idea what the acetic acid does . It possibly helps the oil based and alcohol mix together? Emulsify if that's the right word? Ive used both and just the first three and it works well removing shellac based later colour jobs leaving the original finish under that smooth and buffed with a shine . It got to be shaken well before each application.

Thank you for your kind advice, I tried a small area with meths on a cotton bud and it does pretty much cut through to the bare wood and leaves a residue on the bud, looks like wax and grime not much shellac there it seems..

I'll try the technique for the white marks tomorrow, I will likely just wax the base as it looks like it hasn't had shellac in the past.

Thanks again for your help.

I couldn't wait till tomorrow ....the white marks were not going away with heat applied. I decided to use white oil on it's own to start the revive and then used a mix of linseed oil turpentine and metho, it was probably 70 percent turpentine with 0000 wire wool. I thought maybe the pure white oil would act as a buffer to the stronger reviver and it would be less likely to get away from me.

I am happy enough with the result, I don't think I lost the age of the piece. I was nervous but I had to give it a go.

What do you guys think of the result ?

I'm now wondering will I just wax it as is rather than apply some shellac to body it up...