Had a chat with an upholsterer that changed how I prep old wood

I was at a salvage yard last weekend and this older guy who does upholstery started talking to me while I was picking through a pile of oak chair frames. He said most finishers strip everything down to bare wood without thinking about the original patina, and that he leaves 150 year old shellac alone if it's still bonding well. That really hit different because I've always been aggressive with chemical strippers, but now I'm trying to just clean and seal on my next project instead of starting from zero. Has anyone else had good luck preserving old finishes instead of stripping them off?

2 comments

2 Comments

betht3218d ago

And honestly I think he's onto something about the shellac specifically because it's naturally reversible in a way modern poly never will be. The old stuff was made with denatured alcohol and bug resin so you can literally reactivate it with a rag and some ethanol instead of stripping the whole thing down to bare wood. That patina he's talking about took decades to build up and once you hit it with chemical stripper it's gone for good with no way to get it back.

simon_coleman18d ago

That thing about reactivating shellac with just alcohol instead of stripping everything down, does that actually work well on a piece that's been through decades of dust and grime built up in the finish, or is it more of a theory than a practical fix?