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Thread: Preserving Patina

  1. #1

    Preserving Patina

    Hi all, I have a blanket chest I made out of pine about 25 years ago. The wood and finish has aged to a beautiful orange color, with that aged glow. However, the chest was used as a toy chest rather than a blanket chest, and the top of the lid has taken a beating over time. Dents, scratches, dings, spots where some unidentified liquid melted right through the finish, leaving several gray spots the size of a dime. Is it possible to rehab the top without destroying the patina? If so, how? I'm guessing that the wood was sealed with General Finishes seal a cell, and then finished with polyurethane of some kind. Many thanks for any advice!
    Len

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Southwestern CT
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    1,392
    Do you think the patina was simply from UV light or was some stain added? A basic premise would be to use a finish without UV absorbers.
    "the mechanic that would perfect his work must first sharpen his tools.” Confucius

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Apr 2016
    Location
    Tasmania
    Posts
    2,162
    If you simply strip the finish and don't touch it with sandpaper or tools, you will get a reasonable result. If you have to sand it, you will have to lightly stain it. Stay away from dye as it will look too bright. Better to use pigment for 90% of the colour and tint your clear to finish the colour job. Cheers
    Every construction obeys the laws of physics. Whether we like or understand the result is of no interest to the universe.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    Shoreline, CT
    Posts
    2,923
    I agre that stripping will not have a dramatic effect on the patina as long as you don't sand the surface.

    I don't understand the admonition to avoid dye as giving a "too bright" look. Dye is very versatile, can be intermixed to create any hue desired, and can be diluted to any degree to make the coloration intense or delicate. The trick with dye is that testing on similar surfaces is essential. Such tests must include top coat since the appearance of the dyed surface may change dramatically when the top coat is applied. Stain will work but is no more versatile and in some ways is trickier to get right. It is also much more difficult to adjust if it doesn't look exactly right in the beginning.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Apr 2016
    Location
    Tasmania
    Posts
    2,162
    The advice above is specific to this case. For those who are interested, here's a bit of knowledge picked up over the past 40 odd years.

    Dye and stain - first off, everything that colours a timber before you start applying a protective coating is a stain. There are just different categories of stains. They all behave differently and are used differently to achieve different effects.

    Dye type stains have no real solid content in them. They are colour that penetrates the timber and use this property to create the appearance we want.

    Pigment stains do have some solid content as they use fine physical particles suspended in a carrier fluid to impart colour to the timber. Because of this property, they tend to slightly obscure the appearance of the timber.

    As we all know, old finishes tend to yellow and lose their transparency over time and remember we are talking about 25 year old finish here. Strip that finish off and colour with dye, you end up with a colour that is clear and sharp while the rest of the job is not like this. You have to use a toner to get something approaching the look you need. If you start with a pigment stain, you have the slightly less sharp colour already and need to do far less with colour matching in your second last clear coat.

    It's always best to get 90% of the colour you want right down against the timber otherwise it looks fake. A good staining job is not detectable to the general user.

    Enough for now. It's back on the road as I have to make the Melbourne ferry back to Tasmania this afternoon and I am still in Adelaide. Cheers
    Every construction obeys the laws of physics. Whether we like or understand the result is of no interest to the universe.

  6. #6
    Thanks everyone for the great advice. Much appreciated!

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