Back to Work?
I’ve had a great time doing things that are not remodeling. Really. But I also want to get some things done sooner or later. Plus, I didn’t have a lot going on this weekend, so it was back at it. I was staring at dust bunnies under a table in the living room a couple days ago. The old plan was to tackle those. The new plan? Sand the banister.
A refresher: in October 2015, in one of my biggest screwups ever, I carefully set aside a fragment of wood. But I didn’t wrap it in tape and tag it “save” so my dad threw it away.
And so, instead of finishing this before the floors were done when it would have made sense, I abandoned it. Then, my friend gutted his house and gave me what I thought was the perfect material to make a patch. (I believe this banister was an off the shelf product in the 1930’s because it’s all over the city. Note that this one is a mirror image.)
The Irishman fixed the disaster with a whole lot of wood filler, and I let the banister go like this for a year and a half. It’s still better than the drippy candle faux finish a previous owner applied.
But anyways. I did a lot of sanding. And I put down a lot of sheets and masking tape. Yawn. The Irishman put a big dent in the railing at some point and remembered it when my sandpaper got down here.
And so I steamed it out. Pretty simple procedure. Dribble the dent with water, cover with a wet paper towel, then iron it. Repeat like 30 more times. I probably ironed more yesterday than in the last 5 years combined.
But it worked pretty well! There’s still a small dent though after I sanded it out it was hard to tell. Also, shout out to my roommate for getting these really flattering shots of me.
And then came the finishing! I used what I got for the doors upstairs, General Finishes High Performance Topcoat dyed Brown Mahogany. My thinking there was that it would penetrate the wood less and camouflage mismatches between old and new wood better, and be less blotchy if any remnants of original finish were still in place.
The balusters and newel are paint grade and will be off white like all the other trim, and the balusters that spiral around the volute have to go back in. Hopefully my motivation is sticking around for a while. I also have no interior doorknobs that work right except my roommate’s bedroom and the bathroom.
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Looks really good Chad. Trev likes your steaming out tips!
Oh hi Trev!
Hi Chad, i’ll file the steaming tip away. Have you any experience in steaming and bending wood, like to make bannisters for curved stairs?
Trev
Hi Trev, I haven’t done any serious woodworking myself, but I did read about handrails made of thin layers of wood laminated together. See if you can order something like this in France. https://cheapstairparts.com/how-to-bend-wooden-handrail/
Amazing. It looks like your stain worked really well.
Volute. That’s a new word for me. The bannister is gorgeous. I love the color.
It’s funny, everything that got this stain came out a slightly different color. Including the upstairs banister, which is a different wood
It’s beautiful! Great job with the iron. I am impressed that you have one. None of my brothers do.
Someone gave it to me. I’ve only used it on table linens though once I ironed some shirts to prove a point against sending them out
Iron story: When I moved to Alabama in the 1970s, with a little baby, I dutifully brought my iron with me, although I avoided ironing like the plague. A year later, I received a little baby dress that needed ironing, so I dug the iron out of its box. Tried to pour water in the little hole provided for the purpose. The water would not go into the hole, so I poked at it with a toothpick. A very pale yellow and angry spider came out. From then on, I had a laundry basket I euphemistically called “mending,” stowed in the bottom of a closet. Into that basket went any stupid bit of clothing that required ironing. I think irons are much better used for steaming up old tile, etc.
EWWWWWWWW!!! I would have fainted and woken up and not known where the spider went and freaked out even more. I would never use an iron again either!!!
Looks fabulous Chad! I’ve never heard the word “volute” either. Great job!