Reviving an old oak mantlepiece

[Edmund Burke]

Hi folks,

This is my first post in the finishing forum, and I am pretty inexperienced with any kind of fine finish work.

Earlier this year, we had a professional stripping shop, strip a 112-year old oak mantlepiece. They did a fine job, but, as the piece spent the past nine months sitting, awaiting installation, it has dried and begun to show some sizable cracks, mostly in a couple of small columns that were glued up and turned. My overall plan is to stain with a water-based stain and finish the piece with shellac, pretty much as it was finished originally (though, by the time we had it stripped, it had several coats of paint).

My question is; Should we oil the piece to forestall any more cracking, and, if so, should we use BLO, or mineral oil, or something else?

Also, I guess I'd like to close up the cracks, which are about 1/16th at this point, but, as you can imagine, the wood is dry and as hard as granite and I don't see much hope in pulling it back together, but, if anyone has had success doing that on a piece like this, I'd certainly like to hear about it.

Thanks very much. I appreciate your input.

Edmund Burke

[John TenEyck]

Cracks normally happen due to rapid moisture loss. Was the mantle stored somewhere damp prior to when it was stripped, and then brought into a really dry environment afterwards? I suppose another option is that the stripper that was used attacked the glue in the columns and they split along those glue lines. In any case, putting oil on it won't reverse or mitigate the cracks, and will hinder the absorption of a water based stain.

I think I'd be inclined to leave the cracks; afterall, the piece is 112 years old. It has a right to a few signs of old age. Even if I decided to fill the cracks, I think I'd wait to do so until after I had it dyed and/or stained and applied at least one coat of finish. At that point, the cracks may not be very noticeable if the color is fairly dark. But if the they still offend you at that point, you should be able to fill them with a matching wood filler, epoxy and pigment or dye, or shellac sticks. Then apply another coat of finish and be done.

John

[Kent A Bathurst]

What John said. Get the finishing underway, and then decide on filler, etc.

Also - I wonder - where is it being stored now? What kind of ambient conditions in terms of temp and humidity? Inside a house? IT went through some kind of environmental changes to get to where it is today.

I'm thinking that in a normal environment, the cracks may start to close up naturally. But - maybe not. Where are you located?

[Edmund Burke]

The piece has been stored in the parlor, where it has lived these 112 Summers gone by. I think the likelihood is that the stripping agent weakened the glue bond and the wood just did what wood does. The Winter will only make it drier in that room, though I have the heat register covered. I am wondering if I should give it a coat of Sealcoat before staining to even out the grain and maybe slow down the absorption of the stain? I am concerned that, when I apply the stain, it will just soak into the wood right where it's placed and perhaps get mottled. Obviously, I have to get this right from the very start.

Thanks for your replies.

Edmund Burke

[John TenEyck]

That's a real concern and your idea to use a coat of SealCoat first is a good idea. I also would not use a waterbased stain for the very reasons you stated; rather, I think I'd use an oil based gel stain. Since you have no scrap to practice on about the best you can do is to clean up the back side and use it as your practice specimen.

If you are pretty sure the columns split on their glue joints, is there any way to remove them such that they could be cleanup, re-glued, and then reinstalled?

John

[Edmund Burke]

The refinishers took it apart, but I'm not going to go there. The cracks don't bother me that much as is. As you say, it's a hundred years old. I just was worried about them getting worse. I figured to test the stain on the back and I appreciate the suggestion to use a gel stain. Is that because it doesn't soak in as fast?

[John TenEyck]

Yes, oil based stain inherently gives you more working time than water based, and a gel version gives you even more. Over a shellac wash it will have very low tendency to blotch and, if you don't like it, you can wipe it off with a mineral spirit soaked rag (before it dries) and start over.

John

[Edmund Burke]

Great! That sounds like the way to go. Thanks very much for your advice.

Edmund

[Jim Rimmer]

I just love Sawmill Creek. What a great load of advice for this fella.