Advice for total to-do of Asian style hand carved Day Bed

[jgsa1967]

Hoping for some advice from some of you seasoned timber furniture re-furbers. 

I was gifted a day bed in bad condition, had been left outdoors, under partial cover for 10+ years. I have just sanded back all (almost all surfaces except tiny spaces I can't get into) acid washed it and now wanting to repair some.damage and re-finish it  I was thinking of staining, shellacing and then waxing it (never done it before, but it sounds like fun!) Thing is, the timber is very thirsty in my opinion and really needs some love in that department.  Should I "feed" the timber with something (if so what?) AT ALL or just carry out the stain, shellac and wax?  If feeding, should it be done before or after I stain?  I have already purchased my stain, shellac and wax, so really have my heart set on giving it a go. 

The pics are taken this arvo after I acid washed and rinsed off, so it's still wet, I totally forgot to take a true BEFORE picture, many blonde moments here LOL

 

 

[Jason]

Hi @jgsa1967,

Welcome to Workshop. We're pleased you could join us and look forward to seeing how your day bed restoration project comes together. Looks like a lovely piece. 

Let me tag some of our keen furniture restorers who might like to share some advice with you, including @DIYology, @Brad, @JustJim, @Beachbox, @cadsman, @AnitaH25 and @kbcreations.     

Thanks,

Jason

[JustJim]

Waaaayy out of my area of expertise, I'm afraid.

I'll be interested to see any other replies though, as well as the result of the restoration.

Good luck with it.

[Brad]

Nice that you want to do a traditional finish rather than going the much easier poly finish.

It may just be the photo but the colour on the back seems to be lighter than the back leg?

I will give you some light reading that includes the authors thoughts on using a restore product before staining.

https://thecraftsmanblog.com/how-to-prep-wood-for-stain/

If there is sun damage then I may have to dig deeper into fixing that.

[jgsa1967]

Thank you, 

The colouring of the woods certainly was lighter/darker on some areas when it was wet. It seems to have evened out a fair bit since drying  I plan to wet it down again and allow it to dry before I proceed with the stain so I'll repost when I do that, currently working on my greenhouse for the next few days.  I'm Hoping it's not beyond help, I'm not even sure if it is all made out of the same wood. Thanks so much for the link, I was surprised to learn that plain old water could be just as effective of a wood conditioner than something extra I'd have to pay for!

[jgsa1967]

Thanks for the welcome Jason, I'm really excited to have found this site. My husband and few friends I had all thought it was rather "different" of me to buy some power tools and enjoy playing around with timber because im a female LOL. 

[AnitaH25]

Do you have a picture?

[Former Workshop member]

@jgsa1967 

It looks absolutely beautiful... I, as a young girl, was lucky enough to be born into a family of carpenters, stonemasons, electricians, plumbers, etc even though my dad was a public servant, so I was lucky enough to play with power tools from early on... tell your bemused males to get with the program, lol.
As for the refinish, am I too late? The shellac is awesome if you're going to use it inside only???? And after re-wetting, which you've done, and staining, I'd maybe apply a whisper thin linseed coat before proceeding, and see how much it drinks in. Not necessary if doing an oil based stain. (Just don't pick up oil based stain and varnish by accident, like I did one time! Oh the horror!LOL) The only thing I'd say is that shellac can go brittle and deteriorate after many years, but OMG worth it, it's beautiful and lasts MUCH longer if you remember to regularly re-wax and keep it out of direct sunlight, especially if it will see heavy use. Mind you, I've only done shellac coats on wide plain surfaces, nothing with that amount of detail and fiddly bits, so I don't know how easy that'd be.
Hope that helps!

[Former Workshop member]

You should run out and buy a lottery ticket, too... how lucky to be gifted that!

[jgsa1967]

Thank you for the wonderful advice  I have applied my 2 coats of stain and I must say that I'm not really all that fond of the colour.  I intended to apply garnet shellac and thought this may tone the brown colouring down for me, but after reading quite a lot of advice here and through links, I am now having second thoughts. The day bed will be placed on my covered patio and although not out in the open, it will still be outside, so I think I may need a more robust finish, can anyone please offer their advice on this as I won't go ahead with my finish, I don't want to mess it all up and have to go back to bare wood again.  Also thinking about the shellac and wax finish, I think it may have been a little ambitious on my part, the sanding and staining was so very consuming and I know every surface is not perfectly smooth, the only way to do it would be to dismantle the piece and that is a little beyond my patience. LOL Through one of the links in a previous reply, I read about a home made finish containing satin polyurathene, boiled linseed and mineral spirit, applying 6-8 wipe on coats, do you think this may be a better option for my finish? It sounds a lot easier for application, I hate brush marks!