Another sewing machine cabinet query. What to use for finishing?

Hi,
I've got a cabinet model Singer 201K sewing machine, the same as shown on this website -

Oil and Thread: Meet the Singer 201K

My machine cabinet is a fairly knocked around and is crying out for restoration. I intend to strip the original surface coating off and would like to know what kind of finish I should re-apply. They must have used some kind of varnish originally, but I don't know what. I realise the folly of using modern polyurethanes on antique furniture but don't know what else I should use. I don't think the original finish is shellac either because it would scratch to easily for a sewing machine work surface, would it not?

Not knowing much about varnishes I'd appreciate any advice on this matter, please.

They were usually polished with a what I think was a spirit Varnish mix .
You have a nice one!
The machine and Cabinet in the link . Its a Walnut one .
I was a bit confused on the date he says it is . Is the machine 1950 and the cabinet ci1900 ?

Just a bit of a ramble on what I think of polishing info btw.

The polishing trade was , has been and still is very secretive about what they actually used .

Old books exist with how to methods which mostly are written by blokes who were not every day of the week all their lives polishers working in 19c factory's or 18th c workshops . These blokes that did the actual work didn't write books telling how they made a living that was passed onto them by a guy who had earned his living by it and kept secret. The young learner was told to keep it quite as well and they mostly did.

Polishing descriptions from what I think I know, start off around the Sheraton period with the brick dust and oil on a pad thing and people in the trade are still trying to work out what he was talking about . Earlier things have probably turned up by now , A lot of new books have been created in the last twenty years on the subjects of 18th C workshops and techniques. Later polishing methods can be so vastly different in every workshop as well

Any way . With your sewing cabinet :).
At this point in time when it was made they mostly used spirit varnish . A mix of resins and shellac. The more shellac the better and the higher the quality. The more resins used the lower the quality and the faster it became shiny . And the harder it is to revive. I worked in a place that was only shellac for 99 % of the time for the first five years of my time. And then for the rest of my repro period 20 % of the time on the restorations of Antiques.
spirit varnish repairs were and are always a pain . An awful lot of furniture that was repolished in a lot of antique businesses was sometimes re polished with spirit varnish. Anything touched by the dodgy buck makers could be re done that way by their polishers.
There are a lot of good dealers as well . My father was one, and he and all the dealers in The Antique Dealers Association of Victoria had the best reputation for dealing and restoration in Australia.

French polishing with shellac only is a wonderful thing to revive even two hundred years later. Its got a bad reputation on the internet . Its not anywhere near as bad as you read . A whole lot of people who don't know how to use it and don't know what they are talking about write about how fragile it is and how it suffers water damage . Sure all that can happen with serious neglect . That's the only reason why it happens. It actually lasts very well. I like finishing it with a wax finish , quite thin . This helps I believe to repel water . Water is meant to be wiped off asap though . Shellac survives very well on dinning table tops and on the rest of the table. What gets much more abuse than a dinning table top!( A chair seat I'd say) . Just don't let water pool and sit there on the top. Or leave a wet news paper or serviette. The great thing is its easy to repair and revive as well.

I have made and sold Antique style tables with shellac and wax finishes at the rate of between one and three a month for the last 25 years and its been 39 years restoring antiques as well. With the new tables that are made to look old they are finished with shellac and wax, there is modern stuff under that which is thin and down low in the work holding stains and filling grain, only on my new repro stuff, NEVER on my antique resto work. With all those tables sold, I would get a call sometimes once every two years with some one who had damaged their FP job badly . It was always water left sitting over night . Usually on a wet doily or news paper or something like that. They did dull with hard use and no waxing .

Interesting sub story.
I do remember a lovely young Lady we made a table for , it was a wedding present from her parents. She bought it back 15 years after we delivered it because she wanted a total colour change from what she had originally chosen. It was originally stronger in the red and it now had to be a colder aged grey.
Any way she said before it came in
"I have waxed it every week Rob, I still love it so much, its just the colour "
When it came through the door I still am amazed today at how great it looked for being waxed every week !! It was no exaggeration what she had said . It had been waxed and buffed like all the antique dealers recommend, and what most people never do .
This is for a heavily patinated Oak 17th C antique look .
Not really the same thing a dealer recommends for say a piano or high FP job on furniture like a sewing machine cabinet.



A good way to fix your piece is either try and revive it . Or strip it and re polish using shellac and french polishing method .
If you wanted to you could buy Rosin and have a go at adding some to the shellac and get something like or possibly the same as a spirit varnish . I wouldn't do that though .Its a great way to get an easily marked top from any water. That's one of the reasons FP has a bad reputation BTW . Spirit varnish suffers very quickly from water problems . The white smoky marks type . The damage happens much quicker than on a 100 % FP job.

There are faster ways of filling grain and finishing traditionally with shellac that look great and are for new/old looking stuff but I'm keeping the secrets of my polishing department secret :D

Here is some nice adds about polishing in the UK in 1925 from a Cabinet Makers Diary I found in a bookshop . Packed with trade adds . I know your piece is made in The USA . It relates and is interesting I think .

Rob

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Hi Rob,
Thanks for your very interesting and informative reply.

According to the Singer serial number chart my machine was built in 1953. I cannot find a date for the cabinet but would assume it was built around the same time because the machines were designed and sold as cabinet models. I have included a couple of pics of my machine -

Attachment 429191Attachment 429192

As you can see the finish has worn through to bare timber in places. The exterior is badly scratched and some of the veneer is missing from one door and one side. I think it would be best to strip it back to carry out repairs then re-polish it.

I found (some years ago at our local garbage dump) an old handwritten excercise book from around the 1940's or 1950's which belonged an English woman named R.M.Askew, from High Wycombe, Buckinhamshire who must have been doing some kind of woodworking or wood-finishing course. She meticulously filled the book with notes on wood finishing techniques including notes on polishes, varnishes, stains, paints &c, all done in longhand with pen and ink. She gives recipes for stains paints and polishes but unfortunately, although she discusses the ingredients of the different varnishes of the time and their uses, she does not give any actual varnish recipes.

My machine is still used occasionally at our place but is no longer a workhorse, so I will take your advice and "re polish using shellac and french polishing method".

Thanks again very much for replying to my query.

Regards,
Barry.
(redx)