Silky oak side board rescue out of order

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Originally Posted by Blackout

Thanks Rob for that great information but gees you got me excited seeing those great antiques :)

Can you suggest any book titles to help me with my education?

Cheers,
Nick

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Yes Nick :U Book Titles is something I have . Are you just asking about Antique restoration in general or Antique Furniture ? I reckon a good start is this . Ive got a tatty 1938 edition . There is probably more of those around still . They have reprinted it . Because its one of the best books written on the subject probably. One of the first things I go to for the right terminology . It jam packed from A to Z with terminology. And lots of great pictures as well.
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/The-Encyclopedia-of-Furniture-by-Joseph-Aronson-Hardback/332621768466?epid=170016369&hash=item4d71cd6712:g:P5oAAOSw4HNaceeK

There are some good smaller books on Antique restoration , Ill have to find some of the ones I'm thinking of first but here are some I like.

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Antique-...sAAOSwA3dYkFGI

Another one, and a good buy atm . There is a few of these on ebay atm . A good book .

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Buying-A...oAAOSwVHdau304

The more I bought over the years the more I learned . They all mostly have something in each that will teach a new trick or more . Id suggest make a start and keep going with buying books .

Rob

Here is some old copys of The Encyclopedia of Furniture but the US postage is a killer. If you could get one here maybe ?

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/The-Ency...AAAOSwDTNatU1V


https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/The-Ency...YAAOSwU-pXs7Y2

A big thank you. They will be a big augmentation to learning from the members of this forum and experimentation. :U

It seems you can borrow this and others from an online library.


https://openlibrary.org/books/OL5951...a_of_furniture.

Linked from trove.gov.au



Russ

For Australian furniture there are three main "bibles" as well as numerous other publications and catalogues. The most recent and the best illustrated is Fahy, K and A. Simpson, (1998) Australian Furniture, Pictorial History and Dictionary 1788 – 1938. Casuarina Press, Sydney. Two previous books with Kevin Fahy as lead author or second author could also be worthwhile if you find this one is of interest. As you can see from the title it only goes to 1938 and focussed more on superb early furniture but you can't beat it for showing you some of the best of Australian made furniture. It was an expensive book when published and still XXY. If you are interested it is probably available in/through Brisbane City Council libraries (but may be reference only).

I just answered a similar question about books here Nick .
Id been meaning to get back with more .

https://www.woodworkforums.com/f11/re...14#post2082728

Id get all the Charles H Hayward stuff you can and the British Antique price guide as well . The price guide is so cheap in that link . They must have over printed the thing!!

The Links are here as well

https://www.abebooks.co.uk/book-sear...uthor/andrews/

https://www.bookdepository.com/Briti.../9781851496761

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Antique-...EAAOSwke9aGY1e

https://www.ebay.com.au/sch/i.html?_...yward&_sacat=0

The Aussie Books mentioned are great . On rare occasions I have seen some go cheap . Cheap for some of them is under $400 the first edition of the Faye and Simpson book climbed to $1000 for good second hand copy's . I saw one bring $400 once, on ebay. I don't know what they bring now. I cant find an image of one . I could take a pic of my copy , I don't think you would find one without some hard searching though. Contact Andrew Simpson in Sydney if you wanted to try, and still can . He may still have copy's of the second one ?
Here it is
http://aaada.org.au/items/?item=5104

The first Faye book with Dr Clifford Craig is a good one as well .
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/EARLY-COLONIAL-FURNITURE-in-NSW-Van-Diemens-Land-NEW-hc-dj-free-post/192367941455?hash=item2cca05d74f:g:rgYAAOSwO7haD9XD

... for me to find. Yes, I will try BCC library and Logan library. I have been buying some old books Logan have been disposing of but nothing in this area when I'm looking :)
With family members in the army I'm taking this ANZAC to Monday off to get some woodworking done.

Thank you for those links. One of those books reminded me of the flame mahogany side board I'm reconditioning and must post pictures. Cleaned door and drawer faces and protecting with many many layers of shellac hoping to make them glow with life.

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Originally Posted by Blackout

I decided recently that I just need to get my stripping and finishing skills up to speed first so this is one of my practice projects. It has obviously been left to the elements and came with a broken leg and anther broken foot. It sort of reflects me these days :) I have been practising my scraping on it wit a new scraper type (pretty happy to finally be improving this skill) then orbital sander followed by hand sanding. I run a few sanders that get connected to a Festool vacuum to keep the dust down (pity the hand sander didn't have a vacuum port :) ).

I also have been practising cutting and installing new runners on the drawers and this has been going well when I have the right nail gun ready. As some runners need heights that aren't readily purchased I have had to cut my own wood but know I need a safer way that hand a push stick. I was finally happy to use my #4 $20 plane for some smoothing and reduction of new runner materials.

For a temporary leg I took some recovered packing wood (pine). I cut to full height of the original leg and then cut out a corner lengthwise so that it looked like an "L" in section view. This was then nail gunned to the original broken leg. As fr the other broken ankle it's a temporary cut of wood under it. As I now have a cheap lathe (maybe too cheap when the time comes ) I'll look to rebuild replacement back legs later.

I'm not expecting great things from this but it has been some fun with the practising. Later I may actually pull it a apart to re-glue the dowels. For now I'm getting some badly needed practice and it will stop taking up workshop space. Next steps will be deciding to stain or not and then applying some satin poly (not good enough for me to spend time with French polishing :) ). I'll post more photo's as I progress.

Attachment 432630Attachment 432631Attachment 432634Attachment 432635Attachment 432636Attachment 432632
Top with front sanded and rear original mess
Front carcass with the temporary pine leg at rear left
Front with smaller drawers and one door. The plyboard on the front had to be removed as the original was far too deteriorated for my skills.
The stains in the top are causing me to think of finally using stain (haven't started learning this skill yet)
Drawer fronts show the grain I like showing off
Sorry it is upside down but I tried uploading several times and it kept flipping it. The bottom drawer need plyboard base added and then the runners in the carcass fixed.

It will be good to go back later and pull apart to re-glue.

Oh the sideboard cost me $20 which I thought was OK just for the wood and the pre-made drawers and doors which is how I look at these things at the start.

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oxalic is brilliant. If the stains are iron based (rust) then a similar brew of citric acid will remove those. Oxalic is used to clean newly laid brickwork so the hardware should have it. Citric is with the food colours in the supermarket as it's used in jam making. The oxalic will also refresh the tannins in the timber giving new life. Use before sanding, will save lots of work. I was once a professional restorer.

Thank you for that great advice. I tried to buy oxalic acid once before but sadly got a blank response I will have to go to another area and try again.
I have a few items around needing some treatment like this included an antique red cedar table.
I hope I get to read many more of your recommendations and explanations.

Cheers,
Nick

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Originally Posted by Doubtful John

oxalic is brilliant. If the stains are iron based (rust) then a similar brew of citric acid will remove those. Oxalic is used to clean newly laid brickwork so the hardware should have it. Citric is with the food colours in the supermarket as it's used in jam making. The oxalic will also refresh the tannins in the timber giving new life. Use before sanding, will save lots of work. I was once a professional restorer.

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Hi John , Im not wanting to sound like Im picking on you or having a go and welcome here with your first post . :)
I just have some questions and want to point out some slight corrections .
Spirits of salts or Hydrochloric acid is whats sold in hardware stores for Brickwork . Oxalic acid is what can be found as an ingredient in wooden deck cleaners. I use Oxalic acid a bit , Ive never bought the deck cleaner because I have a 20 kg bag of Oxalic acid and I'll probably drop dead owning 15 KG judging by the rate I'm using it at .
Ive never heard of Oxalic being used on bricks . Maybe your teaching me something here ?

Ive seen Oxalic clean up and make fresh wood that has been handled or dirty . Never heard of it refreshing the tannins though ? Interesting . Id like to know more about this . Id assumed it was just washing out the oxidised staining . Ive never tried Citric acid on Iron Oxide stains . The Oxalic does a 100% job on that for me. like its doing with Iron oxide stains ? Id give it a go though when I get the chance .

Any way with the last suggestion about applying Oxalic before sanding . How does this save work ?

One thing that should always be pointed out about Oxalic acid, is taking caution if you need to sand work after Oxalic has been applied. The stuff dries, turns back into crystals floats in the dust and you soon understand this with your first breath of it . So its got to be washed off before sanding if its been used. The stuff isn't good for you .

Edit.
Either is the dust of course. There are a few ways around this that I use. If I have applied Oxalic ,When its dry I wipe the piece down with a rag and metho then Buff dry .
I don't do a lot of sanding but when I do I like to wet sand . This can be very good . I put water over the job and sand with a random orbital and something like a 380 grit. Its after doing this I sometimes need Oxalic acid and would wipe off after this dries with Metho and then sometimes wipe down with an Oil and turps mix and fine sand that wet . Other times I just sand with an oil and turps mix. And I also fine sand with a festo sander connected to Its vacuum cleaner which I like to do with a breeze blowing past me and out the door.

I'm just saying this because I always try to point out the safe way . I have had to for years teaching apprentices in my business as a restorer / Cabinet maker . You may have forgotten some of this as it sounds like you may have done it a while back . A bit like I forget what I was doing a second ago sometimes :).

Rob

REALLY appreciate the safety advice Rob and big thank you. I need to sit and review what I'm doing and the shed layout (eg: re position fan).
I've managed to get the citric acid. As for oxalic acid I get the "Whaaaaat's oxacilic acid?" so still hunting. I'm Park Ridge way so any suggestions appreciated. I want to trial the citric acid but no idea how to apply :)

I use a few sanders with Festool dist collector. Maybe it time for me to learn to wet sand :) :) :)

I assume you wouldn't use turps and oil mix if you were planning to use shellac for the finish?

You are making me realise I might have to start writing plans before I start restorations. You guys have the experience and wouldn't need to do this but my work is split over months and I'm a learner so it will probably help me remember the previous time what I was doing and continue to plan.

My youngest son asked why I don't just work on one job at a time so I explained that one layer of shellac and then 15 minutes wait for up to 20 layers will be pretty slow going :)

Comments from you guys make me love this forum. :)

Look at that . Oxalic acid is sold as a stain remover for Masonary as well as the normal timber uses. John was right there . Ive never seen it sold for that . Hydrochloric acid is the brickwork one and does a different thing to removing stains . I'm not up on brckies work but pretty sure Hydrchloric disolves the cement off where its not wanted.

See this Nick . Im not sure if its crystals or liquid . There are plenty of adds for it on ebay .

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Oxalic-A...UAAOSw-4BXYZY~

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Originally Posted by Blackout

I use a few sanders with Festool dist collector. Maybe it time for me to learn to wet sand :) :) :)

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Try it by hand or an air powered sander, not electric of course. It has some good uses but can be messy .

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Originally Posted by Blackout

I assume you wouldn't use turps and oil mix if you were planning to use shellac for the finish?

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Yes I use shellac over it . So did the polishers in 1860 onwards and probably for ever . I knew a guy that was taught by the 1860s to 1890s polishers . He started polishing as a boy in 1914 in Chappel st Prahran, Jack Liddel or Laddel not sure of spelling . lovely Man though . And The best French polisher in the Melbourne Antique scene in the 70s and 80s . So the guys teaching him the older ones he told me about were 19th century polishers. He told me they would grain fill and next day wipe the whole thing down in boiled linseed oil . Wipe it off and apply shellac the next day. You see lots of post 1860 red cedar and other open grained timbers where the colour has faded from the grain filler and now stands out . Around pre 1860 this wasn't done . It makes a big difference to the look of the piece.

That's Good old Jack on the left. Around 1980 . He was still working into his 80s

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Rob

A big thank you Rob. Thanks to you I found that Bunnings do actually carry it even though they told me they don't.
Now for some experimenting