# Refinishing teak table & chairs



## brg2290 (Apr 30, 2014)

Hello all.
I am beginning a project, and I'm hoping the guidance from this forum will help me achieve a good final result. My wife and I recently purchased a 60's teak table and chairs that are in need of repair and refinishing. My wife's expectations are set pretty high, so I'm hoping you all can help me avoid missteps. Here's the back story:

In February, we spent some time in Portland, OR. There are some vintage danish modern furniture stores that we visit when we're in town, with Look Modern being my wife's favorite. They do excellent work, and command premium prices. Long story short, my wife found a table and set of chairs that she wanted, but it was more $'s than I was comfortable with. I convinced her to let me search for a similar set at a better price from a private party, promising that I would put in the sweat equity to restore the set. 

Here's the project, followed by pictures of the end goal.


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## brg2290 (Apr 30, 2014)

*So I did a search for "Teak"*

After reading through the forum posts with "teak" in the title and gleaning advice from many of you, I've come up with a basic plan for the table and chairs that might go like this:

1. Wash with a wax and grease remover (Dupont Prepsol) 
2. Strip with a methyl ethyl chloride based stripper (Jasco Paint & Varnish)
3. Steam gouges/dents. Perform other repairs such as gluing and filling as required. *(Never done this before - any advice appreciated)*
4. Sand.
5. Wash with acetone.
6A. Oil with teak oil or tung oil 
*- or -*
6B. Seal with a sanding sealer (Zinsser Sealcoat)
7. Vinyl Sealer (mfg. ?)
8. Topcoat (pre-catalyzed lacquer - as suggested Les @ Look Modern, or Behlen Rockhard Table Top Urethane Varnish as suggested by Steve Neul - in this case, most likely satin as I did not see a semi offered.)

_Please correct errors or elaborate on any parts of the above sequence where I may have gone astray. _

I want to avoid a glossy finish. So, here are my questions. 

*What are the functional and visual differences between the pre-catalyzed lacquer finish and the Rockhard finish? 

*What makes one a better choice versus the other? 

*If using the Rockhard, it seems a satin would be the best choice, correct?

I have a compressor, but no applicator. I have no experience spraying furniture. 

*Should I take this project through the sanding phase and leave the spray applications to a professional?

Thanks,
Gary


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## HowardAcheson (Nov 25, 2011)

I could be wrong but it looks like your chosen table set is made with teak veneer. If so, you need to be very careful removing the existing finish and either sanding and/or scraping.


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## brg2290 (Apr 30, 2014)

Hi Howard.
Yes, that's my understanding as well, that it is teak veneer. I can appreciate your suggestion to be very careful. Please define that a bit. 

With regards to removing the existing finish, do you think using the Jasco is too aggressive? And as far as sanding, are you suggesting to hand sand, and stay away from using a random orbital sander? As to grit selection, start conservatively with 150 and see where that gets me? 

And since this is veneer, any special caveats concerning steaming out dings?

Thanks,
Gary


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

If you can tap your fingernails over the table and don't hear any hollow sounds then you shouldn't have any problems refinishing it.

Your finish schedule looks pretty good. By washing with prepsol solvent first you remove much of the wax and perhaps silicone that may be on the surface. 

Stripping with a methylene chloride remover is good too. I believe the old finish is lacquer so it would be good to rinse the residue of the remover off with lacquer thinner. The leaf though since it has a channel in it I would be inclined to rinse it with a power washer to get the old finish and residue out. If you use a washer that is less than 1500 psi it won't damage the wood and since it goes fast doesn't affect the joints. 

Steaming a dent in wood is as simple as wetting a chean rag and set it on the dent and put a hot iron on it. Use a iron like you iron clothes with on the highest setting. Sometimes it takes multiple treatments before you can get the results you want but if the dent is shallow and you are presistent you should be able to get it out. 

Teak oil and tung oil are good finishes but I wouldn't recommend them for a table top. The tung oil would be better but tung oil is a very slow drying finish and might take months to get enough finish on the top to work well. It might take a week to 10 days for a coat of tung oil to dry to put another coat on. The best way to tell it tung oil is dry enough for another coat is to briskly rub the surface with a clean cloth and see if the tung oil smell rubs off onto the rag. When there is no smell it is dry. 

The Behlen Rockhard Table Top Finish would be the most durable finish and for what you are doing satin would be better. When you start the finish use gloss to begin with and put satin on with the last coat or two. Too many coats of satin can make the finish cloudy. They have recently re-formulated it and I haven't use the new formula. From what I understand it isn't quite as good as the original but would still be better than lacquer. You could either use a sanding sealer with it or sealcoat. The Rockhard finish is a urethane. It's made with plastic resins. Pre-catalyzed lacquer has some nitrocellulose resins in it but mostly urea resins more similar to glue with acid hardener. Since it has the hardener mixed into it at the factory or at the store where you buy it, it normally has a expiration date posted on the lid which is about six months. 

Probably the easiest finish you could get great results with would be the pre-catalyzed lacquer. As long as you didn't frequently leave sweaty glasses on it the finish would do fine for you. The pre-catalyzed lacquer is more water resistant than the nitrocellulose lacquer I think the table has on it now but you still need to be careful with water. You would use a vinyl sealer with pre-catalyzed lacquer however just use one coat. Multiple coats of vinyl sealer sometimes starts looking cloudy. As far as manufacturer, it's usually a better practice to use the same brand sealer as the finish you are using and use their solvents as well. The solvents are a mixture of chemicals and the chemists at the paint companies have formulated the solvents to fit their finish. 

There are so many different finishes for many different reasons. For the most part "Best" depends on the application. You could use a nitrocellulose lacquer on a piece of walnut furniture and have it last 50 years if it was kept dry. You could use the same finish to finish your kitchen and within a year you would probably start seeing some lifting of the finish on the doors in front of the sink where water has run down. Urethanes are a better more durable finish but they tend to have a plastic appearance to them. They are also far more water resistant. They are also much harder and more time consuming to achieve good results. Oil base finishes take a long time to dry so a much cleaner finishing area is needed to work them. The finish stays wet for hours where lacquer can dry to touch in 5 minutes. This makes it less likely to get dirt and bugs in the finish while applying it. 

There's no reason you can's spray the finish. You can just use a cheap harbor freight sprayer. I use the #97855 sprayer myself. If you spray an oil base finish be very careful not to put too much on at once. It's real easy to get runs in it. Until you get used to it you might keep some cheese cloth to wipe off any runs you might have. You might practice on some scrap wood first. I'm not sure you can achieve the same look doing it yourself as the pictures shown at the bottom. It looks like that table was done with a lacquer stain rather than an oil stain. It more or less has had a thin coat of reddish brown paint sprayed on the table and then finished over. It takes a bit of experience to spray a uniform coat of lacquer stain. You can get the color using an oil stain, it just won't have the pasty look that table has.


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## jigs-n-fixtures (Apr 28, 2012)

The piece shown is veneer. If you look closely you can see the grain breaks at the edges. 

The finish shown is basically intact. It looks like you have some fading. If you do not much will help.

I'd apply a few coats of Watco Danish in dark walnut, applied with a lightly abrasive scotch bright pad to even out the tone.


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## cabinetman (Jul 5, 2007)

The table could likely be Teak plywood with solid wood edging. I would strip with "Aircraft Stripper" in a blue quart can, and clean with lacquer thinner and rags. I wouldn't use a power washer at all. When clean and dry, a light sand with 220x by hand with the grain. I would spray a satin waterbase polyurethane, in thin applications.








 








.


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## brg2290 (Apr 30, 2014)

Steve - thanks for all the detailed information in your post - much appreciated. I did the first round of stripping yesterday, then washed with lacquer thinner. I believe I need to do a second round today. Results after first round:








The steaming process sounds simple enough. Also, thank you for elaborating on the various finish options. I can see how the oils are not a good choice for a dining table, and there's no way my customer (aka wife) will have the patience for tung oil to dry for days between applications. As far as Rockhard vs. pre-catalyzed lacquer (and the other finish options), you did a nice job of explaining pros and cons. As you probably surmised, I don't have a spray booth, to faster drying time is a distinct advantage. 

Regarding the spray application, thanks for the sprayer recommendation and the encouragement. _Question - are rattle cans an inferior, or satisfactory option?_

About the lacquer stain, here's another picture of the leaf from our table. I'd be just as pleased to duplicate the original manufacturer's finish as I would be to mimic the re-finisher. _Do you think the original leaf also has a lacquer stain on it?_


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## brg2290 (Apr 30, 2014)

jigs-n-fixtures said:


> The piece shown is veneer. If you look closely you can see the grain breaks at the edges.
> 
> The finish shown is basically intact. It looks like you have some fading. If you do not much will help.
> 
> I'd apply a few coats of Watco Danish in dark walnut, applied with a lightly abrasive scotch bright pad to even out the tone.





cabinetman said:


> The table could likely be Teak plywood with solid wood edging. I would strip with "Aircraft Stripper" in a blue quart can, and clean with lacquer thinner and rags. I wouldn't use a power washer at all. When clean and dry, a light sand with 220x by hand with the grain. I would spray a satin waterbase polyurethane, in thin applications.


​
jigs and cabinetman, thanks for your replies. As you can see from the pictures above, I began the stripping process yesterday. 

cabinetman, is _"Teak plywood" synonymous with teak veneer? _

Here is a photo of the underside of the table that shows an edge where the bottom layer of (really) thin veneer doesn't fully cover the edge:









Some other interesting details on the table bottom - the craftsman's handwritten "233" that links the table, legs and the leaf.









And the cover piece on the right hand side hides this cast concrete counterweight to balance the leaf when extended - no wonder the table has such heft to it!


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

It's not really practical to spray a table top with a rattle can. When you spray a finish you let one row of spray overlap the previous row kind of like a roofer laying shingles. Each row needs to be sprayed on before the previous row dries so when you reach the end you essentually have a single sheet of finish on. A rattle can puts out so little volume by the time you spray a row from one side of the table to the other it's too dry by the time you start the next row. It will work but you will end up with lateral streaks across the table where each row was. When you complete the finish you end out having to rub these lap marks out where with a real sprayer it should need nothing. These marks can happen with a sprayer too if you get the laps too far apart. With some practice though you should be able to spray a uniform coat. You have to pretend the sprayer is on a tract keeping the nozzle aimed straight at the top and the same distance from the wood. It's very easy to get in the habbit of starting out 12" to 16" from the wood at the edges and dip to 6" to 8" in the middle. 

Judging from the picture you didn't let the remover soak long enough. It takes anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes with most removers. You should have been able to strip the table in one session. I've never used the Jasco remover so I can't say whether it was weak or not. I normally use Kleen Strip remover. 

I think your original finish was just a clear finish that has yellowed a little and the wood has faded a little from sun light. If you are using lacquer you could put a single coat of amber shellac on it to reproduce the yellowing of the old finish. The color the table had when you are washing the top with lacquer thinner would be the appearance of it if you would just put clear on it. That will give you an idea if added color is needed.


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## cabinetman (Jul 5, 2007)

brg2290 said:


> ​
> jigs and cabinetman, thanks for your replies. As you can see from the pictures above, I began the stripping process yesterday.
> 
> cabinetman, is _"Teak plywood" synonymous with teak veneer? _
> ...


Teak plywood is a plywood made with Teak veneer for both faces. The grading for the product would be "A" through "C" for one side (the face), and "1" through "4" for the other side (the back). The best of the product would be an "A1".

Teak veneer, would be thin slices of wood from Teak lumber, and could be in different thicknesses. It is used as a glue on layer as a final face to wood.



brg2290 said:


> Some other interesting details on the table bottom - the craftsman's handwritten "233" that links the table, legs and the leaf.
> 
> View attachment 94300


That appears to be a number applied in a production facility to mark the piece (the backside). The rough edges look like the result from being cut on a table saw, face up, and that was the bottom side. Or, cut on a table saw, and a scoring blade from the underside did some fraying.








 








.


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## brg2290 (Apr 30, 2014)

Steve Neul said:


> It's not really practical to spray a table top with a rattle can.


This is helpful and your explanation portrays a nice visual image.



> Judging from the picture you didn't let the remover soak long enough.


 Needed to be a little more patient.



> I think your original finish was just a clear finish that has yellowed a little and the wood has faded a little from sun light. If you are using lacquer you could put a single coat of amber shellac on it to reproduce the yellowing of the old finish. The color the table had when you are washing the top with lacquer thinner would be the appearance of it if you would just put clear on it. That will give you an idea if added color is needed.


Up to this point I have resisted the idea of doing anything to the leaf, but it seems like the way to attain a consistent finish between the leaf and table is to either hope to match with the amber shellac, or simply strip and finish the leaf in the same fashion as the table. _

Thoughts?_


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## brg2290 (Apr 30, 2014)

cabinetman said:


> Teak plywood is a plywood made with Teak veneer for both faces. The grading for the product would be "A" through "C" for one side (the face), and "1" through "4" for the other side (the back). The best of the product would be an "A1".
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Thank you...very interesting to learn about the veneer grading system.

Gary


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

brg2290 said:


> This is helpful and your explanation portrays a nice visual image.
> 
> Needed to be a little more patient.
> 
> ...


Most of the shellac I use is the amber shellac. Often I will replace a part on a part on a antique piece of furniture without refinishing it. Finishing the part with just a stain since the old finish has yellowed, the part looks like a new part next to the rest of it using only a clear finish. I use the amber shellac to give the finish the yellowing the rest of the finish has and blends it in so it's hard to tell the new part is new. It normally only takes one coat to do it. Too many and it starts looking orange. 

If the top has faded more than the leaves that is very hard to fix and you might need a professional if that is the case. That is done with dyes and the correct blend takes quite a bit of experience and tinkering.

If it were me I would refinish the leaves also. The leaves were probably done with a nitrocellulose lacquer and if you use them the finish would be suseptable to failing like the top did. You would also be more apt to blend the color of the leaves with the top.


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## brg2290 (Apr 30, 2014)

I was unable to work on the project this week, but hope to do more this weekend. This weekend's work could include steaming and sanding, but for now I'd like to show a picture of a previous attempted repair, and solicit advice on completing or correcting the attempt.









Do I attempt to remove the filler and start over? Better to leave it in place and fill low spots and attempt to correct for color? Suggestions are appreciated.

Gary


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

I will normally ignore repair spots like that until I get into sanding and prepping for finishing. Sometimes you can do more damage trying to rework someone else's repair work. If the color of the filler is lighter than the finish color you can just color the spots with pigments. 

After you do an initial sanding, wipe the table down with a solvent and see what it looks like. If it's a dark ugly spot dig it out and replace it with a more suitable filler.


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## pk241191 (May 11, 2014)

Also u you take tips from online too


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