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Cleaning antique mahogany dresser
Hello everyone, I’m brand new to this forum and would like to ask a question about a 150 year old Mahogany dresser that my father French Polished back to its original glory more than 50 years ago. He is 90 years old now and his memory is fading. There is an oval mark on the top corner of the dresser where someone recently sat a bottle of spray bathroom cleaner. I’m trying to find ways to remove the mark and polish the top back to its original shiny finish. In his shed I found a bottle of Methylated Spirits, very dark brown in colour. When shaken, the mixture turns a honey colour. He tells me that is his Shellac-Metho mixture (and there is another bottle somewhere in the shed containing his mix of Linseed Oil that I am yet to find). He said to make a small linen pad with thick cotton inside, dip into the Shellac mixture, wring out, then wipe back and forth across the mark until it the surface begins to go sticky. Then stop, and repeat the next day. And the next, and the next.
I am up to day 3 now and don’t see anything happening. Do you think I am doing something wrong?Attachment 410662Attachment 410661Attachment 410660
The timber looks bleached
All of the above suggestions are certainly very possible causes or contributors of the problem you are having.
As to metho (really denatured alcohol - they no longer add methyl alcohol to it to make it poisonous for consumption) - In another posting over the last couple of days Woodpixel has commented that a pure so called metho "methylated" spirits (not mentholated btw) is available as something called IMS from the Paint Place. I have no experience of that myself and find Diggers metho works fine for me (but maybe I've been lucky).
Age of shellac: I have also read many times that shellac gets old and fails to work properly. I have no experience of that either but maybe I've always used mine up before ... (but maybe I've been lucky)
However, I think that you have a worse problem to consider. It looks to me as if the bathroom cleaner has bleached your timber. Even if you can get a great coat of shellac over it (and there are some issues with what your Dad has recommended there) if the timber is lighter than the other mahogany then the mark will remain visible anyway. That would be compounded if the bleach is still active in the timber but I hope that you have neutralised that.
So, if the timber is bleached, what do you do? French Polished antique furniture has the greatest value when it has its original finish. Yours has already been repolished so that gives you more freedom. But, be aware that you are always going to have a sign/mark of this damage unless you strip the entire top, sand it back to bare timber and then repolish the whole top.
I know the mark is unsightly, but antiques inevitably gain signs of wear and tear and damage over the years - it is called patina - and if the piece has an original finish it is better to accept the damage - maybe disguise it with a dark wax - than to blow away the value by refinishing. Patina is an important facet of antiques and adds value, not detracts. I do understand that a very new bleach mark does not feel like that but, over time and coupled with other marks it may not be so important.
If (and only if) the timber is bleached (but the bleach has been washed off/neutralised) and you really want to try to make the top as perfect as you can then you will need to gently sand a patch around and including the mark. Start with a fairly fine paper and take your time (say 240 grit) and use some metho to soften the shellac. There are commercial restoration products that essentially do this (I think UBeaut sell one). If you are just using metho and fine paper then stop when the mark has disappeared, i.e. you are down to bare timber in your patch. Then sand - without metho with wet and dry paper all the way in small jumps (320, 400, 600, 800) up to 1000 or 1200 grit. At that stage you remove the dust and make up your pad (rubber) and your metho & shellac mix (or perhaps buy a ready made mix). Then you dilute the mix down to 25% shellac 75% metho - very dilute so that each coat is very thin and will also dry fast. You can probably get about 5 coats on per day before drying overnight. Then, next morning, rub the surface back with 1000 grit paper to smooth it down before applying another 5 very dilute coats. Repeat until you are happy with it.
Patching a mark/patch in a finely polished surface is very difficult even when you are an experienced polisher - there will always be a sign left. Repolishing an entire top always gives a better result in my experience, but is a big challenge for a novice.
Good luck.
David
