Refinishing Old Distressed Furniture

Two different customers asked me to refinish old pieces of furniture. Marvin had his father’s old humidor, probably made in the 1930’s. It looked like walnut, and it was very much the worse for wear.

John owned a dresser that had been stored in a garage and was in bad shape. It was missing the base, and the finish was completely degraded. It looked very much like cherry.

To my surprise when I had stripped each piece, a mystery wood was revealed. It was the same wood on both pieces - not walnut and not cherry. I took the door from the humidor to my hardwood supplier. He turned it around and looked it over in good light. Finally he tapped his finger on it and said, “What you have here is red gum.” I asked him if he had any in stock and he said he probably did, buried somewhere, and added that he hasn’t sold red gum in years. Howeve, red gum is still used world wide for flooring, furniture, and woodcarvings where its beautiful smooth grain is shown to advantage.

Red gum planking. Red gum (also called Sweetgum) forests are found from Connecticut to Florida, and west to Texas. The Eucalyptus tree of Australia is similar to red gum and is grown on tree farms in the Southwest  states, and California.

For this chest of drawers I built a new base out of cherry. I used the same wet-on-wet approach, and used four different stains - cherry gel, walnut, dark walnut, and a light cherry. At a certain point the whole piece seemed to be coming out a bit dark, so I rubbed out the stain with paint thinner, leaving a cheerfully light color.

I think the right color makes all the difference.

The simulation of two different woods was created entirely by the use of color. I used Varathane oil based stains. On the humidor I used black walnut stain. It was not quite dark enough, so while it was still wet I went over it with a purplish-black stain called espresso. This “wet-on-wet” method of staining is a good way to adjust color, but takes practice. The original stain fills the pores of the wood and the secondary stain changes the color in small degrees.

I sprayed the humidor with several coats of Varathane Interior Water Based Satin Polyurethane varnish. Between coats I restored the gold filigree which was painted into the original grooves.

The re-finished humidor, which was probably never intended to be a show piece, now is a handsome period piece.

Now, compare the humidor to the chest of drawers on the right. It’s hard to believe that both are made from the same species of wood.