Customer Reviews

Restoration Recipes: Techniques for Repairing and Refinishing Fine Furniture

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4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
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This book is an excellent value. It is packed with useful techniques for restoring just about any kind of furniture. The entire book is in full-color. Each project and technique includes a material and equipment list as well as clear step-by-step instructions accompanied by small photos.

The book starts out with tips on where to purchase furniture and what to look for when you do. Then it gives you the basics of getting started including tools, finishing, cleaning, stripping, and treating infestation or wood rot. It also has a wonderful section on understanding wood with a nice chart on 15 wood types, their use, advantages and disadvantages.

Consolidation of furniture including deciding what parts to keep, dismantling a piece or simply making the furniture joints stronger follows. Consolidation sections specific to chairs, tables, and a chest of drawers provide useful details. They teach things like replacing a broken chair stretcher bar, evening chair legs, mending major cracks, replacing a table chassis, carving a new leg for a tripod table or repairing worn drawer slides. There are two additional sections on metal fittings and upholstery. Molding a backplate, antiquing new metal fittings and replacing a double stuffed seat are just a few of the techniques taught here.

The next section focuses on repairing and beautifying surfaces. This includes a great guide to solving common problems like white water marks, dents and scorch marks. Veneer repairs such fixing blisters and removing an old veneer and reusing it as are also covered. It then goes on to demonstrate several surface effects including French polishing, working with gesso, gilding, aging paint, staining, graining, marbling and waxing.

The last section includes 12 projects that use the techniques previously covered. In one project, clients need a sixth chair. They find one with a matching back but must replace the entire seating structure and reupholster it. In another project an empire-style night table needs its brass fitting replaced and its tambour door dismantled and refitted. It also needs new stain, French polish and wax.

The information here will enable you to take on some tough challenges with satisfying professional results as you restore or enhance fine furniture. To help with any project there is a nice list of suppliers in the back.

The fundamental failing of this book is that the methods of restoration described in the text require a significant degree of skill to master (French Polishing, Hammer Veneering with hide glue, cabinet-making skills, et al) thus making the text exceedingly schizophrenic. The book assumes that the reader is a neophyte, but anyone who has already mastered the rudimentary skills needed to complete one of the projects given in the text would have no need to purchase the book, as they would now be self-reliant. For someone just starting out, a better learning resource is Brian Hingley's "Ultimate Guide to Furniture Repair and Refinishing" which gives step-by-step accounts of the process. Furthermore, the photographs of the completed projects are so poorly photographed (hidden in shadows, or a close-up shot) that one cannot ascertain if the restoration has been a success.

Wealth of info on the subject. I'll enjoy using it when I find some free time to do some furniture refinishing. Great deal on this nice used book.

I have read a number of restoration guides over the years and still find this one to be among the best of restoration guides. Correct techniques and step by step instructions with excellent illustrations make this book extremely valuable to the beginner and mid-level furniture restorer.

this book is a good reference for furniture finishing and restoration. Solid information about how to identify antique furniture and it's finishes and then how to repair it. it has information about staining, french polishing, and gilding among others. A straight forward, interesting book that will help me in many furture projects.

Having read both the book and the other review of it here, I'm in wholehearted agreement. But I did encounter one small downside. James Bain recommends only one source for upholstery material -- and that turns out to be a wholesaler to the trade only. I haven't checked the other recommdnations, but you should be aware that there's a possible problem here, however minor.