Old chair with rough finish

[fromeast2west]

Hi,

I focus mostly on woodworking, and I found a chair I thought would be a good project to work on.  The seat needs to be re-caned, and either the finish needs work or it really needs a good cleaning.  I didn't see any obvious makers marks on it, but looks like good quality cuts of oak.



The wood workers I know have plenty of tips on how to strip off all the build up, but I've heard enough stories about ruining a piece by destroying the patina that I thought I'd check here before I do anything irreversible on this.

It was also suggested that the base was originally hand woven cane (has the series of holes around the opening), but has been reworked to accept a prewoven insert.



It has the holes in the bottom, but nothing seems to be coming through, and it looks like splines have been added to hold the current caning in place.

Some more detail shots of the current surface:

[bigwull]

over here we call the seat..rattan...

[mart]

Can you take a pic of the underside of the seat ??   Didn`t look like sheet caning to me but cant tell without seeing the bottom !!  If no cane can be seen inside the holes it may be a more modern replacement !!  The old hand caning would be pegged in the holes !! That finish should be easy !!

[fancypants]

Welcome to the forum , fe2w !

I'd suggest saving work & $$ by giving your item (the oak , anyways) a light cleaning & a couple of coats of food-grade mineral oil wipe-down (not on any 'plywood/veneer' surfaces though) .

Since you've sorta mentioned that the chair has been altered from it's original , another option would be to remove the existing 'manufactured' rattan & replace the seat with a slab of wood , padding & leather cover ... sorta more durable than the ratt & might make the sorta heavy-framed appearance seem more solid .
There have been chairs like yours reworked with rawhide as well .

Looks like a pretty solid oak armchair , so there's value in that .... not so much a 'real' antique (100yrs old or older) , but hung on to for awhile , it'll be one !


If you are bent on refinishing , there's that whole toxic & messy deal , if ya' wanna ..... sometimes the finish just might be shellac-based , which is easy to solventize/recoat (v/s stripping the whole thing out) .


I'm not endorsing any of the above processes as a 100% cure for your ills , but some ARE dirty & cheap !

[mart]

Simple fix for this finish is denatured alcohol and 0000 steel wool !! Works the same as Formby`s !! Need a lot of rags to wipe with !! It will dissolve the old varnish and leave the patina of the wood !! Then go over it with the same dry and clean 0000 steel wool when dry to smooth out any threading then restain if you want or just revarnish or clear lacquer as you wish !! The denatured alcohol will not raise the wood grain like some strippers do !!