Pinefinders Xmas Outing 2016

Ken kindly took Debs and I skiing for the day as a xmas treat for all our hard work this year. Here are some videos and piccies of our fun filled day!!!  All having skied in the past, (ten plus years ago) we decided we didnt need lessons and to go for it.......surprisngly we all did really well......although there was a very funny incident with Debs and the ski lift and taking people out as she went!!!!!!

Notice how in the video Ken and I don't help poor Debs up!! Well that happened quite a few times and passers by helped her instead!! what nice work collegues we are

Stay tuned for Pinefinders live TV...... coming soon!!!

Furniture painting tutorial with Debs

A helpful video for those of you who wish to DIY - paint your own furniture

Most of our furniture we have for sale is in the "bare wood" ready for waxing or painting. We offer our customers the chance to buy their chosen piece in the bare wood, for a reduced price, if they would like to wax/paint it themselves, or if they have anoyther company in mind to do  it for them. 

Hope this video helps ! Thanks for watching

Alex 

How to Wax Polish Antique Furniture - with our in house polisher

Deb's Tutorial

Here at Pinefinders we wax polish your furniture to a very high standard before it leaves our warehouse.

Most of our furniture is in the bare wood, having recently been stripped. It is then up to the customer to decide if they would like us to wax polish it for them or id they'd like to do it themselves.

This tutorial is helpful to those deciding to take the job on. So here is Debs, our in house polisher, showing you how its done.

Debs uses "Antique Brown" Briwax in this tutorial. The drawer was taken from a bank of drawers made from old reclaimed pine. If you need help deciding which polish would best suit your piece of furniture, we are happy to advise you on this.

Debs also paints furniture for our customers. Generally we use Farrow & Ball paints which is discussed in more detail once the customer decides on the colour. There will be a painting tutorial at a later date.

Thanks for watching,

Alex

 

Furniture Restoration - Wax Polishing

The Next Process............

Some of our customers ask us what happens to the furniture after they have bought it.......how do we restore and wax the piece before we deliver it??

All our furniture arrives to us stripped, aka in the "bare wood"/ "in the white". We choose to do this for various reasons. Most antique furniture was painted so we like to strip the original paintwork off, this is done by immersing in hot caustic solution. This also then rids the furinture of any live woodworm and sterilizes the wood.

Now the furniture is ready for wax polishing or re-painting. Debs, our resident polisher, checks over your chosen piece and sands it down so when it is waxed or painted the surface will be smooth. She applies the wax with a brush or wire wool, depending on the wood, then when it is all dry she gives it a really good buffing.
We use different shades of wax, we adviSe our customers on the best shade for their chosen piece.

At a later date I will go into a bit more detail about wax finishing and restoration with an instructional video showing Debs in action!!

We are now offering a ‘furniture repair and restoration service’ for your pine furniture. Contact us for more details.

All the best,

Alex

Why do pieces of old pine furniture vary in colour when they've been restored and waxed ?

In my experience, different types of pine have different patinas and shades. Whether it has been a quick growing or slow growing pine tree also determines whether the grain will be close or wide. (You will notice on most new pine furniture the wide grain). Also pine will darken with age. 

You can see below the first 2 images of new pine with wide grain, the 3rd image of the top of a very old pine table. Notice the very close grain.

I have tended to notice that old pine furniture from different countries are also different colours. Some pieces from East Germany, for example, can be very rich in colour, and some from The Czech Republic can be very light. 

Georgian and early Victorian English pine furniture tended to be made from very slow growing pine, so the grain was often very tight, and the wood quite hard (for a soft wood like pine). 

The English had determined that only the lower class would have a piece of furniture with the bare wood showing (just waxed or oiled), so they tended to like it painted. This lead paint will have protected the wood and also stopped the sun's rays from darkening it (Pine will darken with age if exposed to light). Therefore when we decided to start to strip and wax our old pine furniture (starting in the 1970's, and very often stripping our old pine doors also), we found the lovely old slow growing tight grained wood underneath, and we enjoyed the light colour which was enhanced when waxed with a beeswax finish.

A painted Victorian pine chest of drawers and one that has been stripped and waxed:

The darkening of pine can be regularly seen on the antique furniture I deal in, especially on many old pine Marriage Chests and Wardrobes. You may find we currently have some old pine painted Marriage Chests for sale. These types of furniture were often given as wedding present. An old pine box or wardrobe would be bought, then re-painted and then the initials of the married couple would be also painted on the item in thick lead paint. When we strip our furniture, the stencil of the writing can still be seen, it will be lighter in colour because the lead paint has protected the wood just a little more than the thinner paint elsewhere. 

1st image: An old pine painted Marriage Chest, 2nd: Caustic soda, 3rd: A close up of an old pine wardrobe, 4th: A close up of an old pine cupboard, 5th: an old East German pine chest of drawers.

Another determining factor in how the piece of furniture will look when stripped and waxed is actually 'how' it is stripped. If, for example you strip a modern piece of pine furniture with a modern methylene chloride based paint stripper and then try and wax it, it will remain a very yellow, light colour. If however you remove the paint using a caustic soda solution (sodium hydroxide), which was the common way of stripping old painted pine furniture, then the wax will take to the wood and it is absorbed nicely, producing a lovely sheen and enhanced patina.

Pinefinders TV

Well I've been trying to keep up to date with all the new 'tech stuff' and have figured out a way of broadcasting live from a video camera onto a page of the website.

This way I'll be able to show someone around the warehouse and any piece of furniture they might be interested in live on line, which might be very useful if they live too far away to come and visit.

(Edit 20th December 2019) As I have now hit 1000 subscribers on our Pinefinders YouTube Channel, I will soon be able to enable the live broadcasting.

Videos of our furniture:

I've also been experimenting with videos of the furniture for sale. With a bit of trial and error I'm getting better, and from now on will be including a video with every piece of furniture to arrive, together with the usual photos, descriptions and prices etc..

Ken

 

 

Another happy customer - 5 x 3 turned leg table - painted base

Just delivered a table we had made for a customer:

A 5' x 3' table with the top made from old rustic pine floorboards which had been cleaned up, sanded, sealed and wax finished.

The base with turned legs, painted in Farrow & Ball Pavillion Grey 242 Estate Eggshell.

The doorways and hall were fairly narrow so I had to fit the top to the base in the kitchen where it was going. I also fitted felt pads on the legs so it wouldn't mark the floor.

With the light coming through the window onto the table top it really looks good. Re waxing the top every few years will keep it fresh though some customers prefer to let it fade.

If you would like a table made for you please ask for details.

 

A busy weekend - Oak bench made, Chest of drawers painted & Table made

Yes it's been a busy weekend.

A lovely old early Victorian mahogany chest of drawers I bought a while ago a customer fell in love with wanted painting in Farrow and Ball 'James White'. I had to fit new drawer runners as the originals had worn down (which is common for this era. Having also sanded all of the old finish off and fitted it with new beech knobs I applied a couple of coats of water based undercoat - primer, sanded it all down nice and smoothly, and then painted 3 top coats of the Farrow and Ball. It's come up really nicely - very pleased.

We have also made a 190 cm x 90 cm table top for a customer in London. She had supplied her own metal legs which she had specially made. I had to make a wooden 'T' structure under the table to accommodate the metal legs. The top was made from some beautiful old floorboards reclaimed from an old pottery in Loughborough. Sealed with a dilute varnish and then waxed with a Briwax finish.

The small oak bench was made for a local customer to go with an oak table she had recently bought. Size: 5ft long, 18" high and 12" deep. It's looking great, just need to find out what sort of finish she'd like on it so we can match it to her table as closely as possible.

After all this I feel a lazy Monday afternoon is in order.

Promotional video

Last week I had a local video production company Scissor Paper Stone film a promotional video for the website. I must say they were very patient and professional and did a great job. 

I managed to stumble through all of the information I wanted to get over, and despite it being pretty cold here in the warehouse, with an abundance of hot tea and food from Haddenham's Little Italy Espresso Bar at the local train station we managed to survive the 3 or 4 hours filming.

The guys from Thame TV have had a lot of experience filming events and businesses in the area. Covering the very popular Thame Food Festival, local restaurants and pubs, the famous Towersey Festival, many charity events, loads of other local events and other local businesses. Their wealth of knowledge really came in useful.

See the result below: