We were given an old Lane cedar chest by a friend with the intention that it would go to my grand-daughter Hadley. It had a lot of promise with an interesting “waterfall” lid design and some beautiful veneer. So I took it on as a “diamond in the rough” sort of project.
The chest was showing its age with badly cracked finish, chips missing from the veneer, blisters on the lid due to water damage and the tray not working due to the hinges being bent. As far as I can tell it would have been from the 1940s or early 1950s. The chest has a mixture of walnut mahogany, oak and an unknown veneer.
The major tasks were to strip the old finish and then refinish with stain and lacquer. The repairs had to be completed first to address the blisters and the large veneer chips.
Blistered top
The top on the left side had some raised / blistered portions. It was not that the veneer itself had loosened from the substrate but rather that the substrate which is particle board had expanded. This appears to be water damage since there is also discoloration and darkening of the veneer in the same areas. The top design is such that the main area is raised slightly (1/16-3/32″ or 1-1.5mm) above the edge banded perimeter. It appears that the water got into that raised edge. The substrate for the top appears to be particle board which expanded, raising the top blisters. There were 3 of these areas on the left side.
Pressing on the raised areas, they moved a little but would not go back down flat. The particle board had expanded. Even clamping would not bring it down. So I needed to “excavate” the particle board fragments through the side and remove enough material to bring the top back down level. However, there is the risk of breaking through the top veneer so it must be done carefully.
This was partially accomplished using a modified piece of 1/2″ bandsaw blade from my metal cutting bandsaw . I had just changed the blade a few days before. The blade is broken into about a 12″ long section that is easy to hold. One end is then ground to almost a point. The goal being to be able to jab it in sideways and then hook some of the particle board pieces to take them out. This worked reasonably well for the first inch or so, but was not working to get further under the top veneer. I then used my oscillating multi tool with a 1″ wide blade to get under and grind out the particle board fragments. This needs to be done VERY carefully to avoid cutting up through the top veneer. The sawdust is then blown and vacuumed out of the narrow slot, sometimes using a dental pick to hold it open.
Now with the raised particle board largely removed, it was time to glue and clamp the top. Given that there were gaps under the veneer, regular wood or veneer glue would not work. The work area was masked with blue tape to prevent the epoxy from seeping into the adjoining sections. I mixed up a small one pump batch of West System Epoxy and tinted it with powdered tinting colors to match the color of oak veneer. The glue was worked under the raised sections with the dental pick and the saw blade. It was then clamped using cauls on the top and bottom of the lid to press the veneer down evenly. The tape was removed after about 4 hours before the epoxy fully cured. The excess epoxy is also easy to trim off at this point with a sharp knife or chisel. This is what is referred to as the epoxy “cheddar cheese” state in boat building as this is an apt description of the consistency of the epoxy at the best phase for trimming.
Epoxy was also used on a couple of the loose veneer edges, but generally I use medium CA glue for those types of repairs.
Chipped and missing veneer
Veneer replacement
The largest of the chips in the veneer were in the walnut sections. I had some aged / faded walnut veneer on hand to use for the patch pieces. Rather than trying to butt in pieces to fill the openings, I cut the veneer along the grain. I used a small 6″ pocket rule as the edge guide and a razor knife angling the knife so the cut edge is vertical. The scrap area is gently peeled away using a knife under the edge to lift it up. Then I fitted the replacement pieces. I carefully sanded the edge of the veneer pieces to match the cut, which resulted in a tight fit. I
The largest chips were on the bottom bowed / curved section. This would be very difficult to clamp tightly. So for the largest chip, I used the epoxy after it had set up for about 10 min so it was nice and tacky. I put a thin layer on the open area of the chest and then stuck the prepared veneer on. It was clamped in place with heavy vinyl tape until the epoxy set. It is important when clamping with tape that there be minimal overhang of the veneer past the edge so it does not curve up in the middle. Then the edge is carefully sanded to match the contour and to slightly round over the corner to minimize the chance of it happening again. This was done for the 3 large chipped areas.
Superglue and sawdust was used for some of the smaller chips. The sawdust is packed in the chip and then thin CA glue is dripped on the sawdust. Press it down and then hit it with the accelerator. This can be sanded flush immediately. In some cases, it may take a second try. I keep small jars of fine sifted sawdust in a variety of woods for this purpose. Remember that once the glue is applied the sawdust will darken somewhat.
Tinted epoxy was used on a few of the chipped molding edges to restore the profile.
Chemical stripping
I generally despise having to do chemical stripping. It is messy, slow and toxic. However, with the thin veneer I was tempted into using chemical strippers. I tried less invasive methods first:
1. Alcohol, with the hope that this was a shellac based finish. However this did not work at all.
2. Lacquer thinner. However this really did nothing either. So both shellac and lacquer finishes were ruled out. The finish was also brittle. This meant that it was a varnish or catalyzed lacquer finish. Both are quite hard and resistant to solvents.
I tackled the top first. However, this took a very long time with cycling between applying the stripper and scraping outside and then bringing the piece in and washing / scrubbing off the residue. It took over 4 hours for the top. Plus with the feet, there were more curves and nooks and crannies to clean out. So I switched back to simply scraping instead. Faster, neater and less risk of the veneer peeling off.
Scraping the old finish off
I have scraped the finish off of a few other pieces that I have refinished. If the finish is hard and brittle (e.g. old catalyzed lacquer) it comes of quite easily. However, this piece was still a bit of a struggle as in between the cracks and crazing of the old finish it was still quite well adhered to the underlying wood veneer. When scraping, a cabinet (card) scraper is used. The scraper will need to be resharpened several times on a piece this size. I keep several sharpened scrapers on hand to avoid the temptation to keep going with a dull scraper.
In addition to the card scrapers I have an interchangeable tip scraper. This was very helpful on the curved sections and moldings. When scraping into a “V” between convex surfaces, it is helpful to use your fingers as a guide to avoid marring an adjacent surface with the tips of the scraper.
When scraping off the old finish there are 2-3 phases:
Scraping old finish only. At this point the finish is being scraped down or off and the scrapings / shavings are a dull yellow color.
Scraping the wood. The scrapings now change to the color of the underlying wood. So in the case of the walnut, this is a medium brown. It is quite easy to see the color transition in addition to the change in the sound when scraping. The sound deepens as you go from scraping the finish to the wood. This feedback in color and sound gives a good indication of the depth to which you are cutting and far better than blindly sanding away.
Some woods change color dramatically as they age, with walnut being one of the worst of them. This means that on an old piece such as this, the surface walnut has faded to a sort of “honey brown” color. However, the deeper layers will have the original darker and purplish colors. Going too deep when scraping or sanding risks exposing the darker / purple colored wood which will take 1-5 years to fade to match the rest of the piece (depending on the amount of UV light exposure). Given that this is veneer, there is also the very real danger of scraping or sanding through the veneer to the underlying substrate, which is nearly impossible to repair or hide other than by painting.
For the tight ares like the top of beads, you may need to improvise as the ready made tools are too big. I like to use a section of bandsaw blade with the end ground straight or to match the profile as seen below.
Sanding
After stripping the top it was lightly sanded at 120 grit then 200 grit. The scraped surface was sanded with 220 grit by hand. The panels have the grain of the pieces at varied angles. Care must be taken to avoid cross grain scratches. Finally everything was sanded at 320 grit with my ancient Speed Bloc 1/4 sheet sander.
After sanding everything was vacuumed down and then a drop cloth was laid under the saw horses. With the pieces on the saw horses, they were then vacuumed again and tacked off to remove the dust.
Staining
Given the variety of woods used, I went with a lighter stain than I might normally use on walnut. Minwax of General Finishes gel stains are my go to stains. I used Minwax Aged Oak. Another good option would probably be General Finishes Antique Walnut.
Spraying the final finish
When it is warm outside, my preferred finish is pre-catalyzed lacquer. It is very durable and dries incredibly fast with pieces being ready to handle in about 15 minutes. I applied all 3 coats in a morning. This finish must be sprayed as it dries so quickly. You MUST use a respirator and have plenty of ventilation which is why I do it outside. I was fortunate in that I only ended up with 1 bug in the finish (sanded off between coats). I spray this with a Devilbiss Plus 670 High Efficiency HVLP gun and a 1.2mm tip. This gun is no longer available. A good quality automotive clear coat gun should be used.
I also added a refrigerated compressed air dryer after the air compressor this past year. Having clean dry air is key to a finish without fish eyes. The alternative is to use a silica gel air dryer before the gun but the silica gel must be replaced / refreshed at least daily.
Tray
The chest includes a tray which rides on some extended hinges inside the chest. The hinge system is rather complicated with folding hinges in the back (so the lid does not scrape the wall when opened) and then 2 sets of internal pivots / hinges. Hadley was not fond of the original green felt in the tray and wanted pink or purple. I was able to carefully remove the bottom of the tray and then apply the new felt on the flip side of the bottom. The felt was adhered with 3M 77 spray adhesive. This gives a quick set time and no wrinkles unlike using PVA glue. The bottom is held in with some really small quarter round pieces which are then held in with hot melt glue.
Delivery
The chest is for my granddaughter Hadley.
Articles on scraping
Here is one where I was scraping a set of 3 dresser tops. This shows the proper way to hold the card scraper. https://bronkalla.com/blog/2017/12/29/making-the-dresser-tops/
Materials used:
Note that commissions may be earned from the Amazon links below.
West System Epoxy 105 resin with 205 fast hardener and pumps https://amzn.to/4fJxv3M Note this is a gallon kit and will last for many years.
Tinting colors. The powdered tinting colors I use are no longer available from Lee Valley. Here is a close match from Amazon: https://amzn.to/40J0HUr However for me this would last several lifetimes as you use so little (e.g 1/8-1/4 tsp per 1 pump batch of epoxy). You can use Tintsall or Mixol colors as well. However the Tintsall tubes crack and leak after a few years plus the carrier tends to separate from the actual pigment, which is why I prefer the dry powders. I used “van dyke brown” and “yellow oxide”
Pull scraper or shave hook set. https://amzn.to/3Z3f98D
Starbond is my favorite brand of CA glue. It handles well, does not bubble up much when hit with the accelerator and lasts longer without setting up in the bottle compared to other brands such as BSI (Bob Smith Ind).
- Starbond thin https://amzn.to/4fCKofW
- Starbond medium consistency https://amzn.to/4fC5SdD
- Starbond accelerator https://amzn.to/3AF8OH1
Minwax Aged Oak gel stain https://amzn.to/4hFh7TL
3M Organic filter Respirator https://amzn.to/3OoWgqF
Sherwin Williams Sher-wood HiBild Precat Lacquer rubbed effect satin sheen https://www.sherwin-williams.com/homeowners/products/sherwood-hibild-precat-lacquer/650039100 Note that this comes in gallon and larger sizes. This is a super hard catalyzed lacquer, but the acid hardener pot life is only good for 4 months after it is mixed at the store. After that, it is like a regular lacquer finish.
Air compressor Eastwood Elite QST 30/60 https://www.eastwood.com/eastwood-elite-qst-30-60-scroll-air-compressor-with-quiet-technology.html I have used this for 3 years. It is SO MUCH QUIETER than my old 5HP 60 gal unit. Plus, I can now spray and do other projects (e.g. run the laser) that require compressed air while the grand kids are napping.
Refrigerated air dryer https://www.harborfreight.com/compressed-air-dryer-40211.html which has replaced my old desicant dryer. The desicant dryer remains a lower cost option https://www.harborfreight.com/air-tools-compressors/air-compressor-accessories/filters-regulators/line-dryers/38-in-nptf-desiccant-dryer-and-filter-58180.html as a low cost option. Dry the used silica gel by baking in an oven at 200-220F for an hour. Note: the blue/pink indicator beads contain tiny amounts of cobalt which is toxic, so don’t use your good bakeware to hold it while baking the silica gel.