year-of-adventure

A SPIRIT(ED) PARTY

Was telling Doreen (owner of the Hawke) that I was leaving and she asked if I'd had any spirit adventures - No - wish I had. Told her about the other night when about 1:30 am there was a LOT of ruckus from the bar below me. Voices and furniture moving - I thought it was the movers,table/floor guys doing their work - she said there has been no-one in here at nights (I sleep in the house alone!) - the bar closes about 11.  The noise continued for about 30 min and I looked at the clock several times to be sure of the time.  Guess there was a hot time in the old town that night.  No change in the furniture or the floor the next morning which seemed odd to me after the commotion the night before.  The spiritis seem to like the bar as a gathering place.  Wonder what would have happened if I'd gotten up and walked down there...

Getting ready to leave Lambertville after a GREAT time learning things from james - he has been an excellent treacher and in spite of a busy schedule has taken time to explina in detail techniques and nuances of the business.

Wanted to update on the projects.

The patch went back and was satisfactory to the owner. The finish was great and the patch was hardly visible when the table was assembled.

The table - my biggest project, was buffed with an automobile sander and then wax polished - lots of hand work to get all the wax off (Karate Kid - wax on/wax off) and went onto the sales floor - before and after photos .  Remember that the lady liked the table, but did not like the color.  The finish removal, color washing to make the leaves match the center, and reapplying a multi-coat french polish dramatically improved the table.

The chair, my easiest project , was a lesson in how little things can improve something.  The stripping process had made the chair frail at all the joints, and the harshness of the stripper and water steam wash had damaged the wood.  The disassembly, reglueing the joints, and a coat of mahagonay wax made the chair good as new and fit perfectly with a desk on the floor.  He made a good point that he often buys single chairs cheap because they can usually fit into a desk he already has to make a nice item for sale, or he may find 5 chairs with one missing and the single chair will complete the set.  Had a nice discussion on this last day about repairing small defects in the finish - what I see most commonly in my furniture.

A great experience - thank you James!!!!

On to see Evan and Emily and the boys in Pittsburgh and then home for my own projects.

IMPERFECTIONS AND CORRECTING THE STRIPPER'S WORK

Updates on multiple projects - the patch is nearly done and the owner/dealer approved the fix and it is ready to go back- We had a discussion of how to bill for it because if yo billed for the time, it would be too high; if you billed a flat fee, it has to be just the right amount to cover the work and skill in blending it.  A good blend job, but multiple attempts.

James gave me a new project. Disassemble and sand/polish a mid 18th century chair. The owners in England had painted it mutliple times and then sent it to the stripper for cleaning; they did not like it and James bought it from a dealer. The things I learned: stripping in a vat of hot caustic liquid is hard on a chair.  After it comes out they power wash it with steam to get the stripper off. The result is a pitted, split chair with all loose joints where the animal glue originally used has been weakened/dissolved.

Sort of a cute "farmhouse chair". Removing all the pieces was easy and the sanding of the turnings a bit tedious, but hope to finish that today.  I'm less likley to send one to the stripping vat with all the work to get it back.  If you just want to paint it, fine, paint over it or hand strip it; if you want a finish on good wood beneath. hand strip to avoid the cracks and splits from the water.

The original table we started with is coming along- the shellac has to cure a few days between major coats. James rubbing in circles and figure 8's to get shellac/rotten stone in. I'm now up to 25 thin coats of shellac hand applied with a polishing rubber.  Today we'll be doing a close-to-final rubbing in with pumice, then polishing. I wanted to show the fine details of the project - each coat of shellac, even though thin, has an effect on the final finish. The two photos are of minor defects I noticed from my technique - They should come out with final steps (I hope), but they really are not bad unless you know they're there.  The last photo is of the back of one of the chairs with a difference in the finish between an area that I polished and an area that i missed. The wax provides a fine gloss, but the underlying finish is different in color (but the cushion will cover it)

Finished chairs

The polishing of the 4 chairs took most of yesterday and I've only finished 3 of the 4. These chairs are beautiful and the shot of them does not do justice to the shine, depth of color and beauty of the wood and craftsmanship, James joked about the time it takes and at his ealry stages of restoration, he took that same amount of time, but in todays world, that amount of time is prohibitive with teh profit margins unless the customer wants them absolutely perfect.  So, he was glad of the time I'm taking.  Did somoe discussion of chair repair as I have several at home to repair when i get back.  The most common fairlure is at one of the rear tenons where the seat skirt and the back rail join - Fat people (or thinner people acting funny) throw the chair back when their in it and lift the front legs.  That stress on the tenon causes the glue to weaken first, then the tenon to split second.  The braces on those areas in this chair photo are trying to prevent that breakage. Less well-made chairs may not have that reinforcement and when the tenon fails and the leg falls off, the only repair is to fashion a brace like this to hold the leg in place firmly to avoid a future damgerous break with the person crashing to the floor.  These chairs are a set of 12, and only the 4 that James has are known to have survived. The roman numerals carved into the seat back (on previous post of this chair) are p to 9 on our 4 chairs, so the thought is that there were 12 at one time.  To make a chair like this wodl have taken about a week in England and the test for an apprentice was to build a chair - felt to be the hardest task for a furniture maker.

The patch is coming along and perhaps some minor color leveling and finishing and it will be ready to go back to the dealer

Off to Princeton today for a visit with Holly and Kate and lunch in the college town.

Minor historical fact about Lambertville - buried in the cemetary is George Coryell, the last living (until he died) pallbearer of George Washington and right next to him is George Holcomb - one of Washington's spies during the war

Finished chairs

The polishing of the 4 chairs took most of yesterday and I've only finished 3 of the 4. These chairs are beautiful and the shot of them does not do justice to the shine, depth of color and beauty of the wood and craftsmanship, James joked about the time it takes and at his ealry stages of restoration, he took that same amount of time, but in todays world, that amount of time is prohibitive with teh profit margins unless the customer wants them absolutely perfect.  So, he was glad of the time I'm taking.  Did somoe discussion of chair repair as I have several at home to repair when i get back.  The most common fairlure is at one of the rear tenons where the seat skirt and the back rail join - Fat people (or thinner people acting funny) throw the chair back when their in it and lift the front legs.  That stress on the tenon causes the glue to weaken first, then the tenon to split second.  The braces on those areas in this chair photo are trying to prevent that breakage. Less well-made chairs may not have that reinforcement and when the tenon fails and the leg falls off, the only repair is to fashion a brace like this to hold the leg in place firmly to avoid a future damgerous break with the person crashing to the floor.  These chairs are a set of 12, and only the 4 that James has are known to have survived. The roman numerals carved into the seat back (on previous post of this chair) are p to 9 on our 4 chairs, so the thought is that there were 12 at one time.  To make a chair like this wodl have taken about a week in England and the test for an apprentice was to build a chair - felt to be the hardest task for a furniture maker.

The patch is coming along and perhaps some minor color leveling and finishing and it will be ready to go back to the dealer

Off to Princeton today for a visit with Holly and Kate and lunch in the college town.

Minor historical fact about Lambertville - buried in the cemetary is George Coryell, the last living (until he died) pallbearer of George Washington and right next to him is George Holcomb - one of Washington's spies during the war

Exploring

A great day friday - spent the entire day cleaning 4 beautiful chairs and then applying a stin wash to hide the scratches.  Plan is to apply a french polish tomorrow (sunday) and then buff them and get them on the floor for sale. Note the great woodwork on the back. The chairs have the usual wear and tear, mostly on the chair rails and around the seats.  Each seat has an etched numeral to correspond with the cushion that goes with it, since each is slightly different. The lesson is to show how much can be done using simple techniques to enhance a peice w/o having to completely re-do the finish.

The patch on the teak table has gone back a step as the edges were not perfectly flat at the seam. The entire thing was sanded and shaved to get the edges level and then stain reapplied .

This morning had the plan to go to the Trenton Farmer's market and do some exploring.  In New Jesey (anywhere for that matter) it helps to have a good map - took a number of wrong turns and back tracks and finally found the market. A moderate market, specializing this time of year in meat and cheese. Had a great discussion with a lady at the cheese shop about the perfect soft cheese to pair with chardonnay.   Passed on the meats although would have liked to have brought some of the proscutto home (no refrigeration at the hawke).  A dairy at the market that was pulling in people - they sell their milk for 30-40% cheaper than supermarkets and folks were coming out with multi-gallons.  In the summer, they have fresh ice cream.  Then, on to the last public use covered bridge in New Jersey at Sergentsville - a tiny place, again hard to find without a detailed map, but after several stops and asking (guys DO ask directions!), got the Sergentsville (a wide spot in the road) in rolling farmland and new jersey countryside.  The famous Sergentville Inn was closed where I'd planned lunch, so settled for the odd combination (but good) of new england clam chowder and vegetarian oriental noodles.  The owner of the chinese deli  caters to bikers (cyclers) coming through town.  He pointed me to the bridge and the photo is pretty much a good representation

On the way had a nostaligic flash - some of you knwo that for 3 summers during college I worked on a railroad as a brakeman - a great job.  I passed the Blackriver and Western railroad yard - a heap of old railroad cars that volunteers who love railroading are working to restore. I loved the caboose - just like the ones I rode in. Not used on modern railroads, but the one I used, Like this one, had a great viewing platform to see the entire train, beds, a stove - all the comforts on the road.

Enough exploring and back to work tomorrow.  James brought me several great books on restoration and I'll be looking over those between glasses of Chardonnay and cheese

POTTY PROGRESS

Finished with the potty chair and moved it to the floor for possible sale this weekend.  A sense of accomplishment and seeing a piece really come together. James' techniques make the original chair into a fine peice of furniture. We joked about the folks who might like to buy such a piece, but with the cushion on it's a very comfortable chair.  James has assigned me an old chest he got from England that he considers so badly damaged that it can only be used for pieces  and parts - we're going to take the parts of it and work through the algorithm of how how one decides when to refinish (strip, etc), vs restore (partial strip, retuning, sprucing up).  I've been amazed at the effects that simple wax brushed into the finish and then burninshed with steel wool and buffed to enhance the luster of a finish.  We're also going to take a damaged table top and restore it to the level of the other table we're doing - exciting stuff and James is an excellent teacher!  Table now has 15 coats of shellac and 2 rubbings with pumice and we're planning for french polish application today

Color matching on the teak table went well - it's a multi-day process and the two photos show James in the workshop mixing by guestimate the stains and the coming-along table top

A ghost update - Doreen, one of the owners says there are 7 confirmed spiritis; a honeymoon couple and a family of 5. They seem to be there to protect the place.  Kate added that there have been some famous ghost-busters in to view the surroundings.  Apparently ghosts do not have to die in the place to come back. Doreen has thought of inviting them all back for an evening when the Inn is empty for a visit.

Morning newspapers have the usual tales of small towns and their budget challenges - the Lambertville council is discussing consolidating services with other communities to save funds with decreasing tax revenues.  Planning the weekend and woudl like to take a shot at the chest above on a nonsunny day, and go exploring to the Seargentsville covered bridge and Trenton farmer's market - cheese is in!

A final shot of a great set of spode china in James' shop - I know nothing of china, but loved the look of fine old china

Ghosts

Murphy, the day manager at the Inn asked me yesterday at breakfast if i had seen any of the supernatural visitors to the Inn.  Apparently they've had paranorma investigators in because of many reports of ghost-like activity. There seem to be 7 ghosts (more to follow as i get more data). The only one in my room is a face in the mirror.  As you can imagine, that made me sleep less soundly, hoping to see one  (ala Ghostbusters).  The only thing that happeend was a shade went up unexpectedly, bt i'll keep lookingin the morror.  The majority of them seem to be tricksters - taking things and then returning them later in the stay.  I've had that experience with kathryn's mom's spirit at one of the houses we were redoing - she liked hiding carpentry pencils, then I'd find them in a heap somewhere after several days.  She passed away in that house, so can understand her presence there, and when in Nepal, had a visit to the house where young girls died during their periods - we'll see if I'm lucky enough to have some sightings here - wouldn't a photo be a great blog post?

Great day yestderday with minor stripping an cleaning up the potty chair - it is a Regency 1830's mahogany chair - highly valued by collectors of such stuff.  Lots of people buy them, add a nice cushion, and use them as dining room tables according to James. We did some staining, color matching, "ageing", and glue repair and it will be ready for polishing today.

Watched Gary do some veneer repair on a fancy teak table that is slated to go into auction soon. The table was apparently damaged with the small sliver of teak broken, sent to England for repair, and the inserted piece does not at all match the original stain. Before it can go for auction, it needs to be repaired.  The steps today were remove the patch, find one of equal grain, level it, and put into place for James to do final sanding and color matching tomorrow.  Plan is to hopefully blend the finish so the whole table does not have to be refinished.  More to follow on that project. 

Finished cleaning and polishing a George Stickley rocker (as I admitted, I know nothing of these pieces, James showed me a few auction catalogs of the pieces, but I show them for your interest). The seat will be covered by James in a nice leather, reworked to redo springs and webbing, and placed on the floor this week. 

Applied the first 6 coats of shellac on the table and can see how the depth of the wood shows through. Today we will be moving to french polishing solution to increase the depth and luminosity.

Stripping

Well, I was kidded by some readers for getting too detailed on stone masonry, so I'm trying to find the balance here for refinishing. This bedframe is in my B&B room - love the bookmatched veneer and the ornamentation.  As James and I were discussing, the furniture of today somehow lacks the intricacy of older stuff

All of us have refinished furniture; some better than others.  As I told James this morning, I want to come away from this experience several steps above what I could do with Lowe's products.

Today was a stripping kinda day and we all know how that kind of day goes, messy, gooey stripper mixed with finish. Somehow though it is more enjoyable to doing it under the guidance of an expert.  The table and chairs I worked on today are multi-thousand dollar pieces, but James is a go-for-it sort of guy and we worked through it (how much damage can a person do with stripper anyway). The table we started with has a story - a lady loved the table, a folding mahogany table, but she hated the light finish and the middle did not match the color of the leaves, so the plan was to strip it, level out the stain, and refinish it in a glossy finish to add depth to the mahogany grain. Today was the stripping part, alchohol, then sanding to get a fairly level color, then James rubbed on some stain diluted with alcohol to minimize the shock if it was not right, then another coat and the table looks equal 

Also worked on a period "potty chair" - need more history on this one,  The piece had been painted white, and then the paint poorly stripped and finished with a varnish. Stripping around curves and smaller pieces has always been a challenge for me, but James has a technique that makes that part low mess.  

He has some great pieces in the store - I'm a sucker for inlay and I love this desk  Today: he has a veneer expert friend coming to repair some veneer pieces - excited about that aspect as I always thought repairing veneer was near-impossible.  So, veneer work and starting refinishing on the table and the potty chair.  A GREAT day!

EASTER IN LAMBERTVILLE

Made is safely to the Inn of the Hawke - a charming New England Inn on the edge of town, quiet.  No phones, so the guests can get away from their hectic lives.  Hoping this internet connection holds as a wireless.

INN OF THE HAWKE

A walk around town took about an hour - upscale homes and stores and the town is on a canal tow  path that is a focal part of the town.  Met James, my teacher for furniture restoration and looking forward to that learning experience

JAMES IN THE BASEMENT WORKSHOP

HIS BUSINESS BUILDING

With the coming elections, people feel more strongly about their political views. This house expresses support for Tibet (the prayer flags), and gives an opinion about MAD, and president bush, all on the same porch

Grifton NC is not the only place focused on a shad festival. If you've not eaten shad, the roe is great in scrambled eggs!

Cute doors and shops decorated for Easter.  Off for a car tour of the area and maybe an easter egg hunt