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I want to touch up worn spots on a wooden desk and a wooden chair. See highlighted worn spots in the attached photos.
For the desk: Due to the relatively small worn spots, I prefer to touch up the small areas rather than sand the entire surface and paint it. What is a good touch-up product?
For the chair: The worn edges need painting besides the top with faded color. It seems that the edges are significantly lighter in color than the top. Shall I use a regular color for the top and a darker color for the edges (so that the top and the edges will be the same color)?
Given the color of the wood, I'd use Zinsser Bullseye Shellac, amber color. It won't be a perfect match, but it'll look a lot better, and it's highly reversible.
Before you do that, go over the whole thing with a plastic scrubbie and mineral spirits to remove old built-up wax.
When the shellac's dried (and you might want to put multiple coats), wax the whole thing with a good clear paste wax (Minwax is what you'll generally find at the hardware store, next to the shellac).
I do NOT recommend any kind of polyurethane or spar varnish for things like this. Always, always, always, start off with the lightest most reversible process. And sanding and refinishing is like leveling your house with a howitzer to get rid of a mouse in the pantry. You should not sand and refinish until the piece is truly beyond recovery. Patina ALWAYS looks better than that Simoniz spankin- new no pores filled weird color sand-and-refinish so beloved by 20 somethings furnishing their first house with flea market acquisitions.
First, and foremost, is trying to determine what finish is on the furniture. Age can always help- but not a solid indicator. Perhaps it has been refinished previously; and/or it’s a reproduction piece.
As rabbit lamented to, approach with the least evasive action. But, if it’s not some prized antique and you’re only wanting to “spruce up” it’s appearance I’d use a stain pen to bring back the color and let it be.
First, and foremost, is trying to determine what finish is on the furniture. Age can always help- but not a solid indicator. Perhaps it has been refinished previously; and/or it’s a reproduction piece.
As rabbit lamented to, approach with the least evasive action. But, if it’s not some prized antique and you’re only wanting to “spruce up” it’s appearance I’d use a stain pen to bring back the color and let it be.
I bought the desk and the chair brand new from Jordan's furniture in 2001. Therefore, it's not been refinished previously.
As for a stain pen, do you refer to a wood marker (e.g., https://www.amazon.com/Ram-Pro-Furni...cF9hdGY&th=1)? It seems a clever idea to me. Would you recommend a layer of wax for protection to prevent the color from fading after cleaning?
Given the color of the wood, I'd use Zinsser Bullseye Shellac, amber color. It won't be a perfect match, but it'll look a lot better, and it's highly reversible.
Before you do that, go over the whole thing with a plastic scrubbie and mineral spirits to remove old built-up wax.
When the shellac's dried (and you might want to put multiple coats), wax the whole thing with a good clear paste wax (Minwax is what you'll generally find at the hardware store, next to the shellac).
I do NOT recommend any kind of polyurethane or spar varnish for things like this. Always, always, always, start off with the lightest most reversible process. And sanding and refinishing is like leveling your house with a howitzer to get rid of a mouse in the pantry. You should not sand and refinish until the piece is truly beyond recovery. Patina ALWAYS looks better than that Simoniz spankin- new no pores filled weird color sand-and-refinish so beloved by 20 somethings furnishing their first house with flea market acquisitions.
If I follow you, I should remove wax from the areas to paint, so that the color will be absorbed into the wood.
Then use clear wood paint Zinsser Bullseye Shellac to touch up. In case the color doesn't look right, I can wipe it off and start over.
When the shellac is dried, apply a layer of wax for protection in the painted areas only. Correct?
If I follow you, I should remove wax from the areas to paint, so that the color will be absorbed into the wood.
Then use clear wood paint Zinsser Bullseye Shellac to touch up. In case the color doesn't look right, I can wipe it off and start over.
When the shellac is dried, apply a layer of wax for protection in the painted areas only. Correct?
I'd use the amber shellac to give the worn areas some color. They will probably still be a bit lighter. You can use multiple coats.
Shellac is easily softened with alcohol. However, you ought to check to see if the finish there is shellac (it probably isn't) by testing to see if alcohol softens it in a hidden place.
I would remove all the wax from the piece, then after touching-up, wax the whole thing.
There's no harm in having different top coats on a single piece, but you'll want to use a softer more reversible one on top of the more durable harder to modify one, not the other way round. I'd guess dated 2001 that these pieces were originally finished with some kind of polyurethane or alkyd. Nitrocellulose is a distant possibility. But that doesn't matter. Shellac will go on easy, cleanup is easy.
The thing about "stain pens" is that they don't give any topcoat shine, and they do just that-stain. So if the pen is too dark, you've really got a job to reverse what you just did. Similarly, if the color tone of the pen is wrong for the wood, you can easily end up with a reddish mahogany-looking stain-pen repair on a honey-yellow-gold colored piece of furniture. And then for large wear areas like you're showing, you STILL have to come up with a topcoat. Stain pens are great for dark furniture that gets scratched. I have several mahogany and walnut pieces that I use them on. But what you've got has large worn areas on a medium honey-gold finish - I wouldn't do it.
Trust me, a worn area that's had some shine and color restored but is still a bit lighter than the rest, will look 1000 times better than if you overcompensate and make it too dark or the wrong color tone.
I will say that I cannot too highly recommend the book "The Weekend Refinisher", Bruce Johnson. I bought this book when we were first married and furnishing our house with "vintage" furniture (you can't call it antique, it's not old enough, it's pretty much all factory made solid wood high quality furniture from the 1920s through 1940s, Duncan Phyfe style and similar), all of which had various dingleberries here and there. Carefully reading that book showed me that the young-marrieds default of "strip, sand, refinish" was almost invariably a terrible idea. You've got high quality factory made furniture there, which in another 30 years will be like the stuff we bought back in the early 90s. Tread lightly and it'll gradually accumulate a patina that makes it look a whole lot better than if you go overboard.
I bought the desk and the chair brand new from Jordan's furniture in 2001. Therefore, it's not been refinished previously.
Probably Chinese…
Then it most likely is finished with a water-based poly. There would be no wax- other than what you have applied.
Again, since your main objective here is to just “spruce up”, I wouldn’t go hog wild with “refinishing”. Just the stain pen to refresh the color. Don’t make a mountain out of a mole hill!
Probably Chinese…
Then it most likely is finished with a water-based poly. There would be no wax- other than what you have applied.
Again, since your main objective here is to just “spruce up”, I wouldn’t go hog wild with “refinishing”. Just the stain pen to refresh the color. Don’t make a mountain out of a mole hill!
I've used stain pens and markers to touch up minor furniture scratches/worm spots with decent results. Tried a sort of wax pencil stain but didn't have much luck with that. The desk's worn area would be borderline for me as the flat unfeatured surface might show pen stroke overlap (apply with the grain to minimize that), but you should be able to prep and refinish it later if you don't end up liking the result. The chair is an easy call for a stain pen. Be aware that some of the stains can fade if the furniture is exposed to a lot of sunlight, particularly darker tones. I just reapplied it. I haven't tried covering the marker stain with anything so don't know if that might help prevent the fade.
Last edited by Parnassia; 07-06-2023 at 03:28 PM..
Try Howards Refinisher, available at Home Depot. I've used it for close to 50 years on antiques.
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