All in , all done .... miracle recovery .... descriptive post below
We finished a couple of interesting repairs last week and I was sending photos to clients so I thought I would post them here too ... The bureau above is one of the last pieces of furniture we have to restore that was damaged in the fire I have occasionally written about. I thought it was a goner as it took several days in the sun to even get it open, and when we finally did, it really didnt look too promising ... Looks can be deceiving though and by the time Jim stripped the smoked shellac and sanded the interior and resealed it, I was starting to be just a little more optimistic. Click the photos to enlarge them ...
Here, Jim has stripped off the toasted shellac and sanded the interior, which he is now coating with a seal coat of shellac and wax to get rid of the smoke odor.
There were then some repair necessary to the face that that you can see in the first photo above ...
I chipped off what was left of the round corners and replaced them with new veneers. The masking tape was a good trick. It allowed me to bend the veneers cold without the pieces breaking or separating, kind of like a paper backed veneer would be, only thicker...
I taped them in place with the repair mans friend, 3M 2040 masking tape, a stretchy but strong and sticky clamp..
The stripped and sanded drawers ... Whats up with that top one? ..
We applied a thin coat of aniline dye, recoating some elements a couple of times to balance the color, and then shellaced with a wash coat of diluted fresh amber shellac. Well build slowly in thin coats from here until we reach the desired shine, which will not be too terribly shiny ... The hardware has been cleaned and reantiqued and is ready to go back on when the finish is complete ... I think it will look like a million bucks when its done ...
Another fire victim in the before stage ....
In the almost finished stage. The brass was polished and then reantiqued and the shellac was built slowly as mentioned above ... We finished the top with a coat of black patinating wax which was perfect for the job .... The Revere bowl was totally black and looked almost hopeless before Jim got to work on it ...
This is another repair that came through recently from Hildene, Robert Todd Lincolns home, in Manchester, Vermont. We had a huge windstorm a couple of weeks ago, which blew open the French doors at the house and knocked the table across the room
Before ...
After
(Almost) Like the swallows returning to Capistrano, the ducks are back ... They arrived last Friday, as usual, almost to the day that the stream first cuts a channel across the ice. They were tired from their trip and were napping when we got to work on Friday, but Monday, whoa, below, we had an intruder ... a single female and they did not like here. We watched off and on for the morning while they chased her back and forth across the pond, and finally, she left ... Things were back to normal today but it was fun while it lasted ... Kits got the redwing blackbirds at the feeder too ... Big Tom turkey yesterday morning and the she also saw the bobcat briefly one morning last week, probably stalking the squirrels. Spring is coming ... Click the pictures to enlarge them ...
Back and forth ... when she got to the edge, she would fly back over their heads and the chase would continue, til finally she left ... havent seen her since ...
A little earlier than usual ... but Sam said this afternoon the leeks are up ... global warming I guess ...
Well, it doesnt look like well have her in the water by the first of June . . .
It started innocently enough back in November when it was decided that we would paint the bar cabinet below, black ... Since then, we have had three other black projects come through. One, a take off in vanity form on the bar project, the second a laundry cabinet that we designed back in November but didnt decide on the finish until we were, well, ready to finish it, a couple of weeks ago. Weve got a good black on walnut or mahogany finish that Ill detail as we go ... Click the photos to enlarge them ...
The bar cabinet from right before Christmas .. We detailed the finishing of that one in that post and this cabinet was pretty much the same ...
Since my last post on this project we added the interior drawers
Here is the cabinet just before the finishing began
First coat was a full strength Lockwood water soluble dye, English Brown Mahogany..
After that was dry, Will sanded it thoroughly with 150 and then applied a second coat of the same dye, a reddish brown ... While that was still wet, he added exterior soft gloss latex and sponged that around until it looked right. We used one of our photography hot lights so we couls see the black cabinet while we were working on it ... It also helped to go around with a clip light while youre working on it and just after the paper towel to pick up spots you might have missed ... It is soooo hard to see a black finish as you apply it ...
The final and all important step is to, after it dries for a half hour or so, buff it with 4 0000 steel wool and polish it aggressively with a paper towel ... Itll look good after that but will still take a couple of oil/varnish coats for full protection and a low sheen.
Also this week we (finally) installed a laundry cabinet that we designed back in November. youve seen it lurking in the shop for many blog posts ... It just couldnt seem to get all done; but, now it is. ... Looks good ... Interesting before and after photo from two different directions
The CAD drawing was modified slightly to make the drawers more functional before we began construction ... And, below, we finished the tv cabinet build out (scroll to the bottom of that one) that we started discussing the same day as the laundry cabinet ... Four black projects in 2 months ... a first ... I like them ...
We moved the tv 8" forward in the cabinet .. the wires were 
