Why do you visit a particular blog?-The Poll Results Are In!

I asked visitors to to click on a poll and leave comments about why they visit and become a follower of certain blogs.  The idea was to get some feedback from a few of you, in order to hear what you would most like The Greentiques Solution to concentrate on. Here are the results...

A whopping 50% of you stated you visit blogs for "fresh ideas".

Not far behind, 40% of you stated that you visit blogs mostly for the "tutorials".

A distant 3rd at 10%, people stated that they visit blogs for "expert advice".

A big thank you to those of you who participated in the survey.  If you have not noticed, I have added a couple tutorials recently and am working on some fresh ideas for all of you.  Keep up the good work out there!  Rory

My Latest Flea Market Find-Gotta Love It!

I thought you all might enjoy this old wooden storefront sign I found at a flea market yesterday.  I was thrilled to get it. It measures about 3 ft tall x 3ft wide and is carved on both sides.  I am hoping to take it with us to the next antique show, either Charlotte or Atlanta.  I thought it might be a great accessory for a baby room.  What do you all think?

Rory

Rory's Tip Of The Week-Avoiding Fire In the Workshop

When I was about 12 or 13 years old, one of my favorite antique shops to visit was on the outskirts of a tiny Missouri town.  It was in a huge old wooden barn on the owners property.  The mammoth roofing beams of the barn were made of solid walnut.  The barn siding was attached with square nails.  Inside that barn were some of the best american oak pieces I have ever seen, to this day.  Round oak tables with carved lion heads and claw feet, curved glass china cabinets with serpentine fronts, huge roll top desks, and set after set of carved chairs were all common staple items there.  In those days, turn-of-the-century oak was a hot commodity (pardon the pun) and inside this old barn was some of the best in the country...........And then one summer day, it all burned down. There was nothing left.  All was lost inside and out.  Once that old wooden barn caught fire there was no stopping it.  And like a lot of fires it was due to one careless mistake by the owner that could have easily been prevented, if he just would have followed this one piece of advice I am going to give you. 
The cause of the fire was determined to be from the spontaneous combustion of some paper towels, that were soaked with old paint remover.  The owner had been out in the barn stripping a piece of furniture on a cool summer morning.  As he was wiping off the remover with the paper towels, he simply tossed them on the floor, so he could throw them away later, all at once.  Stripping furniture was not new to him.  He had had done this hundreds of times.  He had a system and it worked fine for him until that one particular day.  When he was almost done with the stripping he became sidetracked and left the paper towels where he had thrown them.  Later on in the day the weather warmed up.  By the afternoon it was hot outside.  The direction of the the light from the sun changed and it started to shine inside the barn window.  It is believed that at some point the sun managed to shine through the barn window and into a large mirror not far from the pile of paper towels.  That is all it took.  It was over in a single afternoon.

So here is my simple tip of the week, to keep this from happening in your workshop.  Do like I do.  Keep a metal bucket handy, about half full of water.  As you discard old paper towels and rags, throw them in the bucket of water, and let them soak until they are ready for your trash pickup.  Also, be especially careful with old steel wool.  Steel wool is what they sometimes teach boyscouts to make campfires with.  When  steel wool is contaminated with something like mineral spirits or paint thinner it makes an easily ignitible combination.  So, also throw your old used steel wool in the bucket when you are done with it too.

Periodically I will take a stick and push all the flammables down into the water to make sure they all are completely soaked with water.  Follow this procedure any time you are using products such as stains, shellac, laquer, polyurethane, paint strippers, linseed oil, mineral spirits and thinners, or anything else that is a potential fire hazard. We are seeing the first signs of warm weather right now, so this tip becomes even more important in the upcoming months.  Be safe! Rory

Note: In the future I will be putting various condensed tips on the sidebar that may be of help to you as well as writing occasional full posts like this one.  I am here to help you.  Feel free to comment or send me questions. Keep up the good work.  Rory

My Handmade Easter Egg Project-Part 1

Not all of my projects are huge.  Really they aren't.  It just may seem that way to some of you who have been reading about my furniture restorations.  Here is one of my latest small projects.  I had some scrap wood going to waste and I decided to turn my own easter eggs on a lathe.

Some were pretty big, about 4 or 5 inches long.  Others were about the size of a real, medium, chicken egg.  I used a variety of woods, including yellow pine and oak.  There was no rhyme or reason for the types of woods.  It is just what I had available.  I do though love the variances you get in color shades and grain patterns.  The large one shown is pine.  The 2 smaller ones are oak.

Here are a few in an old wooden bowl that I also hand-turned on a lathe.  I have plans to eventually use the bowl for a wood carving project.  I may experiment with some faux finishes on the eggs in a day or 2.  I will let you all know how that goes.  Hope you are all having a great St. Pats Day!

Rory

How To Refinish A Table-Part 2-Stripping The Finish

Well, here we go. Stripping the old finish.  This gets a bit messy but it's just part of creating the masterpiece.  I put a photo above showing  some of the tools I often use when doing this job.  In addition to what you see here you may want to include a small wire brush and a paint scraper.  Another thing I do is to keep a hose handy and a bucket of water.  The hose is for safety reasons.  No matter how careful you are, even if you wear goggles and gloves, there is always an odd chance of being splashed with paint remover and needing access to a water hose.  The bucket of water is to put rags and paper towels in when they are saturated with a flammable substance such as paint remover.  Don't let this part of it scare you.  You just need to take some simple precautions.

Here you see the spot on the tabletop where the grandaughter spilled the nail polish.  This is the problem I was hired to solve.

The first thing I do is apply a coat of paint remover with an old natural bristle brush.  I am not wearing gloves here, but you will probably want to.  This particular brand of remover is easier on my hands than most and I am pretty used to it.

I like to use a "semi-paste" paint remover.  It is fairly thick and it stays wet longer than the regular liquid kind.  After I apply it with a brush, I let it sit for 10 or 15 minutes, then I scrape it off with my paint scraper.  Be careful not to gouge the surface of the wood with your scaper.  The parquet surface of this table is a thin veneer and you do not want to damage it.  You may want to do a second coat of paint remover.  That's fine, but especially with veneers, less is better.  You don't want to cause delamination of the glue and end up with lifting veneer.

After the remover has been scraped up, I take a natural bristle scrup brush, some dish or laundry soap, a bucket, and some cold water and quickly scrub the whole thing down.  Note that I said quickly. You don't want to water log the wood.  You just want to quickly scrub off the leftover residue from the paint remover, rinse it well with more clean cold water, then wipe off the excess water.  Some people are apalled by this step including some old time woodworkers, who argue that you risk raisng the wood grain, warping, veneer issues, etc.  But this is the way I have done it for over 3 decades, and the process works.  Just remember that all you are doing is scrubbing off the paint remover residue and rinsing it off fairly quickly.  This scrubbing step probably only took me a total of about 5 mintes to do the entire table top.

And here is the result.  Nice, clean, and ready for sanding.

Here is the before and after.  What little bit of soapy film you see will easily be taken care of in the sanding step.  There are some challenges to face in sanding a parquet veneer top, so that will be in Part 3. 

Until next time,

Rory

In Case You Missed It! My Restored Dining Room Table!

The photo in the page header right now is of a  wonderful old table I restored about a month ago, when I was just starting the blog and had only 1 or 2 followers.  Now, thanks to wonderful craftspeople like yourselves I am slowly but surely gaining more followers.  So for those of you that missed this picture before, I thought I would run it as a blog header for a little while.  If you would like to read the post on it, you can find it in the February 21, Old and Vintage Post section, located on the sidebar.  Later today, I will be posting Part 2 of  How To Refinish a Table.  So if you have a desire to learn how to produce a formal elegant finish on your dining room table, like I did on this one, make sure you check back later.  I will be showing the process I go through to strip old finish.  More later.  Rory

The Greentiques Solution Weekly Editorial Post - Why Crafters Are Saving America

My first weekly editorial post of hopefully many to come is more of a thank you letter to fellow craftspeople.  It is because of the combined efforts of people like you that I think America is going to be just fine, even though there is still a lot of hard work to do.  In these days of a poor economy and high unemployment, many of us have gone back to our roots, learned to live simpler, and are supplementing our income with little more than our own 2 hands and a few basic materials.  It reminds me at times of how people managed to survive The Great Depression. People like crafters and craftspeople are learning to do more and more, with less and less, much like they did after the 1929 stock market crash.  During that time they spent less money, learned to be more frugal, made their own bed quilts and clothes, and fixed what they had instead of buying new, much like we all are today.  Now, some economists would say that americans spending less money is a terrible thing.  But I have to tell you,  I completely disagree.  It's not the amount of money that americans spend, it's where they spend it!  For instance, I get excited every time I see a fellow blogger who has puchased a $5 item at a garage sale and is able to fix it up and make some money with it, because I know that the entire $5 is helping the local economy.  But, I get annoyed when we spend $100 at "zmart" knowing that our $100 is going almost entirely and directly to China.  The other day I heard where China has the #1 growing economy in the world!  Anyway,  I love the fact that we have more and more  people every day like you, that are finding new ways to use old things, and are out there trying to handcraft their own income.  I think America will be fine because of it. Thank you all for working so hard and doing what you do.  Please allow me to return the favor by answering any questions you might have that might be within my area of expertise, such as antiques, furniture repair, chair caning, refinishing, woodworking or whatever.  It would be my pleasure to help.  Thank you again for being part of The Greentiques Solution.
-Rory-

How To Make a Vintage Jewelery Cabinet - Part 2

In part 1 I talked about Lee Ann and I having dreams of turning this 5ft high 1920s wardrobe into a giant jewelery box for her vintage jewelery and her handmade fur pillows.  Today in Part 2 I am showing what was involved in glueing the veneer back in place that was popping up everywhere. Now I want you to now up front that if this looks like a ton of clamps, it's because it is.  However, even though I own a good selection of clamps, I did not have nearly enough for this project.  I had to borrow some for the day from a local woodworking guild that I belong to.  

Originally the veneer on this cabinet was applied with a type of "hide" glue, derived probably from rabbit hide.  It was the strongest glue of it's day.  Some craftsman still prefer to use it over other types.  I don't.  Beyond the thought of raising bunnies for the purpose of glueing wood together, hide glue is somewhat of a pain to use.  For this project, I am using Titebond 2,  which is a yellow woodworker's glue.  You can get it just about anywhere that sells building supplies. 

When doing a glueup, there are a few things to remember.  "Clean is King".  Make sure your surfaces are clean that you are bonding together.  If the surfaces are not clean, take a little sandpaper and scuff off any dirt or old glue.  This is a must, especially when you have a project like this one where hide glue was used.  Hide glue tends to crytallize when it gets this old and it leaves a gritty residue behind that does not bond very well. 

Take your time and examine the entire project before clamping or putting glue on anything.  Run your hands over it.  Inspect all the structural joints and tap your fingernails across areas of veneer you think may be loose.  You will hear a different sound when you tap on a loose spot.  By taking your time here, you will avoid unwelcome surprises later.  When you are satisfied with your knowedge of what needs to be done, and you have cleaned your glue surfaces with sandpaper, it is time to "test clamp".  Get out you selection of clamps and clamp your project together without using glue at this time.  This will solve a lot of issues when go to glue it up for real.  Notice here that I have put some long strips of wood between the clamps and the cabinet.  These long wood strips will keep the clamps from damaging the cabinet when I tighten the clamps.  It will also help give me even clamping pressure over the entire veneer piece.  I sometimes spray a little water on the wood strip with a misting bottle just before I do my actual glueing and clamping.  By doing that, it makes it easier to remove, should I get some excess glue on the wood strip. When I was finally ready to glue everything together, I gently pulled back the loose veneer and ran my glue down into the crevices.  I used a piece of old sandpaper, and some veneer scrap to help push the glue where I needed it to go.  Make sure that everything has glue.  Tighten up your clamps.  When you are done tightening, go around and check all your clamps to make sure nothing has loosened up in the process.  Retighten as needed. Wipe off any excess glue as you go. It is best to leave everything clamped overnight if possible. When the glue is dry, remove your clamps carefully and inspect as you go.  If any of your wood clamping strips have stuck to your project a light tap another piece of wood will ususally pop it right off, as long as you misted it with water before you applied your glue.

With any luck at all you won't have anywhere near the amount of glueing to do that I did with this old wardrobe.  This part of the project was really not difficult even though it may have looked overwhelming at the onset.  Now that everything is glued, the rest should go fairly quickly.  Please feel free to ask questions and post comments.  I am always glad to help you if needed.  -Rory-

New Custom Search Feature For Crafters

Today I installed what I think is a pretty cool feature on The Greentiques Solution blog.  It is a  Google Search engine that I have customized to better suit the needs of crafters, antiquers, prim collectors, woodworkers, interior decorators, and the like.  You can still search the entire web with it, but I installed some keyword parameters that make this particular search engine more suitable for people of our interests.  The idea here is that when you search for something like "beads" the search engine pulls up beads for crafters and jewelery makers first and foremost.  This way you won't have to sift through countless sites dedicated to an entirely different kind of bead that you don't care anything about.  You can find this feature in the upper right sidebar.  Please give it a try and then post a comment for me.  I am interested in what you think.  By the way, you can see the results of your search without ever leaving The Greentiques Solution blog.  Enjoy!  -Rory-

How To Refinish A Table - Part 1

I am often hired to do comission work, by interior designers who need something special done, or by an individual who wants their fine antique restored.  The calls I get are always varied in nature and I pretty much take on everything that gets thrown my direction.  I find that after 35 years of projects that if I have never done it, that I can probably figure it out.  So, I get this call the other day from a really nice woman who needed her dining room table refinished.  I went out to her home to give the estimate and she showed me this great big formal oak dining room table with beautiful parquet veneer. 

At one end of the table near the center there was a large deterioration of the finish.  I asked what it was from and she told me her grandaughter had accidentally spilled nail polish on it.  In an effort to clean it up, it just got worse and worse.  It was an expensive table that matched her other furniture in the dining room.  Replacing it was not really an option.  So, she hired me to do the repair.

The repair I decided that this one needed was to completely strip the table top only and refinish it.  I am going to post a series of articles showing how I go about doing a formal, heirloom quailty finish using a hand rubbed polyurethane technique.  This post is part 1 of the series.  When I am done it will exceed the original quailty when the table was new.  It will be more durable, have more lustre, and there will be virtually no trace of the damage from the nail polish.  The next post in the series will be about stripping the old finish.  Extremely few woodworkers do a hand rubbed finish anymore and even fewer attempt to do it with oil-based polyurethane, so stay tuned.  This should be a great project.  -Rory-