Furniture Refinishing

The Restoration News

Well, here we are! Welcome to the Restoration News section of our web site. Here we will keep you updated on local and national news about our efforts with conservation and restoration of furniture.

You will notice the first new thing is the Picture Gallery button which appears along with our other site navigation buttons. At the Picture Gallery you will see some Before and After photos of our work along with some Testimonials from our customers. Speaking of Testimonials, if you feel we’ve done a dramatic restoration on your furniture drop us an e-mail to: woodoctr@aol.com we might feature it right here on the web site! Of course your home address can be kept anonymous as well as your complete name if you so desire. We just want our potential customers to be as excited about restoring their furniture as you were!

We’re not exactly sure how we going to manage this section, but it will have new information being added at least every 4 to 6 weeks. This section will probably also replace our previous in-home newsletter. Our customer list has grown to over 8,400 people. With that large number it has become quite costly to do regular mailings. A direct e-mail program with updates to this page is in the works.

Please bear with us as we incorporate these changes to this web site.

And just a personal thanks, from me for all of your support over the years.

Sincerely,
Darrel Kestner/ Master Craftsman
Furniture Physicians Co. and Darrel Kestner Restorations

And now there's more split Bamboo furniture... We've been seeing more Bamboo used in place of wood products lately. Can't really fault the logic for quick growing renewable resource but there are some problems when this material is used for furniture building. I've worked on several large coffee tables that have been made of bamboo. The material has natural splits in it from shrinkage which occurs after drying. To get a smooth table top they must "fill" the split areas with a paste style filler. From what I've seen they simply put a dye in a plaster dust solution and fill all these cracks. Once the pieces have been imported to the United States they continue to shrink and the fillers crack loose. They crumble and dust, usually into your carpet. Remember, I said the filler contains dye, right? If you mistakenly think these are food crumbs and use a wet paper towel or rag to swipe them up you will permanently stain your carpeting. Best thing to do is carefully vacuum up these particle with a shop vac. or use your upholstery tool on your home vac. Don't smear this stuff or you'll ruin your carpet!
-Darrel

Thinking about new furniture??? You might want to read this first...
NEW FURNITURE- I've been flooded with calls this year about problems with new furniture so I thought you might need some of this information. First, about the only manufacturing concerns that are making "American Made" furniture are the Amish. If you are buying almost any retail store item, NO MATTER HOW EXPENSIVE OR WHAT BRAND, it is at best, being made overseas and simply assembled here. Several chair makers have now decided that it is not COST EFFECTIVE to use glue in their chair joints anymore and simply spot nail, screw, and bolt their chairs. Have a medium to dark brown bedroom set with a lot of fancy carvings? Do the the nicks "in the wood" look yellow or white? The yellow underneath is expanded polystyrene plastic overlayed over pressed paper. The white color is art gesso and plaster overlayed over pressed paper. People are paying big bucks and financing this furniture for 5, 10, 15 years, yet they're calling us in as little as a month with problems. What to do? First, educate yourself. If you think certain pieces are going to get beat up more, disposable furniture is fine for that purpose, just buy it as cheaply as possible. If you want to have furniture that's going to be around for the next decade your best bet is shopping for older furniture that was made before the 1970's and simply have it refinished to your tastes (color, gloss, etc.). Need new furniture? Look up Amish and local craft furniture dealers in your area. If you already own some of these new problem pieces you've come to the right place. I do have specific training for repairing pressed paper, plastic, plaster, etc. type furniture surfaces. No, I may not be able to refinish these pieces but I can probably extend their life until you get them paid off! - Darrel
And it still gets worse...
Yes, there are reports of more leaded finishes appearing on imported furniture. A lot of it seems to be the new black coatings (although we tested a few stains that had it, too) you see. The reasoning behind using lead is simple, it is the cheapest way to make coatings more durable, but of course it makes the finish TOXIC. Another restorer from the northern Illinois area said that he encounterd some more African furniture finished in motor oil. I can't even imagine what level of metal toxins would be in that stuff. There's a good reason we recycle motor oils in this country. THEY CERTAINLY DON'T BELONG IN OUR LIVING ROOMS!!!
So you like designer black finishes... Hmmm... how can you get them without buying new??? That's easy, we can do this to almost any furniture for you from a dull or eggshell soft black to higher gloss looks. We can also do "strike outs" on your edges. A strike out is done by removing some of the black on edges and spindles (just about any area you want) to achieve wear patterns. This makes pieces look hundreds of years old but still giving you the protection of clear sealers under those strike out areas. Several people in recent months have had us match table tops to cherry or mahogany cabinetry while doing the table base and chairs in these black effects. Furniture from the 40's, 50's, and 60's take on a completely contemporary look when done in satin black.
Maintenance tips for your furniture... Here's just a few simple things that can help keep your furniture in better shape. Worn edges- When the color and coating wear away from the edges of table or stand tops moisture can easliy creep under your finish and start lifting even the veneer edges. Best thing to do? Just go down to your local Home Depot and pick up some Minwax brand markers in several colors. These markers can stain and seal in one quick motion just by turning the tip on it's side and running it all the way around your top edge. Scratch Hide Cover products- Most of these polishes contain a powerful dye and worse Iodine. Doesn't look like that big of a problem until you have the piece refinished. Then the scratches that have made it to bare wood flash bright pink from the left over scratch hide polish.