Dining Seat Project

Bought as a set of 4 on eBay for £45 as a project for the dining room they were structurally sound but in need of some restoration. One seat at the time of writing needed joints to be dismantled and re-jointed. All will have the caning replaced without over restoring them! more renovation than restoration.

Attacking one seat at a time I first take photographs of it as this might be the only reference to look back at especially any peculiarities with the caning. As the metal handle on the seat top was loose it was removed to be refitted later.  All cane was removed by first cutting loops/knots on the bottom of the seat. Next the border was removed then cutting away the panel with scalpel leaves lots of loose cane ends, pulling on these the cane came away and dislodged the dowel in a few holes, however a good few needed drilling.
Cane removed all holes clear I then cleaned seat using warm soapy water and once dry I needed to ascertain the finish of the seats, this was done using the procedure listed on the page Finish Identification.

Using a clean piece of cloth and a drop of Methylated spirit when surface was rubbed it became sticky indicating a shellac based surface.

Wood restoration consisted of a clean down with methylated spirits and wire wool, however I did not want to over restore by sanding to bare wood as this would remove the character of time.

Nail holes left from the removal of old bamboo edge (these were not going back on) and re-fixing of seat were filled using wax sticks. This was done firstly by determining the colour required, I currently have 3 coloured sticks however there is a wide range of colours available, using a plastic applicator the wax was forced into the hole/scratch and levelled off. With the reverse side of a piece of sandpaper the area filled was rubbed, this melts wax and blends into the surrounding area.

Now it's time to revive the seats finish, enhancing the grain and depth with the rebuilding of the surface, layer by layer with a cut* of Mylands Transparent Polish (shellac).

    *A cut is a ratio of shellac dissolved in methylated spirits, I use a ratio of 50/50.

Liberon 25mm shellac brush 2 coats of shellac cut were applied to the seat. The first coat acts as a seal and the second gives it enough body to sand level with extra fine sanding paper, ensuring that the sanding goes with the grain and once complete use vacuum to remove the shellac dust. Further coats are critical to a good finish and using a brush gives much larger volumes than using the technique of French Polishing to apply shellac i.e. the rubber, wadding wrapped in a piece of linen. When you apply shellac, each subsequent coat dissolves the previously laid coat or coats. However there is a fraction of time to work the next coats one by one after the previous coats have dried. Waiting for the coat to dry before applying the next is important, an hour between coats is essential, I tend to lave it over night as I have so much time on my hands 😁. Applying the last coat requires speed, and accurate brush work is core to this, you cannot place the finish on the surface and then work it out from that point as this would pull the now softened layers below which results in drag, a wave in the finish.

Buffing the final surface with 0000 steel wool enables you to see if the final surface is ‘filled’. I look for any flat spots whereby the light fails to reflect evenly across the whole surface. If it did have flat spots I added a further coat. Usually no more than four coats would do the job. The last phase is to steel wool the last coat with 0000 steel wool.

2 coats of wax using Harrell's Traditional Wax Polish (Antique W009) I applied 2 coats using a stiff brush, a cut down paint brush. First coat left for 30-60 minutes before being buffed up, a second coat being applied 24 hours later, and again buffed up.