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The Never Ending Chair

What I soon come to realize is that this chair has become my albatross, my Everest, my reason for that glass of wine at 10 AM.   The paint came off pretty easily, but the finish underneath that is a different story.  I don’t use shellac or lacquer etc. so I am not so versed in the differences between them.  All I know is this is the most loyal clear finish I have ever encountered.  It just wouldn’t leave this chair!  Oh and what I neglected to notice at the start was those beautiful lines meant there wasn’t one flat surface on the entire chair.  60 grit sandpaper on a palm sander would have ruined everything.

So I sanded. By hand.  Multiple grits.  For days.  Did I mention that it’s oak?  You could sand the same spot for an hour and have nothing to show for it.

He also wanted it stained.  The more I realize I’m not getting the finish off the more I realize that putting stain on will make an unholy mess.  And, to fix it,  I would have to sand it back off.  Since I was running out of wine to numb my arm muscles I rebeled and said he was getting no stain and just poly.  His only choice was satin or gloss.

Luckily he went along with it. I used Safecoat Poly Seal in gloss.  Here is the Sort of Before.  I forgot to take a pic before I stripped the paint off the seat.  Notice the paints on the top and bottom sections are two different colors.

 

Before (Sort of)

You will also notice that the arms have lovely detail.  I have a set of dental tools that make this much easier to deal with.  You can find them for not more than $15 or so on Amazon.

And here is the long, long awaited After.  I really never thought I would see it.

While cleaning the metal spring mechanism underneath I found it was stamped with “Patented December 1918”.  I gave it a light coat of wax from Kerf’s for a bit of shine without ruining the cool patina.

 

You can’t buy anything like that now and I am glad it came out the way it did.   He may have stopped talking to me if I had ruined it except for the fact that I am on the potential babysitter list!

 

 

 

2 Comments

  1. Travis Roesler

    Nice !@#$ING CHAIR!!!!

    Reply
    1. The Ridiculous Redhead (Post author)

      Thanks buddy!

      Reply

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