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Thread: Make a new finish match something done 100 years ago.

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jul 2016
    Location
    Lebanon, TN
    Posts
    1,719

    Make a new finish match something done 100 years ago.

    We have an historic house in our town https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fite-Fessenden_House. It belongs to the County and is maintained by a bunch of volunteers, with minimal budget.

    They have an old, Doll house, probably about 100 years old.

    They want me to make a table to sit this on, 40"L, 22"W, 16"H.

    My wife volunteered me for this project, so I hoping to do this labor and material free to them. They'll reimburse me for wood, but I figure that will be my donation to the house.

    Most of the wood in the house is Oak.

    So I would like to use a finish that would not make it look like it came out of IKEA.

    So I'm leaning towards using Red Oak, but again, am open to suggestions on other species if I can get a more period look with a modern finish.

    I have easy access to Red and White Oak, Maple, Cherry, Maple, Popular, Cedar and Walnut.

    Thanks

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    SE PA - Central Bucks County
    Posts
    65,694
    You'd want to pick a species that reflects other furniture in the historic home for consistency and that sounds like it would be oak. As to your finishing process, that's where you'll have to work a little to make it look old, both through coloration and probably some minor distressing. Take a tour and spend a lot of time examining details of existing furniture in the building...I'm sure they would be happy to allow you to do that given you "volunteered" to do the deed. That time will be well spent so you can see what little details will be required to make the "new" piece look like it's been there from the get-go.
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
    Location
    Kansas City
    Posts
    2,652
    I've done some repairs to (100+) old dark oak furniture including replacing parts. I got pretty close to the original dark color with stain and dark garnet shellac. The stain I used was I think dark walnut. But the key was the original finish was shellac, so I used the darker shellac to simulate years of shellac aging. you got time to experiment, but seems like some combination of stains will get you close. There are a ton of mission finish recipes out there if the trim is closer to that color.
    < insert spurious quote here >

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