Amateur Question: Refinishing Inlaid Veneer Surface

[Sean Parsel]

I am a complete woodworking/craftsman novice and I have found myself in a predicament and I want to try and fix it myself.

I have an inlaid veneer table that I spilled 100% acetone on in two places. For the first spot the bottle of acetone was left on the table overnight and apparently some leaked and it dissolved the finish and some of the underlying stain. The second spot was a superficial spill that only removed some layers of the finish and not the stain.

Anyway, I would like to try and refinish the table top but I am afraid I may be in over my head. As you can see in the picture the inlay in the center is a different color (it is much lighter) than the outer pieces. I am wondering if these pieces were originally stained with different stains before being inlaid. If I removed the stain and finish would I be able to use one stain for the entire top or would I be forced to use multiple stains to restore it to it's original appearance?

Secondly, the outer edges of the table are darkened (it looks as if it were painted black). I guess my question is: are the edges painted to make that appearance?

I figured if I used a stripping agent I could easily remove the finish and stain and redo everything to restore it to its original glory but I am afraid it will be harder than I think. Is there a way to remove only the finish and leave the stain, or am I stuck removing both layers?

I posted this on a different forum and someone suggested blending the blemishes with acetone or by sanding and then applying a poly to the entire surface after I had buffed out the spots. I think this might work with the superficial spots but I am not sure if I can do that for the big spot (you can see that in the pictures). Would this be my best bet?

Any advice or suggestions would be much appreciated.

Pictures can be seen here: http://s1109.photobucket.com/albums/...parsel1/Table/

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Sean,

Welcome to the Creek!

You are more likely to get responses for this in the Finishing Forum. SMC doesn't allow double posting so with your permission, I'd be glad to move it there.

[Sean Parsel]

Ken,

Thank you very much. I didn't see that forum I guess. I would greatly appreciate the move.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Done......

Good luck with your project!

[sheldon pettit]

Hey Sean, That's a factory finish, most likely done with dye toners. the steps would be to seal and fill with a dark filler or a dark glaze, [which you can see in the C. elm star pores, center] then sealed again and then spray toned with dye, the outer rim was done for two reasons to make it as dark as it is, one to take away from the fact of using a cheap mahogany also of light color like the center and to secondly blend in the lighter colored edges. This is known as shading and a dark brown [blackish brown] dye toner was used for that, that is what has caused the slight black lip edge you see. There may have been a glaze step in there also but it's hard to tell for sure. The cow tails and other distressing are done with glazes normally.

This is not something i would advise a novice to take on, try calling around to a furniture finish establishment to see if they will do it OK? This is almost all spray work and unless you had the equipment to do such and the ability to do so as to matching colors, seeing as there are chairs involved also, it could not turn out well for you. you can also see if a touch up man is available to just do the repairs and no refinishing by calling around from the phonebook.

If you still want to proceed on your own, be my guest, I'm sure others will chime in on this, but to me this is not a "home project" for a newbie.

[Sean Parsel]

Hey Sean, That's a factory finish, most likely done with dye toners. the steps would be to seal and fill with a dark filler or a dark glaze, [which you can see in the C. elm star pores, center] then sealed again and then spray toned with dye, the outer rim was done for two reasons to make it as dark as it is, one to take away from the fact of using a cheap mahogany also of light color like the center and to secondly blend in the lighter colored edges. This is known as shading and a dark brown [blackish brown] dye toner was used for that, that is what has caused the slight black lip edge you see. There may have been a glaze step in there also but it's hard to tell for sure. The cow tails and other distressing are done with glazes normally.

This is not something i would advise a novice to take on, try calling around to a furniture finish establishment to see if they will do it OK? This is almost all spray work and unless you had the equipment to do such and the ability to do so as to matching colors, seeing as there are chairs involved also, it could not turn out well for you. you can also see if a touch up man is available to just do the repairs and no refinishing by calling around from the phonebook.

If you still want to proceed on your own, be my guest, I'm sure others will chime in on this, but to me this is not a "home project" for a newbie.

That is truly unfortunate. I got a quote from someone who does finishing and they said it would be nearly $800 for something like this. I can buy a new set for under $400 so this is out of the question.

Does anyone else have any suggestions that would be cheaper than $400? If not, I will just buy a new table but it is unfortunate.

[ray hampton]

since you own the table already and will buy a new one, why not strip the whole table top and refinish it, if this is out of the question then try to do the spot yourself IF YOU can take your good old time at the refinish, ALL EXPERT RE FINISHERS started out as know nothing greenhorns

[Shawn Pixley]

I'm with Sheldon here. If you are trying to "un-marr" the finish / look you have, it would be a very challenging job. If however, you were willing to totally refinish and didn't care for a perfect match (shaded edges, etc...), you could give it a try with a total refinish. So, in my view there are four choices.

Try to refinish yourself
Find someone that is equipped for this to do a total refinish
Find Someone who can patch repair this (pretty tough in my book).
By a new top.

If it were me, I would try number 1