I'm not sure what is the best way to go about refinishing my woodwork. I've seen plenty of different opinions on how to go about it, but it's a little confusing. There's several options that I know of: You got shellac, varnish, stain/polyurethane. Seeing as how I'm trying to restore my house as much as possible to it's former glory (more or less), I'd really like to get this right.
1. The shellac. I've heard lots of good things about this. It is what was most likely used in homes of this period and I'm all for doing the resto thing if the wood was in fact shellac'd originally. I've been lazy to actually try out the alcohol test to see if my wood is indeed finished in shellac. And therein lies my second problem. The vast majority of the wood in the home (aside from the painted woodwork) has already been altered. Meaning the original finish had already been sanded (somewhat superficially), stained, and polyurethaned. The last bit of original wood finish that remains is on my pocket doors and the inside of a closet door. Some appear to be molested a bit more than others. Another thing to consider is I've already refinished my kitchen stairs with stain/poly and now wonder if perhaps I was a bit too hasty without considering all my options.
2. The varnish. Honestly, I don't know much about this and haven't really considered it.
3. The stain/polyurethane. I already have experience using these from my kitchen stairs. It can be a bit of a pain to work with and if it gets scuffed in some way you dont have the option to fix it as easily as shellac. Plus it's not original.
So what do you think folks? I've got a few weeks before I get to the point where I seriously have to decide what I'm going to do. The nursery will be the first woodwork project on a large scale and I don't want to regret how I do this.. Help!!
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When you say "woodwork" what do you mean? For example, I used shellac on my baseboards & crown molding. Its easy to use and the least toxic (good for baby). I'd never use it on window casing or sashes because it's not impervious to water, weather, sun... Varnish was also commonly used back in the day and is more durable than shellac - good for windows or high use items. (thats what was originally on my windows, doors, etc.) Oil poly has man made resins, but is very similar to shellac (natural resins). People love to dis it, but is is technically just another varnish. I restored my kitchen with amber shellac because that's what it has always been - but if I had my choice, would not use shellac in a kitchen. I also think the "repairability" of shellac is overrated. My house has (and always has had) a combo of shellac & varnish finishes. Without prompting, I think most people would have great trouble telling the dfference between a clear shellac, oil poly & tradisition varnish. I wouldn't sweat it too much - choose what works for your purposes. My opinions - there you have them :-)
I am doing the doors in my house with Tung Oil... I'm not sure what category taht technically fits in, though.
I think if I was doing a staircase I might use shellac... not sure about baseboards and trims!
Hmm.. when I say woodwork I mean all of it. Baseboards, picture rails, door trim, doors, windows, etc. I guess what I'm trying to say is most of the wood in the house has already had the original finish altered.
The downstairs only has the original finish in two places. It's not like I'm just stripping off the paint and the original finish is underneath. The damage has already been done. The upstairs was originally painted, but with one room already refinished and two more mostly gutted of the woodwork (which will be replaced and refinished), I only really have the nursery and the upstairs hallway to work on. Aside from the layers of paint, this is still virgin wood (never stained, shellaced, etc).
I would like to keep the same finish uniform throughout the house though.. The reason why I went with poly initially is because I liked the durability of it. I also like how shellac can be repaired without sanding back down to bare wood. I don't know.. I guess I'm asking is if I do just use the polyurethane will it be considered sacrilege if I don't use shellac or even varnish?
When I look at the wood that I refinished with stain/poly it looks pretty darn close to the wood around it in the kitchen stairs. Now that I think about it, most of the original finish in that area is intact too.. Ah decisions, decisions! Thanks for brainstorming with me.. :)
Hi jennifer! I've never heard of tung oil, but I'll look into it. I wonder if back in the day people worried about such things when they were building these houses. They'd probably get a kick out of all this.. hehe
Now that I think about all of this, shellac and varnish may be the way to go. One thing really caught my eye in your commennt, "good for baby". I'm already paranoid working on this room with my wife in the same house although I only work on it when she's not around and clean up like crazy after I'm done. The fact that this is probably what was used anyway makes me feel like that's probably the right choice.
I have a question though. It doesn't matter what stain I use though, correct? I already have the stain I want that matches very closely to the original finish, I forget the brand. So I would only need to use a clear shellac.
Your comment on how varnish was used on high use areas makes sense. I've never used varnish before, but I assume you can apply it in the same way as shellac? I'm going to try this out on the windows and doors.
First thing I need to do is get a couple spare pieces of pine to play with so I can experiment with all this. I want to feel confident on what I'm doing before I actually do anything to this room. Thanks for your help!! :)
poly=varnish. It just has man made polymeres. It is one of the varnishes that "cures" rather than dries. I would not feel at all bad about using it on the rest of your house. It is durable, looks nice and is the kissing cousin to what was probably originally there (and I'm pretty much of a purist ;-)
Tung oil is a penetrating oil finish. Pretty, but almost no surface protection. It makes the grain "pop" in some woods. Lots of people use it (or boiled linseed oil) below another more durable finish.
Some stains are funky with some finishes. Read the back label, as it should say if it is incompatible with any type of finish.
You mentioned that you would like to use the same finish throughout for uniformity. Not a bad idea...but don't feel like you have to. Most of the finishes you have talked about look very similar when dried. I'd consider the durability factor first.
Awesome tips, thank you!
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