restoring stained oak

[Rolyata]

I've got an oak table that was made around 1925, it's stained very dark and in places where it gets worn, the wood is a more natural oak colour.

As the table is of sentimental value, I'd like to restore it to something like it's original look. How do I best do that ?

I'm not sure how the wood was finished after having been stained. The finish isn't glossy enough to make me think that it's French polished. What else would have been used in those days.

It was built by an individual craftsman rather than in a factory.

[Andy Dingley]

What's a "stain" here ? A dark coating applied to oak in 1925 is quite possibly a deliberate attempt to darken it, to comply with the then fashionable "stockbroker jacobean" and a mistaken idea that furniture of the period had always been near black.

If it's spots of discolouration, particularly iron or water stain, then you want oxalic acid as a bleach. Try "Barkeeper's Friend", from a hardware store or even supermarket.

For an applied stain, then it might be that a chlorine bleach is more effective, but that's something of a last resort.

Almost anything. Oils and waxes would be likely on small-scale work trying to look "period". Otherwise a brushed varnish, although the resins aren't what we're used to these days. Shellac (although not french polish) is quite likely too. As a refinishing process, shellac over oil works well on oak of this period.

If you're after a darker (but not black) finish that evens up pale areas of wear, consider ammonia fuming it.

[Rolyata]

Yes, when I referred to stained oak, I meant that the stain was an intentional finish and it your description and opinion seems spot-on.

But however mistaken the cabinet maker's intentions were, I'd like to return it to that finish as it matches other items made by the same person at the same time.

At the moment, most of the surface is stained in that Jacobean colour, but areas that get worn have acquired a more natural medium oak colour.

Is that the sort of thing that an amateur can do with some expectation of succeeding ?

[Stuart Noble]

If the Jacobean look has been put over a previous finish, it may well wipe off with meths or white spirit. See if any colour comes off on a kitchen towel.

You could try bleaching, and any one of 3 methods might (or might not) work. Ordinary domestic bleach (not the thick versions) will remove some types of dye. Ecover laundry bleach (Waitrose etc) is an oxygen bleach that generates peroxide and will reverse most chemical discolouration. Oxalic acid (part of the Liberon range, or buy some decking cleaner)

Ammonia fuming is not really a practical proposition unless you can construct some kind of airtight tent and place a bowl of it in there overnight. Even ordinary household ammonia will blow your head off if you try brushing it on. A mild solution of caustic soda or washing soda achieves pretty much the same thing. Alkalis darken the wood but don't generally affect a colour applied to it.

[dingbat]

Strictly speaking this is probably a "glaze", not a stain. Stains soak in, glazes sit on the surface. Obviously glazes can then wear off in the future, leaving lighter-coloured bare wood behind.

Staining (or especially glazing) oak is a heathen practice and I'm not going to talk about it.

Ammonia fuming oak is dead easy and almost impossible to get wrong.

Here's an rather poor page on how to do it, you can google better ones too:

[DJC]

But restoration in this case means going back to the c1920 cabinet maker's intention, not current fashion, nor a reinterpretation of what the maker should have done to copy 'original' oak four centuries, but what was originate last century.

[Andy Dingley]

It's dead easy !

Exactly. This is UK DIY - we have binliners and gaffer tape.

Ammonia is one of the few workshop chemicals I have any sort of averse reaction to. So _usually_, I wear a full face mask. But I'm only using

26% ammonia, not .880, and if I'm in a hurry to refill the box, I just hold my breath.

Don't brush it on - use the _vapour_, not the liquid. Any liquid splashes will have a total ebonising effect, not just the attractive darkening.

Nothing like the same effect. On oak you'll achieve a completely different colour. Washing soda is a reasonable way to age pine, but it's not the stuff to use on oak, unles you merely want it to look manky.

[Stuart Noble]

IME all alkalis have a similar effect on hardwoods, controllable by the strength of solution. I guess the advantage with ammonia is that it does its job and leaves no residue behind.