To Refinish or Restore? That is the “Question of the Week”
This week’s question comes from Kyle who writes:
Lately I’ve been working on refinishing an old dresser. It’s been in my family for a long time and has been abused pretty badly. But since it was a family heirloom, it was like pulling teeth to convince my mom to let me restore it. I’ve seen your episodes on refinishing and I know about your experience in the field. I was just wondering if you could tell me what kind of things ruin the value of a piece and why you think there are so many refinishing “haters” out there. If a piece is in bad shape is it still more valuable than if an ambitious woodworker like myself made it look good again?
And this was my response:
Hey Kyle. From what I have seen, there are definitely two types of refinishing out there. You have the utilitarian version, which I am familiar with, which simply takes an old beat up piece of furniture and makes it serviceable and beautiful. This includes doing any necessary repairs, stripping off the old finish, possibly re-staining, and of course, applying a new finish of choice. The second type of refinishing is actually true “restoration”. This is a much more involved process that requires careful attention to detail and a boat-load of know-how. While I can’t tell you exactly how to maintain the value of an antique, I am sure it has a lot to do with keeping the original finish intact and doing spot repairs with period-accurate materials. Anyone in that industry could probably recite a long list of do’s and dont’s.
So at a point like this, you have a few questions to ask yourself (and your mother). Is this piece ever going to be sold? Is it highly valued by your mom simply because its “valuable” or is it an emotional attachment by virtue of its service in your family for so long? Also, it might be nice to know if the piece even has substantial value as an antique. Perhaps you should have it appraised before making a final call. You see Kyle, you could refinish that piece and make it look better than it did on the day it was created, but as a result you may very well (and most likely will) destroy its value as an antique.
As an aside, I will tell you that out of all of my videos (over 60 now), the one that I receive the most complaints and corrections about is the refinishing series. I suppose its my fault for not explicitly stating that this was not meant to be “Antique Restoration 101″. I had explicit instructions from the owners of that table and I did exactly what they wanted. An old decrepit table was pulled out of the back of a garage and was restored for sentimental value. The table would never be sold or even appraised. The customer simply wanted the table to match the color scheme of her current decor so that she could enjoy the same table her mother had enjoyed for so many years before her. Monetary value was irrelevant.
So really, this is a personal decision for you and your family. But to answer your question directly, even a beautiful refinishing job can completely destroy the value of an antique. Hope that helps.
Joe’s Big Closet - Project of the Week
This week’s project comes from Joe and boy is it a doozie! Let’s here from Joe himself:
For those who have not seen my closet that I built…here you go. Yet another reason to visit Szeremet Arms Estates. This took me around 6 months to complete and is made of Maple. Lots and lots of maple (Hardwood Maple). You will also notice I built in lighting into each cell with the help from my friend Blake. There are 9 brass bars and the tops are capped and rock solid for holding huge amounts of stuff in bins. All of the plies used were under A1. Good finish work and artful layout reduce the need for premium wood. In fact if you are not totally dedicated to the finish….never buy the best grade its a waste. I always buy wood that is warped or dinged knowing how I am going to use it allows me to help out the reseller and get a better price.
Demo Night 7/23/08 - Greene & Greene Style Joint
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This is an excerpt from the live Demo Night that took place 7/23/08. The topic was creating Greene & Greene style joint for the Gadget Station project. Its a long video, but lots of details were covered and numerous questions were thrown out by the chat room. This was our best turnout yet with 180+ viewers! This isn’t exactly as fun as the live experience but its a close second for those who couldn’t make it. Enjoy!
Gadget Station Ideas (Pt. 1)
We have a number of folks working on their own versions of a gadget station. Most are still in the design phase but we have heard from a few folks who already had this idea in the past. If you are anything like me, you can use all the inspiration you can get! So here is an idea submitted by a viewer.
Below is a quick SketchUp concept video from Ron, owner of R Jones Woodworks. Here’s how he sums it all up so far:
With regard to design I wanted to the piece to be highly functional as well as flexible. Something that is hard to use, won’t get used at all. There were probably 4 or 5 factors that drove the design. 1- It needed to support just about any electronic device with no modifications. So I created a trough, if you will, so almost any size device can be simply laid down. Also, in the event something larger needs to be charged, the shelves can be flipped up and the device laid on the bottom. 2- It needed to be easy to use, adding devices etc. Simply flip the shelves and swing the door to access the power strip. 3- The design needs to be clean both inside and out. Small elongated keyhole slots allow plugs to pass thru at any point along the shelf. This also increases the flexibility. 4. I needed a way to deal with a potential heat issue. Simple rectangular holes will be cut in the top and bottom to allow for ventilation. This area will most likely be covered in some sort of metal mesh. 5. Shelves will most likely be covered in an ESD (electrostatic discharge) friendly material to help with those issues.
Craig from Springfield, Ohio - Shop of the Week
Here are some pics of my very small one car garage wood shop! Here I am pictured with my current project, a small bookcase. This is about the largest piece I can handle as you will see in the rest of the pictures I have very limited space!
The door in the next set of pics leads to a small room that contains a furnace for a 600 sq foot addition we added to the back of our home. While building, I took advantage of the situation and used the furnace to heat and cool the shop. I also use this small room for tool storage and sharpening. The green tool chest holds all my hand planes, marking tools, chisels, dovetail saws, etc. In the next pic you see my jointer, table saw, and work bench are all crammed together on a wall. Believe it or not it actually works quite well! Large pieces of stock or sheet goods are impossible to machine here but that’s where the Festool comes in! If you look closely, under the work bench you can see my router table. (I just pull it out and set it on the bench to use it.)
The last pic just shows how I share the storage area with the furnace for our addition. When we did the addition I also increased the electrical capacity. My shop went from a few outlets with about 20A total to more than 20 outlets and 100 Amps! The wall to the right is a pegboard wall that I use to store all my templates and some tools.
I absolutely love my Festool, I use it almost exclusively to build my projects. I’m a huge fan of the entire system. I have 2 MFT’s the large one you can see in the next set of pics, the smaller one is folded up and is sitting next to the MFT1080. If I could do over again my entire shop would be Festool from the beginning! With my limited space, the Festool system is a great fit. The next shot shows the inside of the storage/furnace room. I have a sharpening area set up in there all well as my shop stereo, (with sat radio) and a TV with a DVD for watching instructional videos. I also use this area for tool storage. All four walls are pegboard from floor to ceiling. Thickness planer, miter saw, band saw, dust collection, and wood storage are all very close together as shown in the last picture. The cool thing is that the dust collector can handle all these stationary machines from where it sits without ductwork!
Well that’s my small, but efficient shop! I absolutely love to work in here because everything is just a few steps away. It’s warm in the winter and cool in the summer, and thanks to Festool it’s almost completely dust free! It’s a very enjoyable place to spend whatever free time I can manage. I hope you enjoyed my little shop tour as much I enjoyed sharing it with you!
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