Repairing/improving an old shellac finish

[Lee Schierer]

I have an old clock that LOML picked up at a yard sale. It was a box of pieces, but most everything seems to be there. The clock works and gong work. It is a dial calendar clock that shows the current time and date. The wood might be black walnut. The finish looks like alligator hide. Since the surfaces are carved, I need something that can get down in the recessed areas.
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Is there an easy way to smooth this out?

Do I need tor remove all the finish with a stripper?

I wiped a couple of areas with denatured alcohol and it cleaned up the finish a bit, but the texture is still present. I'm thinking the finish might be shellac.

[Wayne Lomman]

Lee, its more likely to be an early varnish rather than shellac which tends to craze rather that the effect you are seeing. Strip it off and start over. What is on there has failed with age and has to be replaced. Do you have a rough idea of the age of the piece? If so, your may be able to research the type of finish it would have had originally. Or just go with shellac which will look great anyhow. Modern finishes will look wrong. Cheers

[Prashun Patel]

I know this isn't what you asked, but if your whole clock looks like that, I would leave it. I think it looks wonderfully aged. The patina in the corners, the aligatoring all looks great to me. If anything, I'd just buff it with some paste wax to restore a little luster.

[Lee Schierer]

Lee, its more likely to be an early varnish rather than shellac which tends to craze rather that the effect you are seeing. Strip it off and start over. What is on there has failed with age and has to be replaced. Do you have a rough idea of the age of the piece? If so, your may be able to research the type of finish it would have had originally. Or just go with shellac which will look great anyhow. Modern finishes will look wrong. Cheers

The clock had to be produced between 1857 and 1932 as the company changed names after 1932 and the label on the clock is just Waterbury.

[Lee Schierer]

Normally I would leave it alone, but I have to do some repair that requires a small piece of wood to be added right over the top center of the door. You can see the area I cleaned up with the alcohol on the left side of the trim. Ultimately I may just do a good cleanup with the alcohol.
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You can see the missing piece in the attached photo. There is also some staining inside the enclosure on the top of the base.

[Wayne Lomman]

It is true that the finish as it is looks wonderfully aged. On the other hand, it does not look anything like the maker intended. It's should look old but well cared for and maintained. When stripping for restoration you take note of where the soot has accumulated in corners etc and reproduce the effect. Polish with shellac and it will be authentic. It's a nice clock case. We had one similar on the mantel when I was growing up. My sister has it now - half restored for the last 10 years...Cheers

[Lee Schierer]

Upon additional work, the finish is definitely aged shellac over black walnut. I rubbed down the base with alcohol and the finish got sticky and with a little scrubbing with steel wool the crackle came off. The crevasses in the carving will retain the darker coloration, but the raised surfaces will be lighter. the clock was made between 1890 - 1910 according to a clock guy I contacted (assuming he knows what hes talking about). The clock works have been running in my shop for most of the week. The clock strikes when it is supposed to and as of today it will change the date at midnight instead of noon. I worked on patching the top trim today including scarfing in a piece of walnut where there was a gap. I plan to replace the nails that held the upper part to the base with wood screws as the nails pull out easily with my fingers. I'm undecided on replacing the face to get rid of the water stains. I did find a matching face on the internet.

[Lee Schierer]

I finished the work on the clock about a month ago and it has been keeping time within a few seconds per week. After a month it gained just over 1/2 minute. The finish turned out to be shellac as I was able to scrub the surface with alcohol and most of the finish crazing went away along with a lot of dirt. I fixed some of the broken and loose parts and reassembled the whole thing. I also determined that the clock body is black walnut. I plan to take the clock back to the church rummage sale where it was purchased and sell it with the proceeds going to the church. Here is how it looks.

[George Bokros]

Beautiful piece. Nice work restoring it.

[John TenEyck]

That really is stunning, Lee. Very nice work to bring it back to how it likely looked when new. Your guess that the finish was shellac would almost always be right for pieces like that made in the US in that time period.

John

[glenn bradley]

Awesome job Lee.