Weekend off
This weekend, I skip heading down to Wildwood to instead take a road trip to West Virginia and Ohio. During the trip I do read up on some wood refinishing because when I get back, the next big project I have is to finish the built-in I’m having done in the attic to cover up the Unico system.
Cool retro diner we stopped in during our trip.
The built-in is made out of a pine beadboard and I want to try and match it to the woodwork in the attic. I started reading up on some refinishing techniques to see if there are any tips to match the finish on the new wood to the existing 1900s beadboard. Inspecting some of the pieces of beadboard that were removed during the installation, it doesn’t look like the wood was stained. I haven’t tested the finish, but my guess is that it’s shellac and the dark color was achieved through using either dyed or dark brown shellac. After reading the book, I’m leaning towards trying to use a washcoat of tung oil mixed with mineral spirits to seal the wood and give it a slight amber tint. I’ll then try a series of shellac coats to see if that builds up enough color to match.
If that doesn’t work, I’ll try adding some dyes to the shellac and see if I can use that as a toner. Lastly I’ll try dying the wood with some water soluable dyes. The book recommended a place called WD Lockhard and luckily they are located in Manhattan and have been in business since the late 1800s. There’s so many options with wood finishing, but the nice thing about trying to do things in a period appropriate manner is that the choices are limited. I can pretty much ignore the parts about polyurethane, 2 part finishes and water based finishes and focus on shellac, oil, and maybe a varnish. I think if lacquer came on the scene in the 1920s that even that would be past the date of my house. But I’ll confirm this weekend when I test the finish with some alcohol to see if it dissolves the finish proving that its shellac.
Repurposed building now housing lots of small food shops.
While on our road trip, we stopped at the Fostoria Glassworks Museum. It’s a museum dedicated to a local glassmaking business that closed in the mid-1980s. The museum has a large collection of glass from the start of the factory in the late 1800s up until its closing. The most interesting is an old video from the 50s that details the manufacturing process. While the process follows an assembly-line approach, it jumps out that each station during the preparation of glassware requires a person who interacts with the product in a unique way. Each step requires some specialized knowledge to shape and blow the glass. There are parts of the process that rely on molds or conveyor belts, but for the bulk of the preparation, someone is manipulating the glass using their experience and skill to guide them. You end up with common glassware that would be in a standard household, but also bears the marks of human hands with some variations and discrepancies. It’s hard not to think about how the loss of this work devastated the community. When this factory was working and cranking out tumblers, plates and cups, I could see the workers having pride that their products were being shipped all over the USA and in the local kids could drink out of a glass and be like “My grandma helped make this.” There would be visible lines in the glass showing it came from their family’s hands so even though it was a factory, there was still a human touch to it. Now, when you drink from a glass, where is that from? Some is still made in the USA if you are using Libbey Glass, but say you stocked your house with glasses from Walmart. Is there any connection to that product? Do you care that it was made by a robot operating overseas instead of a family member who works at the local plant?
