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Debate time: should we leave original patina or strip everything down to bare wood?
I was over at the old train depot in downtown Portland last weekend, they're restoring the waiting room benches from 1910. Half the team wants to keep all that dark, cracked varnish and wear marks because it tells a story, the other half wants to sand it all off and refinish like new. I'm on the fence, I've got a 1940s dresser at home where I stripped the top but left the sides original, and it feels uneven to me now. But my buddy stripped his entire 1920s library table and it looks factory fresh, not sure if that's good or bad. Which side do you fall on for furniture restoration, patina forever or bring it back to like-new condition?
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wren_rodriguez2mo ago
Wait do you think that stripping it actually causes physical damage over time, or was it more about your cousin rushing it and not sealing it right after?
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seth_carr2mo ago
...so I got this old rocking chair from my aunt that's been in the family since the 1800s, and my cousin stripped it down to bare wood like fifteen years ago. Looked beautiful for about a week until the wood just started checking and cracking because he took off all that old shellac that was holding it together. Now it sits in his garage covered in dust and he keeps saying he's gonna get around to refinishing it again. Meanwhile my other cousin has the matching dresser from the same set, never touched a thing on it, just wipes it down with a damp cloth and that dark grimy varnish is still holding strong. So I guess I'm starting to lean towards keeping the patina because once you take it off, you can't put that history back.
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