Products to restore a whole unit of red cedar doors and windows

I have a unit full of cedar doors and windows to restore in an 1800's town house and would like some advice about products. When I did the other units in the house a few years ago I used a no name bulk polish reviver from a local supplier. The vapours made me quite ill. I think an ingredient was gum turpentine along with waxes and some oil. I never want to use that stuff again, and if I can avoid it anything with a high hydrocarbon content. The doors etc are finished with shellac, a ruddy coloured shellac that rubs off with metho but not turps or white spirits when I did a test. I was thinking this time of giving each door a wipe over with a damp metho rag to remove the surface grime and just polishing with shellac again, but I don't know which one to get. I assume it may not be a stain added to shellac but probably button shellac or garnet shellac, but is there a way to tell? And what would be a good replacement for the stinking polish reviver to go over less degraded shellac areas or as a wax for the new finish?
Cheers

just some semi random thoughts

is the property heritage listed or in a conservation zone ? -- 1800s and Brisbane suggest it might be.
If it is so listed, restoring the doors and windows may not be as simple as you think. The house two doors up from where i used to live was heritage listed and the owner had to source "heritage grade" cedar to repair one of the doors.


the vapours from the "polisher reviver" that left you feeling quite ill almost certainly can be counted if you use a respirator with an activated charcoal filter. Don't overlook replacing the filters in accordance with the manufacturer's guidelines.
If you do this and are diligent with your personal hygiene, using the reviver should be straight forward.


If you want to mix your own shellac, get a quantity of shellac flakes, preferably dewaxed and dissolve them in ethanol -- metho is the normal recommended solvent, but in Australia "metho" is almost invariably ethanol with a very small quantity of bittering agent added.
I'd aim for a 2-lb cut, see attached table which uses US measures where a litre of ethanol is close enough equivalent to one US quart. (There are 457 grams to a pound, and 4 quarts to a gallon)

https://s3.amazonaws.com/finewoodwor...in-700x321.jpg

Thanks Ian for the ideas. I hadn't wanted to use the polish reviver again if there are options and the option of a respirator is welcome but I find them tiring and I have full days for a full week to get through it all I would say. I have been 'caretaking' this property for the last 8 years or so so we know our way around the red tape pretty well now. I make up my shellac as needs, usually I use a blonde dewaxed shellac, but my question was more around the colour of the shellac and the choice between button shellac and garnet shellac which I have not used before but which would possibly be what was used judging by the colour. I don't know about the properties of these shellacs cf blonde dewaxed.
cheers

Well I guess I won't be using the old linseed oil/turps/vinegar polish reviver or any others with an oil in it for this job. I have to say I'm surprised no finishing experts have chimed in, but I guess not popping in very often makes the changes in this place obvious.

Donald C. Williams
Senior Furniture Conservator, Conservation Analytical
Laboratory at the Smithsonian Institution

Drying oils, such as linseed, tung, or walnut oil, are a different matter altogether. These materials solidify, or "dry" through a process of chemical reaction with the air called oxidation. The drying process polymerizes the oil, making it increasingly intractable with time and more difficult to remove with cleaners or solvents. This is fine if oil is employed as the finish, but not good if it is used as a polish. By itself, having a polish which is difficult to remove would be irritating but not insurmountable. Unfortunately, this is not the whole story. As drying oils age, they tend to become yellow or brown. Also, drying oils are chromogenic (they become colored) in the presence of acids. In this instance the oil adopts the dark, muddy brown/black opaque appearance so prevalent in antique furniture. Traditionally, cleaning/polishing concoctions were comprised of linseed oil, turpentine, beeswax, and vinegar (acetic acid). This cleaning/polishing method, used widely even in the museum field until recently, was and is a disaster waiting to happen. The results of this approach are readily apparent to even the casual observer; a thick incrustation of chocolate colored goo which is neither hard enough to be durable nor soft enough to wipe off easily. Thus, due to the polymerization of the oil as it dries and the reaction of the oil with acetic acid, the furniture is left with an unsightly coating which is very difficult to remove without damaging the surface of the object.

Museum Conservation Institute Staff

I’ve used a home made cleaner of linseed oil, turpentine, metho and vinegar in the past (no wax). It works OK, but is slow to remove crud because it is so benign.

Regarding your quote above- I can see the issue if the mixture is used regularly as a cleaner/polish, but we are talking here about cleaning old doors and windows prior to application of new finish. Plus, these are doors, not museum pieces.

There’s a guy named Thomas Johnson on Youtube who does antique furniture restoration. Almost every project he does starts with him cleaning the item with a product called Krud Kutter. He loves the stuff and uses it regardless of the finish on the piece, even on very old valuable pieces. I recommend having a look at some of his videos and maybe trying to source Krud Kutter in Oz.

Original Krud Kutter

Thanks I'll look into his videos. I'm going to go with the advice of this lady... for your viewing pleasure:
Linseed Oil & Turpentine for Cleaning Antique Furniture : Antique Furniture Care - YouTube

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mic-d

Thanks I'll look into his videos. I'm going to go with the advice of this lady... for your viewing pleasure:
Linseed Oil & Turpentine for Cleaning Antique Furniture : Antique Furniture Care - YouTube

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umm ...

maybe not. Her "turpentine" is in a tin clearly labeled denatured alcohol.

and as for calling a wooden hand plane an "antique saw" -- well ...

Have you tried the Ubeaut Polish Reviver? the owner of this website
Also, there is a homemade recipe which includes 1/3 vinegar, 1/3 linseed oil and 1/3 ethanol.

I ended up using shellac to refinish the cedar after a good clean down. Most of the cedar was nicely coloured but one spot was sunbleached and a bit crazed. This area I gave a good wash with metho then ragged on BLO which restored a darker colour, then finally redid the shellac.