touching up oak trim boards

[Len]

My neighbor contacted me about touching up some oak baseboards. I looked at a cross-section and see that the current finish does not penetrate into the wood. It looks like the light (yellow/orange) color is in the finish itself.

a) Can somebody give me a clue about know how carpenters finished trim in houses about 40 years ago.

b) The color is very uniform. If it is just a dye in shellac or lacquer, can I just clean it and spray or brush on a new coat or do I need to roughed up it up with steel wool or 320 grit paper and then apply a new coat of colored shellac or lacquer?

Thanks, Len

[John McCoy]

Len wrote in news: [e-mail]:

40 years ago is 1975, more or less.

Polyurethant varnish had been around for a long time by 1975. It's most likely poly, that has yellowed with time. Possibly some color was added to the poly.

John

[clare]

I'd also strongly suspect a polyurethane varnish - possibly a yellow shellac or a urethane stain, but not nearly as common as varnish - urethane or not.

Most houses around here circa 1975 had cheap finger-joint pine with a thin coat of paint.

[Max]

There are hundreds of houses in an addition here (called "Tobin Park") that have baseboards finished with shellac. "orangish" looking. They were built in that same time period.

[dpb]

Start w/ alcohol and test...if it dissolves readily, it's shellac.

If it doesn't, then varnish or lacquer (unlikely in tract housing). A polyurethane will tend to bead with acetone. After a few seconds, lacquer will dissolve entirely, varnish will soften and get tacky, the poly's less than others. May not be absolutely positive on a poly or not, but certainly definitive for shellac and lacquer. If it will peel a surface coat off in layer, definitely one of the old poly varnishes.

To get adhesion depends on knowing what it is; applying varnish over shellac won't work well or vice versa...

[nailshooter41]

Len, just my 0.02, so remember what you paid for it when you read this post .

When I refinish or match colors/stains/tints, I don't necessarily try to ma tch the existing type of finish. What....????????

It's almost irrelevant on a finish as old as the one you are talking about. First, the applied finish REGARDLESS of what it is has deteriorated a gre at deal. It may not look it to you, but trust me on that. Second, applying "the same" finish may not be the same at all. It may look like poly, but could actually be a high grade varnish. Third, regional preferences come i nto play.

Around here, no one used shellac for anything but sanding sealer... unless they were finishing knotty pine paneling. You can see that amber glow a mi le away, which comes with age.

No one used poly around here as poly of 40 years or so ago just didn't beha ve well under all circumstances. Enter a high quality varnish for our are. It was brushed, sprayed and rolled over raw wood, stained wood, tinted wo od, even over distressed wood. Tried, true, reliable in its results, it wa s the clear finish champ >> around here