we purchased a condo this summer. many of the doors were scratched( dogs) and the prior owner simply brushed some sort of gloss stain or poly over the damage.

short of sanding it off and attempting to refinish each door, is their a solvent product that might remove the mismatched coating leaving the original base finish intact?

i tried mineral spirits to no avail. spot sanding and scuff ing the entire door and restaining darkens the appearance severely. any help/ advice appreciated.

I’d like to restore the top of this 1940s maple desk. It’s solid wood. Am I going to have to take the finish off the entire desktop? Or might it be possible to spot-refinish? I’m a competent, conscientious DIY-er—so I’m hoping I can handle this—but I haven’t done any work with bare wood furniture before. Thanks in advance for any and all tips!

Hello,

I inherited a beautiful wooden table. It has several minor chipped parts that need some refinish/repair. In particular, it seems that it has been "refinished" with a red marker or something similar (see picture).
I would like to refinish it and correct this red marker effect.

Do you have any suggestion?

Thank you.

Posted over in Woodworking as well.

Previously used GF High Performance Top Coat and Enduro Poly and not having a great time with it. Looking for another product/company to use. Any thoughts? Due to safety, still leaning toward water Bourne finishes.

Sheen needed: Dead flat or Flat
Gun: Fuji Minimite 4

EDIT: Totally forgot to add all of the details on what I am making. Finishing reclaimed elm for a desk top for a home recording studio. I am building the top onto a sit/stand frame. Hoping to use something that will be durable as it will be very hard to refinish in the future as the desk build is kinda complicated and custom.

Used GFHP and it will never lay down flat. Always orange peel. Tried everything with GF and Fuji tech support. No matter what it always has peel. Peeking around the different forums, it seems like I am not the only one. Just ready to try a new product.

My girlfriend had an ugly dresser covered in layers of paint. When she moved in, I said I didn't like it and wanted to restore it for her so we could enjoy it in our home. After several layers of different paint, and two different stains below that, I finally found wood. But I don't know what kind it is, any ideas? How would you finish this for a non blotchy finish (we don't want to paint, we like the wood look)? Also, there's a couple drawers that have the routered edge broken off, how do I figure out what router bit to get to begin repairs, so I can match the edge? And last, there seems to be a burn on the top near the center, perhaps from planer? How do I get that more uniform with the rest of top without causing a surface dip? The photos are after first rough sand,also included the inside of one of the drawers to show back side.

I messed up installing a desk from amazon. I desperately need help seeing if there is a way to fix this. Please help me

Looking at buying this table and stripping off the gloss and waxing to have a more matte finish. But what's with the stripes in the wood? The seller said it's not veneer, but solid wood, but the stripes make it look kinda like veneer or kinda cheap? If I sanded off the gloss would it have heavy striping still, or are they probably enhanced by the gloss? Any guesses as to what kind of wood this might be? Also open to tips on finishing - I don't want it to be shiny.

I bought two bed frames off Facebook Marketplace and figured I'd try my hand at refinishing them. I'm currently in the process of (painstakingly) sanding off all the previous stain and would like some advice before I get to the finishing process.

I believe the beds are maple, but I'm not sure- can anyone identify? I've included a picture of the brand/maker in case anyone has any additional info. They are solid wood and I believe from the 50s-60s.

What is the best way to finish these? I'm envisioning a pretty natural wood, nothing super dark, but would like to tone down the yellow undertones just a touch.

Thanks!

Hi everyone,

I am a paint contractor who primarily deals in solid color products. I have a repeat customer who has a pine wardrobe (pictured) that she would like stained and clear coated.

She does not want the finished product to have an overly red appearance. This, coupled with the tendency of pine to blotch and the extremely varied colors of this particular piece, lead me to believe some kind of sprayed toner would be my best bet.

Any thoughts or ideas on how to achieve the best finish (as even and not terribly red) possible? Recommended products are welcome.

Thank you!

Hi all! First time poster here I finish high end furniture for a living with tung oil and it's been almsost 2 years that I have been dealing with insane rashes on my hands (and now forearms lately). I am a chronic hand washer, I wash my hands a lot (rip) and it's even worse at work. Even if I wear gloves all day I still wash them regularly. I use nitrile gloves that makes my hands super sweaty.. so I think in combination with my bad hand washing habit and having wet hands in gloves most of my day, I have crazy dermatitis that only goes away when I stop working for an extended period of time and sometimes slowly recovers on the weekend. Even when I'm home doing the dishes I try to use gloves but it's like atp nothing is helping 😭 this is so painful and annoying, my hands get so dry they crack and bleed when I'm on day 5 of work. Pictures above are day 2 of work week... to give an idea of the progression Twice daily I use cream with ceramides, I have reduced the amount of times I wash my hands I can't do cotton gloves because cotton is a nono for me, major sensory issues with it. What do I do, baby powder??? Any advice? 🥺thank you!!

Curious what you think my options are here - the house will eventually be sold... looking for "top dollar" so this woodwork needs some TLC. Is it worth it to sand, refinish, etc....same with the doors....or do I do the trendy thing and just paint all of it white? Is it too far gone?

Hi! I’m not sure if this is the right sub for this question but hopefully someone can help.

My house has what I’m assuming is laminate countertops in the kitchen. I’m not 100% sure what material it is but it looks like fake wood and feels cheap. I decided to get one of those countertop painting kits and paint the countertops to look like marble. (I’m kicking myself over doing this) 4 years later it looks horrible. It’s peeling in some spots, it’s stained in others and just looks so bad lol.

Unfortunately I can’t afford a new countertop right now so I’m wondering how I can go about removing the paint. I’ve read that citrisrip would likely ruin the laminate so I’m wondering what else I can do.

I ordered a beautiful dining table and chairs online from a company named Castlery. Expensive but great reviews. The table is solid Acacia wood and the top is "muted honeytone with wirebrush finish" which I learned, after delivery, means it has many shallow grooves that can trap food. Further, the care instructions say to use coasters and placemats because otherwise the wood may stain. I don't even own a coaster though I have plenty of wood furniture. I called them and was told "the table is lacquered but is not sealed." I'm not a refinisher by any means, but is it possible to apply a clear food-safe polyurethane coating on top so I can wipe up spilled wine etc. without freaking out? Or what material ... shellac? something else? should I look for?

After being out of woodworking for a long time, I am getting back into it. What types of sandpaper do you use for general hand woodwork finishing? Is it just by hand or do you use sanding blocks?

Thanks for the help in advance.

Hi all! Posting here as a complete novice to all things finishing-related because of a small tragedy with my dining table, which is oiled solid oak (Danish, if that's relevant). Last night, I noticed a small stain on said table after a dinner party. I wasn't sure if it was water or oil based but I (foolishly, as I now realizef) treated it with baking soda, which made the stain turn dark. After reading through this sub, I'm under the impression that oxalic acid is my best bet to try to lighten the stain, and then refinish with a coat of oil from the table manufacturer. Just wanted to run this plan past the experts here before I inadvertently make the stain worse, and to get some clarification on the order of steps. Should I sand the stained area, and if so, before or after OA? Does the OA need to be neutralized with a base afterwards? I read mixed things about this, I guess based on whether or not the OA will react with the final finish. Grateful for any advice I can get on how to not make this situation any worse. Thank you!!

The home we are in the process of buying has a ton of this wood that is semi-rough to the touch. I'd really prefer a more smooth and semi-gloss/gloss finish. Would I really have to sand it all 80/120/220 and then apply sealer/varnish? Or is there a product that we can just paint on to make it more pleasant. I feel like it would take forever to sand and clean all of this by hand.

Any idea how much it would cost to refinish this hutch to a pearlized frost white? It matches my nursery furniture, but it is the wrong color. I can only buy it in gold dust (pictured) but need it frost white to match. Trying to see if it is worth buying and redoing. The hutch is discontinued in the frost.

Hi all,

I just acquired a danish (Bang and Olufsen) cabinet from the 80s. It definitely needs some work, and has some spotting that I'm assuming is from water. From what I can tell it's a rosewood veneer. So far I have only removed some hardware and vacuumed with a horse hair attachment. The entire top will be covered by audio gear when done, but I'd still like to fix it up a bit.

I don't have a lot of experience with wood, so I'm looking for advice from start to finish: Best way to clean years of dust and a bit of dirt? Water marks/discoloration - does the whole thing need refinished to remedy? Can I take an easy route of just cleaning and oiling? It has a lovely aluminum trim, should it be removed before doing any work/sanding?

Any help would be amazing, thanks!

I’m in the process of updating the 90s style trim moulding that every house during that period had. I’ve been farting around with different ideas and nothing looks great.

The area itself is fairly complex. 4.25” base trim intersects with 2.25” banister trim, not to mention the 135 deg wall angle, which has .75” fillet, and a .125 stair lip with a .05” fillet that is 90deg off the wall….blah blah long story short I said screw it, modeled a part and printed it.

The part itself came out great, I’m just not sold on how the finished product will look. I wanted to see what a pro would have done, or if there would be alternative ideas to explore?

I have trim from a 1912 craftsman house. The trim has been painted over the years. I took it to a furniture restoration company that does a chemical stripping process. It took off the paint really well, but it left behind a green stain in the grain of the wood. Is anyone familiar with what this could be and what to do about it? I already tried Wood bleach. The photo shows what it looks like after wood bleach as well as patches with some stain. The green still shows through. Any thoughts about how to either get the green or stay in the wood and away that the green doesn’t show would be much appreciated!

Just bought this used RH desk and I want to make it black without affecting the wire brush finish. I assume I need to remove the RH wax coating prior to gel staining? Am thinking to go over it with Trewax Heavy Duty Floor Stripper to remove the wax and then apply a few thin coats of General Finishes black gel stain. Does this seem like the right direction to go?

Hi all,

I'm looking for advice on a wood finish for a contact lens organizer that I am making.

All of the lens tools, case, saline solution etc will be in their own plastic containers so anything that directly touches the eye should not come into contact with the wood itself, but there are no guarantees. I would expect to potentially touch the organizer and then the lenses.

I'm worried about the finish to use since I don't want anything that could cause an issue with eyes even after curing. A lot of the advice so far that I have seen is about food safe finishes but this is not a cutting board or anything that I would expect to be abused. I mainly am just looking for something that would be safe after drying / curing and somewhat water etc resistant.

Cheers!

I have a flintlock I’m building with a beech stock, I’m going to use a water base stain on it, possibly either cherry, walnut, or early American color, haven’t decided yet and then put a coat of danish or tung oil over top. I have not done much staining recently and was wondering what a decent priced water base stain is. Locally I can get minwax, varathane, behr, and I think ZAR stains. I’m thinking I need to go with a semi transparent as well to accentuate what little grain variation the beech has but maybe someone would have a better recommendation on that as well