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faithab

Refinishing DR chair. Discovered 2 diff. colored woods

faithab
10 years ago

I have a beautiful Henkel Harris mahogany dining room chair. But it is very old and the finish at the top where generations of hands have held it was gummy. When I stripped it I discovered that, on the lovely carved portion of the back, 2/3 was a darker colored wood than the other. Clearly they had not carved it out of the same piece of mahogany. Problem. How to get a uniform look when I finish it. Thank you for any help you might give me.

I've posted a picture of the type of chair it is. Now imagine one of these with two different colored woods in the middle of the back splat.

Comments (8)

  • handymac
    10 years ago

    Not unusual at all when a piece of furniture is finished in a recipe coating rather than a stain. The answer to your question is to get the recipe/procedure the factory used and refinish that way.

    Or, find a professional finisher who can replicate(as close as possible) the old finish.

    Or play with different stains/dyes to get both shades of wood similar.

  • sombreuil_mongrel
    10 years ago

    Send it back to henkel-harris, they are still in business in Winchester VA, AFAIK.
    Casey

  • lazy_gardens
    10 years ago

    Their "mahogany" finish was a sprayed on, heavily tinted varnish.

    Can you post a good, well-focused closeup of the problem area? It's probably fixable, but sight unseen suggestions seldom work well.

  • bobismyuncle
    10 years ago

    Henkel Harris was a top-end furniture manufacturer (recently closed the doors). Their finish room was undoubtedly more than just a spray it on and let it pass sort of place.

    Probably used a balancing sap-stain (dye) applied only to the lighter wood, probably a toner (lacquer with color in it) carefully applied and a glaze (color between coats of finish). It would not be unusual for them to have up to 15 different steps in their finish room. You're not going to get that by putting on an all-in-one finish like Polyshades.

  • rstanny
    10 years ago

    Dye would be ideal if you had a lot of the wood in question to experiment on till you get the color right. A more forgiving approach might be to use thin coats of one or more gel stain(s), applied with a rag. More or slightly thicker coats on the lighter wood so as to gradually bring its color toward that of the darker wood. Work a small area at a time. (Like an arm.) Follow with a gel varnish, which is marvelous for things with complicated shapes and lots of vertical surfaces, like chairs.

    I'd think about sealing the wood first with gel varnish (possibly preceded by any sealer recommended by the gel varnish manufacturer) and then using subsequent coasts of gel stain like a glaze. That way you can remove most of the first coat of stain with mineral spirits if you don't like how it looks (providing you get to it before it dries).

    You can weaken the colors of gel stains with "natural" color gel stain (which I'm not sure differs in any way from plain gel varnish).

    I like General Finishes and Old Masters gel stains. You don't need to stick to shades that have "mahogany" in their names. A lot of those are too red to my eye, especially on a red wood like mahogany. I've had luck using a little Special Walnut and/or Dark Walnut on both mahogany and cherry. Once you have a base, you can wipe on any color gel stain you want to and wipe it right off with mineral spirits if you don't like the result.

  • faithab
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Thank you, Rstanny. Gel stains are something new to me. I used to do alot of refinishing in the 70s but have not done so since then. I'll try you ideas. Thank you

  • faithab
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    And Bob'smyuncle,You are right. I called Henkel Harris and they told me they have a 15 step process with all sorts of color balancing. I'm not fond of their "mirror like" finish and may go with something softer. I like the idea of something I can wipe off with mineral spirits if I don't like it!!

  • sloyder
    10 years ago

    As bobsmyuncle said it is probably a lacquer toned finish. They have been using this finish since the 1930's , in this way manufacturers don't have to worry about matching grain or color.of wood.

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