Time for a light restoration on a small chest of drawers

Hey all,

This is going to start of sounding a bit like a confession or otherwise.

It has been quite a while since I have last posted anything on my projects that I am working on, (that is alright my son, 3 coats of shellac and 2 rubbing back with polish afterwards to atone for your sins etc etc). But seriously father, I just havn' been working on them etc etc

Ok, you get the drill. Basically I have been slack.

Right with that out of the way, time now for a project update.

I started on this small cedar and Baltic 4 drawer chest of drawers I bought a few years back and while I got on with most of the work back then, I never got around to finishing it. When I found it in a dealers, it had been badly coated with some aweful dark stain to try to blend the pine to look like cedar (well kind of), the top was loose, drawers were rickety, and it had no feet etc.

So I stripped the stain off the usual way (metho and steel wool), light sanding thereafter re-coating with shellac. I sorted out the problems with the drawer construction, and bought some cedar bun feet (more on this topic later). The base plinth was also rotten on one section and so without the right tools, I had fabricate a small repair section, but, as my work was a little rough, it will need a little filling with putty, sanding, colouring and then shellac to blend this all together. Far from perfect but it is ok by me, as it is a bit rustic anyway.

So now with the feet mounted and other finishing coating, light sanding etc underway, I figured I should share this one with anyone who might be interested. Cheers Dave

As I mentioned, I bought some small proportion generic cedar bun feet from a restoration shop, rather than turning up my own (I don't own or know how to use a lathe). On my previous large Cedar chest I previously restored I commissioned an antique restorer to turn up some cedar feet for it. The difference though I thought I would discuss. With the generic feet for this chest, I had no say over the design and luckily I am happy enough with that aspect, but I must admit, the colour is very pale and so it will require me to use some cedar stain in with the shellac mix to blend them in as best a possible with the rest of the chest. With the ones I commissioned, they don't seem to need this as I think the cedar that was used for them was old Australian cedar, rather than new cedar from Asia.

On the other hand there is the cost differential, the one's for this chest were not that expensive, whereas the ones I had turned for the large chest, cost me 2/3rds of what I paid for the chest at auction.

See below pics of the large full cedar chest and feet. The chest when bought cost me $340, the feet $220ish.

So, since I last posted on this chest restoration, I filled those areas I needed to with some cedar stained wood putty and sanded that back carefully, and thereafter worked on the first of the new cedar feet, slowly building up colour and shellac coverage. I have now probably put on some 8 coats of shellac or more, and cut it back at least once using 400 grade paper. I am going to let this rest and harden and so work on other areas of the chest, including the cedar top (which I cut back and re-coated with about 3-4 coats of shellac last night). Next off I will start work on the other end of the chest, and especially the other two feet.

From there then there is a little more work on the drawer areas of the chest, as there is some paint I need to remove by sanding (using 120, 240 and thereafter 400 grade papers) a thereafter some application of shellac. The reason for all this is to ensure, that it is properly finished off and that the drawers will slide cleanly. I will obviously check out the level and smoothness of the drawer runners.

The drawers themselves are fine and just need cutting back with steel wool and bees wax polishing, having previously restored them.

I will post some pictures of the current work, but noting that I still intend a further cut back and more applications of shellac to obtain the correct depth of finish I want to achieve.

Nice little chest Dave.
I like the form of the bun feet.

We're going to have to get you some hand tools to make things easier :U

They always seemed to stain the secondary case timbers a Cedar colour.
I use a mix of red and brown artists pigments in metho.
The last couple of chest projects used bun feet turned from pine (kauri and Bhutan Cypress). They were stained and polished to look like Cedar.

Oh ..... and throw out that putty :~

I've just spent hours removing old putty (plaster filler) from my latest project. For bigger sections, I splice in new timber. For smaller holes, I plug them with wax (I use the same artists pigments to colour beeswax). Shellac polish works very well over the wax.

I'm just about to post some WIP pics of the little Cedar chest pictured in my last chest restoration thread. I've found a buyer, so I've started work on it.

Cheers,
Stu

Hi Stu

Thanks for the compliments. I have had this chest for quite a number of years now, and it was always one of those projects, that you start but for a range of reasons never quite get around to completing. So it had sat out at my other property under things gathering dust and some scratches etc. So I decided its day had finally come and deserved to be finished off and put to nice use at home. I like the proportions of it, especially in comparison to my large cedar chests.

I know what you mean re the bun feet, not too bad for commercially bought ones. But yes, sadly I do know exactly what you mean re having the right tools for the job. I need to get some large sash clamps so that I can get on and finish another project, that also hasn't been completed. House restoration, work and other things have got in the way of woody projects over the last year.

I recall you previously talking of the artists pigment and also staining of secondary timbers. In this particular instance, the stain used all over the chest by a somewhat well known "antiques expert - TV presenter" let alone the aweful feet that had been put on it was just not right. I kind of like that the sides of the chest are pine and look that way. The joinery in my home (1850) has a similar use of mix of cedar door reveals with Baltic outer edges and architraves. I like the contrast in colour and grain.

Ahm yes I do know what you mean re the putty, I was thinking exactly the same, that it might be better to go and get some wax and melt into place. The putty just isn't colouring up as I might like and I do know that with time it will only crack. So yes, thanks for the reminder :)

I look forward to seeing your WIP on the small cedar chest.

Cheers
Dave

So I managed to get a little more work done last night on this chest including a very light sanding back using 400 grade paper and re-shellacing the RHS of the chest, plus some initial sanding and colouring of the RHS feet.

Overall the feet are now starting to take up colour, but going on from Stu's recommendation, I think I need to make a visit to my local artist's supply shop to obtain some artist's pigments, plus the restoration shop for some cedar wax to plug gaps/holes.

I will post some photos of progress done, plus one other small job I need to do. On the back of the chest, I will need to cut and fit 2 small strips of pine to cover the gaps in the back boards. An easy job to sort out.

Then it is the home straight re the chest carcass to completion. More progress reports to come.

Last night I managed to squeeze in a little more time for work on the chest. The drawers are all completed, barring rubbing back with 0000 steel wool and wax polishing. Now you might observe that the two small drawers show some imperfections. That is one shows a section which seems to have split off and was put back into place, while the other draw has a crack through its front face. The reason why unlike say in Stu's chest of drawer restoration project, where he repaired the cracked top, I didn't repair these issues is because the drawer faces in both instances was rock solid with the drawer frames and so to disturb this to repair the faults didn't make much sense to me. In a way, because it is a bit of a distressed chest (ie. burn marks on the top etc) I am happy to live with the imperfections of the two top drawer fronts. And afterall, I am merely restoring this chest for myself, rather than to onsell, and in anyway, the colour of the wood, and surface finish I will achieve will make up anyway for these kinds of imperfections.

I have finished shellacing the LHS feet and the RHS feet are now well on the way to having the correct appearance. I think one more cut back with 400 paper and some more coats of shellac should get this part of the project completed.

I still need to scrape off some residual paint on the insides of the drawer sides of the chest and the underneath of the front lip of the top, but that should be a relatively quick job to complete. The only other thing will be to check the drawer runners but from memory I think these were all fine. At most perhaps a slight adjustment to levels. I will find some suitable strips of pine for the back board gaps and fix that. Then some final detail work to the top and sides and the whole chest can be finished off. So, not too long now until its completion.

See the photos below to see the latest progress.

Ok, so last night, after my Italian language (beginners) course and a cuppa once home (I know it probably should have been vino rosso !), I put in some more sanding and polishing time. The feet are now completed (shellaced), and I sanded off the residual paint (as shown in the previous pictures) and shellaced finished this. I also cut back the top of the chest and re-coated this with shellac. But I am still not happy that the top has enough colour/depth of finish, so this will need to be cut back again and re-coated.

Hopefully this will complete this part of the restoration. No photos today to post. I am going to be away at a training course in Canberra for work until the end of the week, so I probably won't get to do any more work on the chest and post progress reports until next week.

Well the time in Canberra has passed and I enjoyed the experience, including some really nice ales at a great little micro brewery called the Bent Spoke, but now that I am home again, it was time to get on with completing this project. So this morning, given that the cats wanted to be let out early, around 5am, I figured rather than going back to bed I might as well use the time before going to work, to get on with cutting back with steel wool (0000 grade) the chest frame and wax polish it. It was pretty easy work and the results I must admit are worth it, IMHO the finish (depth of shine) and colour/grain of the cedar and Baltic has come up pretty well.

So, all I need to do is finish off polishing the front face of the chest and the drawers, plus cut and fit the trim strips for the back of the chest and it will be completed.

See photos below of its current condition with the top (apologies for the small photos), LHS and RHS (including the feet) all polished. I am even happy with how the minor repairs to the LHS base plinth coloured up (not perfect) but suitable for this chest I think. I will post another progress report once I have completed the next stage.

Working on from yesterday's progress, last night I finished off cutting back and wax polishing the front, including inside faces of the chest, including runners, as well as re-waxing the two small top drawers and the first of the full drawers. I was going to finish the last drawer off but found that during the chest's storage that it has suffered a little damage (scratches etc) which I am going to need to sand back and re-shellac before completing polishing this one. Still need to cut the trims for the back and fit them up yet. Anyway I will post some more photos of the chest as it is now. Onwards to completion and putting the chest to use shortly.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Horsecroft88

Working on from yesterday's progress, last night I finished off cutting back and wax polishing the front, including inside faces of the chest, including runners, as well as re-waxing the two small top drawers and the first of the full drawers. I was going to finish the last drawer off but found that during the chest's storage that it has suffered a little damage (scratches etc) which I am going to need to sand back and re-shellac before completing polishing this one. Still need to cut the trims for the back and fit them up yet. Anyway I will post some more photos of the chest as it is now. Onwards to completion and putting the chest to use shortly.

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it's looking good.:2tsup:

Just really quickly, last night in between other things happening I managed to steel wool cut back the last drawer, but ran out of time to dust off and wax. The project is nearly complete. No pics today. Will post some of the completed chest soon. It is good to be getting this one completed. Next off time to go back to the cedar box project and finish re-constructing and polishing that one. More soon about this.

Really quick update. I completed polishing the last drawer last night and have taken photos. I am happy with the finished result. The chest is now in the bedroom ready to be used. I will post some photos of the completed project next week. Thanks all for your interest in this project.

And now to show off the pictures of the finished chest. It was good to finally get this project completed. Needless to say I am happy with it. Hmn what next ?

Ready for another 150 years.
Looks good.
I've just finished my chest as well. I'm posting the pictures right now.

Thank you :), it will give me plenty of years of pleasure in using it now. It will outlive me, that is for sure. I understand the role we play in rescuing these pieces and giving them a new and ongoing life.

Custodians of the past, is a good way to think of this sort of work.