Waxing Lyrical
by Simon Gilboy
over restored?
T
he art of furniture restoration is understanding at the
outset what the antique should be like when you have
finished restoring it. This means to us, when finished, it looks
like it hasn’t been ‘restored’ at all…
I’ll explain a little further..
There are quite a few ‘French Polishers’ and
‘Antique Restorers’ who are very capable colour & grime from the rest of the antique
of doing a passable job of restoration or finish as it is being stripped.
polishing. You will see many of them on When we repair your furniture our craftsmen
the Internet, YouTube and various websites will select the closest matching piece of
with images of a craftsmen stripping an antique wood or veneer from our repair store.
antique by hand, sanding the b’jesus out This to all intents and purposes is a large pile
of it, then staining, grain filling and finally of broken antiques sourced from customers
French Polishing to a beautiful deep glossy and now retired restorers, stacked carefully in
finish. Some may dull it and wax finish it as our workshop. The veneer or selected part is
well. These are all well founded processes of carefully steamed off or cut into the correct
polishing/restoring which although technically size for the job. If we have to remove the
correct, are not necessarily the way to achieve a existing finish, be it French Polish, oil or wax,
restored antique. we do this by hand using either a specially
formulated stripping agent for furniture or a
How we do it.. weak solvent. Once all traces of the previous
We believe in retaining as much of the original finish and stripper have been removed we
patinated finish as possible. We try to carry neutralise the surface to give a neutral ph.
out as much repair work and reinstating At this point we can start to think about
without removing the original finish. If we refinishing, unless there is any major structural
have no choice but to remove the polish then work to be carried out. It is also the point at
we still repair the antique prior to stripping. which we treat the antique to a good soaking
Why? Because during the stripping process the of woodworm treatment whether there are
newly repaired areas will absorb some of the signs of the little blighters or not. You will
situated opposite Riverford farm shop -staverton – totnes
Just off the main road between dartington & Buckfastleigh -telephone 01803 762763
www.dartingtonantiques.co.uk
accredited Member of -the West of england antique dealers association
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