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Jeff's Fine Finishing Service, 5012 Rockville Road, Indianapolis, IN (2026)

07/20/2025

The Next Steps
…
Had some on-site work this week for a clients whose family was doing a summer vacation.

The only steps leading to their upstairs had the bottom 4 treads with peeling & flaking finish. This adhesion issue came from poor prep-work and was made worse with several coats of finish applied in an attempt to fix it.

The red circles in pic 2 show how wide spread the issue was.

The open concept stairs took a bit of time to properly set up plastic sheeting to contain the sanding dust.

Typically a normal sized dining tabletop might take 4-6 sheets of sandpaper to strip. Here its the same amount of paper for each step/tread, as well as 40 minutes of hard work.

In pic 7 the various layers are shown with the wavy red lines.

To get in the corners took had scraping and another 20 minutes per step.

Once that was done, its was on to detail sanding to remove coarse scratches. All 4 steps took about 15 minutes total when going from 120 grit to 220 grit. A huge reduction in time comparably.

Some time was spent masking the surrounding painted surfaces, and preparing the Next Steps of putting the color back on.

05/22/2025

“Get back”
…
More work on a classic 1958 Philco Predicta “Barber Pole” television.

The client wants the cabinet back to pretty snazzy, and I just happened to have some Sapele “Ribbon Mahogany” veneer tucked away.

A centerline was drawn to help align the grain vertically, and I found that the cabinet also slightly tapers as it goes upward.

To help stabilize the U-shape, scraps were tacked to the ends and plywood cut to fit snuggly inside, as well.

Possibly, I could use a vacuum bag to press the veneer onto the back; but it was far easier to apply white PVA glue to both sides and let it dry.

Just like bubble gum on a sidewalk in summer, the glue when heated with a clothes iron becomes soft and stick. Take away the heat, and it turns hard again.

A few more things to do yet, but “turn in tomorrow for another episode.”

05/21/2025

Please Stay Tuned
…
This project is a bit “Back To The Future”, as well as “The Twightlight Zone.”

Client is a big fan of Mid-Century Modern, and this Philico 1958 “Barberpole” TV set has been a bucket list item for quite awhile.

They are handling the internal & electronics, but needed outside looking different than “Avacado & Goldenrod”

To keep costs manageable they agreed to handle stripping off the finish.

The back is tempered hardboard/ Masonite/ HDF and has 2 plywood “bows” at the top & bottom for support. The top was half missing from some impact accident.

Tracing the shape on quality plywood, and cutting that out solved the issue, but a spline was needed to join the two parts with strength.

Another structural issue was that the case was likely sitting in a flooded basement, so all the hide glue ( animal protein ) came loose on the lower equipment shelf. Easy enough to fix with more hide glue and clamps.

Though a popsicle stick did come in handy to fill a gap left when the wood shrank.

“Plenty More Fun To Come”, so please stay tune.

03/31/2025

“Glow to Go”
…
Final portion of “spiffing up” a vintage table was to add some protection to the maple top.

Since the client wished to preserve all the character, charm, and history of the piece it made sense to use a finish that was just as old.

Folks have been using “what they had” since furniture was invented. In this case wax is combined with an oil with a bit of plant based solvent/thinner.

Wax: paraffin, beeswax, candilla, carnuba
Drying oil: walnut, linseed, tung, poppy, perilla, and h**p
Thinner: mineral spirits, turpentine, limonene

Some combination of these falls into the “hard wax” category that is popular these days as a “wipe-on/buff-off” product.

I use it just enough to make my own in bulk, but otherwise it’s easy to purchase what you need.

Typically, it spreads easier when a cheap electric sander and synthetic pad are used.
However, it does put some oil in the air, which is why I wear a respirator. Also don’t wear any good clothes because they can get grease stains.

Two coats provide good fiber saturation & protection.

Usually I will warm the mixture with an Infrared heater and buff off anything that doesn’t soak in.

Initially it gives pretty good water protection, and in the future only needs more applied and wiped off for maintenace.

03/31/2025

Lost & Found
…
The long vintage table in the shop currently is getting its “make pretty” work done.

The broken pieces was successfully attached, and the advantage of hide glue is that excess easily comes off with a rag & warm water.

I’d considered using epoxy for the repair, as it would fill irregular gaps. However the cleanup afterwards posed a challenge.

Some of things found after the initial cleaning were blobs/drops of red candle wax, as well as pricing ink stamp marks ( 60 cents and 29 cents ). So this might originally have been a merchandise table at at store with wooden floors.

There were nail in the feet of each leg to hold it in place, that I removed.

Wavy “corrugated staples” on the underside were found. Which puts the table age at younger than 1890’s.

The finish on the legs seems to be shellac based, and was applied with a rag. So to keep with that theme, a modern repair/touchup shellac polish was used. Even with a single coat, things looked much better.

Next, will be adding a protective finish to the top, so the table can then “find its way home” to the client.

03/28/2025

Three Nails and a Prayer
…
Long wooden dining table in the shop currently is getting repairs after the wash/scrub-down the day before.

The top is maple and the legs walnut of all things.

In its rough life something made a 6ft split in the top, with only another foot in length holding the piece on. Then as a remedy three nails were added to the loose end.

At this point it made sense to cut the nails and fully complete the break with my bear hands.

This let me use a Festool Domino to create slots to install wooden splines that aligned the pieces flat, while giving strength to prevent separation again.

Since the split was very old, the wood had warped slightly and a normal tight glue joint was not possible.

Tape with pencil marks 90 degrees to the edge showed where to align the machine for the cuts.

My shop made Domino spline are deliberately thick, and get pressed in a vice until they fit loosely in the slots. They will swell again when the hide glue is applied which makes the joint even stronger than just glue.

About 18 long clamps pulled the boards tight with a single one at the end to keep that part flat.

Like Our Savior, this table will rise again from adversity.

03/28/2025

Full Table
…
Years ago a client picked up a vintage wooden table that was a bit unusual.

Rather narrow at 27.5” wide, but nearly an amazing 120” ( 10ft ) long.

It continues to serve them well during big family gatherings, though it does show the effects of a long life.

They wish to keep all the “wear & charm”, yet have a bit more protection and clean-ability.

Since I will be adding to what’s already on the table now instead of stripping the finish, the first step was a dish soap and baking soda wash down for the dirt, dust, oils. This was followed by a oxalic acid bath to remove dark stains that form from a chemical reaction ( black rust )

Looking much better at this stage, and needs to dry off overnight before some structural work gets done.

03/23/2025

“Go Sweden”
…
After doing the initial color staining on an Ethan Allen side table it was time to start applying the finish ( Finnish?? )

Not sure when the “Swedish look” came one the market, but I’ve seen 1950’s references to piece with a “white cast”, that wasn’t “pickled” nor “white washed”

When stain dries the color & hue looks a bit off, so I applied a clear Sanding Sealer to better under how the color & saturation looked.

Using the unstripped table edge, I was “very” close to what was needed.

This let me mix up my clear topcoat with small/tiny amounts of white pigment and white microlith ( dye ). Something like 8oz of topcoat to 6 drops of each color.

This “frosted” look was enough to blend well with the color on the unstripped base.

Not sure how Sweden will do in the World Cup, or Eurovision, but as they support Ukraine, I’ll call them a winner like my color match.

03/20/2025

Making Stain, Sane
…
Small 3 legged side table is in the shop current to deal with an area of missing finish and other small defects.

“Strip-sanding” is my preferred method of removing color & finish.

This table also has numerous dents that were able to pop-up with a damp towel & hot clothes iron.

Since only the top was getting done, I brought out my color test strips to find a combination and intensity of color that worked well.

The colors go into a diluted clear stain base ( ICA VEA 304 ) that is very forgiving in applying and wiping off evenly.

However, in this case the slow drying time let color bleed back out of the pores, and create dark freckles.

After a couple days of frustration, I found that first applying the diluted stain in Clear, followed by the colored stain, and using a sander to “power buff” off the excess gave good results.

Much stress and hair-pulling up to that point however.

Now things can dry overnight and I can’t count work on spraying the topcoat which will have just a bit of white to complete the project.

02/12/2025

“The Perils of Parra Wood”
…
A lot of furniture these days is coming out of South East Asia; Thailand, Malaysia, and such.

Typically here were are using maple, cherry, oak, etc. For them is Parra, aka Rubber wood.

Not that it’s super flexible or anything, but where latex is harvested until the tree gets too old. And at that point turned into lumber.

The table that’s in the shop now was needing some love & attention; which the clients wished to do by making it a nice clean white color.

The original finish looked intact and not failing/flaking. So the plan was to wash it clean and scuff it for good adhesion, before applying a durable white tinted urethane.

There were issues when spraying that on, but what I was disappointed in was that it didn’t stick. Dragging a fingernail would peel my work off.

As I sanded the table based I was shocked how easy the original finish came off. Barely any pressure and only 120 grit paper was needed.

What likely was done at the factory to save money was to apply only a sanding sealer, which is supposed to be a thin base layer for the durable topcoat to bond to.

When applied thickly, sanding sealer looks pretty; but has little durability. And further topcoats don’t stick.

I had originally planned to put 60-90 minutes into this table. And now after sanding that all away, I’m closer to 4 hours since I started.

It should be ready to finish again with a bit more work.

Hopefully this “Little Shop of Horrors” can once again become “Snow White.”

01/31/2025

“It’s Full of Scars”
…
A large black Monolith ( 42”x96” ) landed in the shop today.

Restoration Hardware sells this as Vintage Reclaimed Architectural Lumber to (re)create an “bygone” look.

However, the finish is so fragile that it “doesn’t last a day.”

I typically power “strip-sand” finishes, so the challenge/odessy was to keep as much texture and “character” without a dead smooth surface.

6” Festool Rotex is great for removing material, but then it’s little 3” brother gets in the dips & divots.

Sanding is something that I “endure”, and instead think of other things like Richard Strauss.

Cue the drums. Da-Da-DaDUMMM ( not JAWS )

12/16/2024

Should I “Lye”?
…
I always make a point of evaluating and getting my clients a written estimate with the cost and tasks I expect to do.

In this case it’s a solid cherry drop leaf table made by a small shop in the late 1970’s for a specific customer.

My client found this in a thrift store for only $40.

The top finish was “gone” at this point and had been cleaned with Murphy’s Oil Soap.

Strip-sanding with 80 grit revealed there was “oil & goo” in the wood fibers, which slowed things down.

Some rings and other stains were revealed making doubly important then to thoroughly wash the top down with dish soap & baking soda.

After two rounds of washing I wasn’t convinced that it was fully clean, and told the client I would “degrease” the wood with a Lye solution.

This also in the past has been used to chemically darken the wood without stain.

The lye had overnight to do its work and yes there was still an “oil slick” when washed again.

Finally, the top was ready to get coats of 2800 “natural” finish which gives the “raw wood” and the durability of a urethane.

I won’t lie, that “lye” revealed the Truth & Beauty of this table.

Jeff's Fine Finishing Service

07/20/2025

05/22/2025

05/21/2025

03/31/2025

03/31/2025

03/28/2025

03/28/2025

03/23/2025

03/20/2025

02/12/2025

01/31/2025

12/16/2024

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