Refinishing Hitchcock Table

Geof Fowler

Member
Messages
6
Location
Southington, CT
Hi all,

New member here. We have a Hitchock cherry coffee table that the finish has become "mottled" from 20+ years of sunlight coming in from a southern-facing room with lots of windows and skylights. The table has stencils that I really don't want to lose (they don't make these anymore), and fortunately the sun-damage is in areas away from them. Anyway, I tried sanded those areas down to bare cherry (necessary to get rid of all the "mottled" area, and now am trying to match the stain darkness of the rest of the finish. So far, I have about 7-8 applications of cherry MinWax stain, and can't get it anywhere dark enough. I even tried a little dark oak, red oak, and provincial stains, but the wood doesn't seem to want to take any more stain. I've had suggestions ranging from using dyes to even letting the wood darken in sunlight. Any other thoughts? Here's a clickable pic to help you see what I'm talking about:
 
Geof, I think you will have a hard time getting the sanded parts to match the other parts, a really hard time........

I understand you do not want to lose the stencils, is it possible to scan them, and have some copies made up to match, and then refinish the entire top, finally reapplying the "new" old stencils?

Good luck!
 
I think you're probably right. I did pick up some blank stencil material and will try to transfer the pattern, but I'm still wondering about the cherry table top taking the stain, even to approximate the rest of the table. Should I be looking at a cherry dye? Could I make up a shellac and mix in the dye? Also, how much difference can I expect by letting light "age" the bare wood?
 
Geoff,
I think redoing the top is realy the only answer. I don't use stain anymore and have found that dye's are easier to work with and more even coloring on any surface. One of the nice things aboiut the dies is you can control how much they darken. I use water based dye. The way I do is if a bottle of crystal is designed to make a qt of a given color I make a pint. Then I add crystal until I get it as dark as I want it. testing the batch on a piece of scrap before adding more crystal. This way I can sneak up on the exact color I want. In you case you'd need to find a spot on the piece that is not visable as you test piece.

Hope this helps.
 
Hey Geof,
I'm with Stu on the difficulty of a seemless match to your aged cherry.

FWIW, I looked up the issue in Terri Masaschi's Foolproof Wood Finishing and here's her technique:

Place a small piece of glass on the table and mix shellac and furniture powder (dry powder colors from Behlen or Homestead) on the glass until it matches the color of the table as seen thru the glass. Apply thin layers of material with an artist brush, working thinly and quickly. After it dries, if you aren't satisfied, you may be able to apply a glaze to tweak the color. If you use a glaze, seal it with shellac.

Topcoat the whole table with a few coats.

Good luck!:thumb:
 
Update. I've rough sanded the table using 150 grit except for the stencils (I want to make sure I have transferred the details accurately first). I've picked up some reddish brown dye that looks very close to the color I'm hoping to achieve. But before I start, I have a few more questions.

First, what finish sanding grit do you recommend. I was thinking 220, but am not sure how this will effect how the dye is absorbed if at all.

Second, it has been recommended that I let the table age in sunlight to darken it for a week or so. Do you agree with this?

Third, do you recommend a wash coat before I start the staining/dying step?

Fourth, the dye I picked up (TransTint) suggests several ways of mixing it. This ranges from mixing it with water, a 50/50 water/alcohol mixture, or mixing it with shellac. Jesse mentions shellac and Don a water-based solution. What would be the plusses/minuses of each mix?

And fifth (sorry about the long laundry list), what top coating would be best for each mix?

Here is a pic of the rough sanded table top and a close up of the stencil I'm transferring:



Thanks for all your help.

Geof Fowler
 
Geof,
If your gonna mix it with shellac then use alcahol as your base, if your gonna put it on before the shellac or not use shellac, I like water since it doesn't evaporate as quaickly. Water will raise the grain a little but not much. I knock them down with those nylon sanding thingies from the borg.

I sand to 300 grit.

Oh and setting it in the sun for a few days to get a santan is a good idea.

Welcome to Family woodworking.
 
Top