Stripped | Stained | Re-Polished
Just finished two days of work on this lovely solid Oak dinning table (base and top).

Just finished two days of work on this lovely solid Oak dinning table (base and top).

The owner's father had coated it in the 50s, with a very thick treacly varnish, which looked horrible. Because no stain had been used and the sun had damaged it in areas, the colour of the wood was all over the place, so none of the sections matched. It was a bit of a mess.
I striped the whole table of the old varnish, bleached all the wood and then stained each section to match. I then re-polished with proper French polish and finished the table off with some good quality bees wax.

It's a great table and I'm really please to have returned it to it's former glory.
NB. One of the important things with Oak, is not to put too much Polish on and leave the grain slightly open. It looks like plastic otherwise, which is what the varnish had done. Polish sinks in to the wood, varnish sits on top.