Kerf Cuts?

[Steve Marcq]

I have an 80 year old curly maple chest of drawers I've been fixing various problems with for a friend. It has a 3/4" solid maple top with about a 1" cup in it that I've been trying to flatten with gradual weight and pressure, no luck. I think I need to kerf the back (inside the edges so as not to be visible after) with a circular saw to relieve some of the stress in the wood and get it to lay flat. Anyone have any experience doing this? I'm not sure how deep to make the kerfs, or how far apart, and I really can't screw it up, as I could make a new top no problem, but I would never be able to match the color, some sort of stain and varnish I believe. Any help or advice much appreciated!

[Charles Lent]

Kerf cuts are a way to make the top more flexible so you can pull it flat, but they will show in the end grain and need to be filled. If you can determine where the actual curve areas are, and the top is wider (front to back) than necessary, sometimes it is possible to rip the top into several strips using a thin kerf saw blade, then joint the sawn edges to square them up, and then glue the top back together. You will loose in board width, but jointing the edges of the strips will remove much of the curve. Sorry, this is my best suggestion, and I knew that you wouldn't like it.

For the question on the finish - If the old finish on the dresser is a reddish orange, get a quart of Zinser Orange Shellac and test it to see if it's color matches with the finish on the chest.

A large amount of furniture that was made 60 - 100+ years ago had orange shellac for it's finish and color. There are variations in shellac colors, but the Zinser orange color seems to have been the most commonly used for furniture finish and color. Shellac will dissolve in alcohol, so a test rubbing with alcohol in an inconspicuous place will help you identify if the finish is in fact shellac. If it is, your cotton ball will get an orange finish on it quickly. The orange color is not a color that is easily matched with the standard stain colors of today either Shellac is a very fast drying finish, and fresh coats of it will tend to dissolve and mix with previous coats, so you can freshen the finish and restore the shine by adding additional coats and the new layer will mix with and bond well with the older layers. Spraying, or a process called "French Polishing" is used to achieve very smooth finishes. Unfortunately, shellac is not water proof or very hard, which makes it easy to chip and scratch, and a cold glass left on it will form a cloudy ring in the finish from the moisture on the glass. Polyurethane can be applied over shellac if you want a harder to damage finish, but you will lose the ability to mix several coats of shellac together when you put polyurethane over it, so repair will become more difficult.

Charley

[Bradley Gray]

In order for kerfing to be effective, the kerfs will have to run out the ends, and unless the piece is painted, impossible to hide.

An antique dealer (picker) that I did a lot of repair work for taught me this trick:

"Lay the top ( shelf, table leaf, whatever) in the grass, concave side down on a sunny day"

This can be simulated indoors - add moisture to the concave side. Heat the convex side.