Here's where you come to follow the progress of your piece of furniture in the shop. No, wood doesn't talk--or does it? Sure it does! As we work on your piece we learn things about where it's been, how it's been used, maybe even who (or what) has used it, and often about where it came from originally. It's a lot of fun and typically quite interesting.

This space also gives us a chance to let you know about any special experiences or progress related challenges. We try to chronicle work completed on your furniture whenever anything significant occurs. So there may not be an entry every day, but when we document them, we hope you will find these journal entries are fun, informative, purposeful, and creative.

So, have fun "listening" to our dialogue with your piece, as it is, it's Wood Talkin.
Email: woodtalkin@gmail.com

Wednesday, April 12, 2023

Only A Few Bones... But Lots of Memories

This "once upon a time" little pedestal table came to the shop in pieces. The little decorative top's perimeter fence was made of cherry, but the table surface was gone; a memory. It had belonged to my customer's father. Somewhere along the timeline it was forgotten,  having been boxed up and placed in a shed or or garage for storage.

Now I had most of the decorative perimeter fence, although parts of this octagonal frame were badly deteriorated. And as I mentioned, the table top had become badly warped and so my customer had decided to toss it .  The pedestal was still intact,  but it's legs were variously damaged, and its decorative feet were broken or entirely missing. However, there were warm "what it used to be" memories. So, we moved forward!

Work began with the octagonal fence.The fence looks generally OK, but as you can see, some of the pieces have deteriorated, no thanks to some water damage. I was able to minimize the deterioration's influence on my effort to pull and glue it together. So once it was prepped and glued up, it merely showed some "age cracks and dimples" and a few scars.
At the same time I acquired a great piece of veneer with some nicely placed knotty spots. I cut it to fit the prepped and glued up cherry fence. Then I was ready to do something with the pedestal and those sad legs and feet.
That effort began with the feet separated from the pedestal. I cut off the badly deteriorated spots on the foot ends and glued new wood into place.  Then I carved the swirls matching those swirls and grooves on the more intact feet. Then these were reattached to the pedestal.Finally, when all the legs and feet were back in place, I prep-sanded the entire structure in anticipation of staining it. Yup, and I stained it with a cherry stain. After that the work was all happily "down hill."  I sprayed the coat of sealer and two coats of Mohawk Duracoat Satin Lacquer. So pretty!I think it turned out really good. My customer was very happy. And that always makes my day. Yaaay.

OK,  that's WoodTalkin for today. Keep listenin. Why? Because your pieces really do have a lot of fun stories to tell.

THANK YOU!... Dick Brandow

PS: And for your information... I'm necessarily out of the shop this week supporting a family-related challenge. If you need to get through to me,  please leave me a text, or a voice mail, and I'll get back to you as your situation may require. Thanks again.

Friday, January 13, 2023

Almost a Gonner

Check out this precious old rocker. My customer reports to me that it came from the Oxford Hotel in downtown Denver. At that time, the 1890's, it was probably one of several like it made available to patrons on a closed hotel porch. So there's a lot of fun history here, and oh the stories it could probably tell!

The rocker is fashioned from Beech Wood. Looking closely, it has those distinctive Beech Wood grain flecks. And look at those wonderful turned spindles. Curves, curves, curves with predictable repetition and some splendid uniformity. It's all very typical of the Art Noveau style influencing the 1890's (and through about 1920). 

The rocker was originally finished with Tung Oil. Then somewhere along it's timeline it was stained and re-covered with the oil, but not before it was stained with a Mahogany like stain, over the original oil. The seat cut-out was tooled leather and

fastened in place with a marvelous brass buttoned ring, oh so pretty. A beautiful package for sure. But sadly, it is now exactly what time and circumstance does to everyone. With hope and maybe some promises of what it can be again, it's here in the Woodtalkin shop. Yaaay!
As I'm writing this much progress has been made. I took it apart piece-by-piece to carefully strip the flat surfaces and ALL the spindles. I'll be making a new spindle, because one has
been broken and lost. And one side of the seat is broken where the new spindles fit to support the arm. Those are being refabricated "as we speak." 
I chucked each spindle in my shop lathe in order to make the sanding effort more effective. If you've ever worked with Tung Oil you know that once it's cured on a piece it's extremely difficult to remove. And I had beaucoup intricate spindles to remove two layers of tung oil "sandwiching" the darker oil stain. Very challenging. Slowly but surely piece-by-piece they were all sanded and prepared for the next appropriate step in the process, dry reassembly. 
It's been a lot of work and very much a collaborative effort with my customer. From the beginning his plan has been to present the finished rocker to his wife, a wonderful Christmas present. It was all done a couple weeks before Christmas, but the seat insert was a project he and his daughter took on. Their effort resulted in a wonderful outcome. It is one I will certainly not forget.
 
The finished rocker is pictured below. So, what do you think. Amazingly beautiful I think. 


That's WoodTalkin for today. Be listening... WoodTalks.


























































































































































Thursday, July 28, 2022

A Quick and Important Heads Up

Hi. I had dodged Covid since March 2020. Yaaay! But not anymore. My wife and I both tested positive late this past week. Bummer! Vaccinated and boosted our symptoms have been typical of the A-15 strain,  but this hasn't been fun.  Comparatively,  I've been as sick and uncomfortable as I have ever been with a flu virus. 

Also...before this Covid interruption I had planned to take 3-4 days to catch up on some required continuing education requirements. Those requirements MUST be addressed. 

So the shop is closed temporarily closed for now until I can get this stuff confidently in my rear view mirror. In the meantime please check back here for the timely updates.  

Thank you all. You are so greatly appreciated!

Dick Brandow
WoodTalkin
720.350.2992

Monday, January 3, 2022

Here We Go Again

As some of my customers know and remember, I had both of my thumbs surgically repaired in September 2019 and then December 2019, respectively (see a previous blog update). Nope, it wasn't an injury that required that decision. The influence of time, wear, and tear on my hands gradually blew up the bones at the back of my thumbs. Ugh.  The surgical repair effort was pretty quick and successful, at least from all outward appearances.  It was then followed-up by multiple weeks of physical therapy and strengthening and I was able to resume my work in the shop early in February 2020. Yaaay.

BUT... within the very first few days(!) following the surgery on my left thumb, I realized something wasn't right. It felt like a small rope or tape band had been stretched invisibly across the back of my hand.  And through the next 24 months the pressure sensation transitioned daily, AM to PM, from modest pressure and tightness in the morning to tension and mild pain in the evening. Nobody could tell me why. Aargh...I certainly didn't want to go through that surgical process again! Bummer. 

Tic tock, tic tock, tic tock, tic tock... the days and months passed with a slow but gradually increasing level of daily discomfort. And it began to cast a long dark shadow of uncertainty on my shop future. Ugh ugh ugh.  Finally, twenty-five months following the surgery on my left hand, I was forced to conclude, with much reluctance and very awkwardly, I must schedule a repair of the initial repair. I set it up: AM,Thursday, December 30, 2021.

So I write this WoodTalkin update to you with my left hand again wrapped in big bandages. These will be replaced by an anticipated 6-week cast on Jan 11th (Signatures anyone?). At that time I hope to slowly resume my scheduled shop work---with some emphasis on "slowly."
I do have some customers' items in-process in the shop.  And yup, these items are already "Talkin" to me about going home. They'll get the attention they deserve first after 1/11. I really did try to get these pieces completed before the holidays and the surgery. I Couldn't. So barring surprises they'll be THE focus and hopefully soon completed after 1/11.

My sincere apologies to you all for this very undesired slow-down. If you have questions, or if you need some timely discussion, please just give me a call.
Happy New Year everyone!

So that's Woodtalkin for today. Keep listening!

Dick Brandow
720.350.2992 cell and text

African Mahogany Antique Rocker

Here's a really fun and amazing story.  I really love this! 

My customer brought her marvelous old rocker to the shop for repair. (Sorry, no pic)

But I wiIl use what I'll call a "pic narrative" to help me tell this story. 

The initial goal was to reglue the right broken leg and then generally stabilize the chair's joints. Then we'd recover the chair seat. However, when I got a really good look at the break and it's relationship to other vital joints in the immediate area,  I knew we had an even bigger problem.  Three joints were located in very close proximity within that same structural area.  The break was compromised by past multiple repairs in the same area. The leg's present break, and this repair, promised to fracture the integrity of all three joints! Ugh. That won't work.  We needed a Plan B. 

Plan B required my taking the front of the chair apart. It meant replacing the broken leg-arm and fabricating a new one from contemporary African Mahogany wood...a "do over." We'd use the existing leg-arm as a pattern and start from scratch. One looming question persisted: Because this chair was hand-made @1860 could we get the new wood to look like the original? Hmmm. We'll need to wait and see, but I was reasonably confident. 😊 👍 
My customer trusted me.

So the process began. I removed the fabric from around the perimeter of the seat.  Wow, you can (enlarge the so you can) see the battered tack strip securing the velvet fabric. It's been re-upholstered at least five times through the past 140 years! 

Then I worked to separate the leg-arm assembly from the frame.
And I pulled the leg free from the chair arm and began to use it as our pattern for its now-to-be-fabricated replacement. 

The new leg is taking shape. Multiple "dry fits" of the new leg gradually affirmed its fit, and clarified the appropriate hole positions and alignment with other critical joint connections. Yaaay!
Finally I glued the new leg into place and also glued the arm back onto place. Then I clamped it all securely for 12-hours. Yaaay yaaay!

Will the new wood look like the old wood? I sanded and prepped and then re-stained the entire chair front area.  Then I carefully hand stripped the entire chair and re-stained it all so all the patina promised to match. It looked so good! The next step...re-upholstery. Wow 👌.  So pretty. 

My customer graciously forwarded this pic of her great grandmother (1865) seen here as a child standing next to her mother (left side). Mom is seated in this marvelous OLD rocker.  It's wow wow wow stuff!

And that's why I call this special... the amazing stories these precious pieces can tell.

So, that's WoodTalkin.  Are you listening?

Happy New Year 2022 everybody!

Dick Brandow
720.350.2992 cell & text

Monday, August 24, 2020

One of Twelve...?

Wow, this is a marvelous old chair. It arrived at the shop for complete restoration, and with a very notable pedigree. It is one of the original jury chairs made for the Fairplay, CO, Courthouse. The facility was built in 1874, two years before Colorado became a state in 1876. So, this old gentleman could rehearse some scintillating courtroom dramas, if only, yes if only.
It's a BIG  solid oak chair. It was made to seat the big and the tall, the little and short, and then everyone in between.  And it's structurally superior, too. It stands a full four feet off the floor at the top.  It's constructed in three main pieces: the leg and bottom frame structure; a separate mid-frame "gasket" that stabilizes the leg and bottom leg structure and connects it to the upper seat structure; and the upper seat structure which includes the seat,  the chair's arms and the lathe-turned spindles and upper yoke...a wonderful old chair.

The restoration process required that it be taken almost  completely apart. There were few joints that were not loose after 140 years (--and of course if you're active and over 40 you know first hand what that's about). Then the joints were all cleaned and reglued in the reassembly process. The old finish was stripped,  cleaned,  and sanded in preparation for new stain and three coats of finish. 
Oh,  and one more thing. Below the arms and securing the arms "return" to the seat are metal fittings.  These were repainted with the bright gold that matched it's original finish.  You can see this if you look closely at one of  the final pics.  Such a handsome old gentleman!
This final pic (above) celebrates it's presence in my customer's living room... happily home at last.

That's Woodtalkin for today.  If you have pieces that need some help... call me.  I'll listen.

Sunday, August 9, 2020

Just a Before & After

Sometimes it's fun and maybe even helpful to gloat just a little.  This very practical piece,  a closed dresser,  is of 1920's-1930's vintage. It's one of several pieces,  one piece of a bedroom suite  I was privileged to refinish.  It had been well taken care of through just a couple owners,  including the years my customer has had it. And just like the rest of us,  stuff gets tired and begins to need some cosmetic--and even structural help. 

This piece's structural issues were my biggest challenge.  Several of the wooden drawer slides inside the case were "done." They were broken, and parts of them were even long lost.  Making those functional repairs required some care and some ingenuity. But it was doable and the final product is a happy outcome for everyone involved. 
The pictures I've posted here give you some idea what the piece looked like fully stripped, and then when it's all finished before all the doors are hardware are replaced, and then finally it's all back together.  Please notice the two little decorative pieces, one on the top's "fence" and the other on the first middle drawer. 
Check out the pulls on the drawers,  right and left,  and on the two doors. These pulls are solid silver! That was a surprise to me,  but even more so to my customer.  When she acquired the piece many years ago they were already tarnished,  so she had no idea they were anything more than dark grey. When I polished then up and showed them to her, wow,  was she  surprised...and delighted! It was a feels-good moment for us both. 

Ok,  about those two decorative pieces. These two were made of oven-baked moulded resin. I couldn't find exact replicas,  so we left these (for now) just as you see them there,  cleaned and finished.  But,  and just for your information,  facsimiles are available. 

Ok.  That's WoodTalkin for today.  Keep listening, and remember,  your pieces have stories to tell!