The first piece of advice when you are thinking of antique furniture repair is to stop. Don’t do anything until you’ve read this blog – it could save you (or gain you) thousands.
Every antique dealer has horror stories to share — there’s the woman who stripped the old paint off of an antique table before showing it to the expert who had to tell her she had devalued it by half when she stripped the paint, or vintage candelabras ruined by well-meaning jewelers.
The best piece of antique furniture repair advice you can get is to have an expert or a dealer with a great deal of knowledge look at the piece before you begin any repair.
Since they likely don’t deal in antique furniture repair themselves, they are not likely to give you self-serving advice, and you have the potential of preventing real damage to the piece.
If you have some woodworking or metalworking skills and a knowledge of antiques, there may be repairs you can complete and still preserve or even increase the value of the piece.
If you have only a minor scratch, then you could try a good quality scratch cover. Howard’s Restore a Finish is one that does well with surface scratches and other marks.
More significant marks may require the use of a furniture marker. You’ll need to purchase a marker in the same color as the furniture you’re touching up for the best results. If you have a dark piece and you’re debating between a lighter and darker maker, you may want to choose the darker version. The eye doesn’t differentiate the darker color, but may notice the lighter.
Crayon type fillers work well for small cracks. Run the crayon over the crack several times to let the waxy substance fill the crack. Some 0000 steel wool rubbed over the crack will remove extra residue.
After consulting with a professional, you may repair small nick or dings or missing veneer with Quick Wood, an epoxy based substance that sticks to nearly any surface.
There are also repair cover powders that allow you to repaint over the repair, but it’s a job for professionals in most cases.
For antique furniture repair of dirty pieces, there are products you can use to clean and restore to life to an area that needs to be cleaned. Oz cream is one of the standards used by antique specialists and furniture lovers everywhere, or you can buy the kits that contain cleaner, buffer and shiners that are great for cleaning your antique furniture.
You should expect to pay about $60 for the cleaning kit. Using this method requires a bit of elbow grease, but the results are worth it. One caution; be sure you don’t rub too hard, or you will remove the finish from the furniture.
Replacing old latches with newer, magnetic style latches is an easy antique furniture repair, but is not always the recommended repair. Before replacing a sticky latch, try 3 in 1 oil on the latch and see if it fixes the problem. Consult a professional before replacing a latch.
Photo Credits: arekd
Originally posted 2009-06-06 05:55:56. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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