Heywood Wakefield M197G Wishbone style table refinish...Let the saga begin...part 2 of ??

For those of you who appreciate Heywood Wakefield furniture pieces manufactured during the period from the late 40's through the early sixties, this post is for you! I'm going to give you (for free!) my take on the proper procedure for refinishing this particular piece of furniture.

Some have said to me, hey, A Mod, why are you giving away your secrets? Isn't this counter productive to you getting jobs? Trust me, I started this process ten years ago and I don't think any of my advise will adversely effect my business as far as future clients. You won't learn all I have to share in a couple of posts and frankly, I really don't mind sharing some tips. I know there a lot of you out there that need some advise and prefer to go the DIY route. You have to start somewhere.

I love anything that has to do with mid-century modern, but for those of you who follow along, I specialize in H/W repair and refinishing. We recently took in a M197G wishbone table for refinishing (see our last post for the starting point) which I guess could be considered 'part 1'. I'm going to share with you my normal procedure for this piece.

If you have a short attention span, have little patience and time for long term projects, no space and not some basic tools and would prefer immediate gratification, I could safely say this post may not be up your alley. It may however give you a greater appreciation of what it takes for the job at hand! And you may even end up being a client if you'd like me to take care of your pieces :)

With that said. lets get started...

Here we are bottoms up. This is going to be the starting point for this or any other H/W refinish tear down. General rule of thumb...taking apart, start from the bottom. Putting back together start from the top and work back to the bottom.

I can't stress too much on the importance of labeling where each piece comes together and making sure to label all the screws and other relevent hardware for location on your piece. Tape screws together for particular applications and label them, along with making sure to mark where each piece was removed from, in whatever markings works for you to remember. I normally use either a number or letter system that is hidden under the reconstruct that will be easy to decipher when I reassemble.

I normally mark the drop leaves under the hinge points. It may seem redundant to mark each hinge, but in the sanding process, it's easy to accidentely sand off some of your original marks. Better safe than forgetful...the difference in an 1/8" in screw length can put an incorrectly placed piece of hardware right through one of your newly refinsihed tops or split another piece. Take your time and make sure it's right the first time...Same goes for piece placement...these pieces, although milled at a factory, were hand assembled by humans not machines. Screw placement was done by hand and not a computer and each piece has some variations. Put it back where you took it apart from, and it will save you a bunch of headaches reassembling!

When you have taken apart as much H/W as I have, you will find situations where you have removed all the obvious screws that seem to be holding pieces together and it still won't budge. Don't try and rip these pieces loose as there is likely something you missed. Granted, there are some pieces that have had a bit of glue applied and may need a little help breaking free (normally end table legs), but if a quick pop from a rubber mallet doesn't break it free, there's another cause. All of the wishbone tables I've encountered have a screw through the side apron to the outside pedestals. These are covered by a flush wood plug and as they are behind the butterfly support are not obvious. After you have clipped your tables "wings", remove the butterfly supports and you should be able to see where this screw is located. The easiest way to remove these plugs and other flush mount plugs found on a lot of other projects is to run a course thread drywall screw directly through the center of the plug. With a bit of luck, the screw will hit the top of the existing culprit screw and will back most, if not all of the plug out of its location. This is a lot cleaner removal than attempting to "dig" the plug out and will normally inflict a lot less damage to your piece. Even if it doesn't come out completely intact, you will have a lot easier time removing the remnants...this particular "tip" is great for all kinds of applications...

As of the the night before last, I had the tables drop leaves removed and the two outside pedestals taken off before my drill battery gave up the ghost and had to be put on the charger. I normally keep a backup charged, but after going through multiple sets of batteries, have opted to just replace one at a time as they die. It's gotten cost prohibitive and if you don't use every single day, these don't seem to hold charges as well and although I use one regularly, I can afford to wait an hour or so for charging. I was close to shutting it down for the evening anyway. Got back on it last night though...

Last pedestal removed, table aprons dismantled and marked...and we are ready to begin the fun of taking off our projects old "clothes". Here's a better pic of the steel gear mechanism for this table.

The first time I refinished this particular table, I took more completely apart at great time, expense and headache. I actually took the wishbone areas of the pedestal apart (not recommended). I've learned more than a few lessons on how far to go as to what you "really" need to tear down and still do a great job! In my humble opinion, this is as far as you need to go for disassembly for your successful refinishing.

We had some really needed rain this evening that allowed me to get this post done without feeling too guilty about not getting more accomplished. Post #3 to come soon for those interested! I think I'll title the next post something along the lines of the "bare" facts. Catchy?

As always, thanks for taking the time to take a look...

Heywood Wakefield Cadence dresser goes home, another new H/W refinishing project and hoping for a little ID help from my blogger buds...

Although not my particular "cup of tea" on color choice, I finished this "Cadence" dresser I had been working on and the customers were satisfied with the results. Here's a couple of pics of what we managed to do with the water based stain:

I guess they weren't too disappointed with the results, and I haven't yet seen picks of the chest they did for their DIY project, but they seemed pleased enough that they entrusted to me the first part of their Heywood Wakefield table and chairs this weekend. I'm doing this in stages with the table being the first order of business. As far as I can tell they inherited this set of the M197G wishbone table and 8 of the dogbone style chairs from family members and they have some pics representing the family around the table in the 50's. I hope to get some pics of the original pieces so I can post up later and would this ever make great "before" and "after" pics! Maybe we can get some pics of the new family around their refinished pieces ready for another 60 years!

They advised that one of the drop leafs seems to droop a bit and that some of the legs were a bit loose. After investigating the table, I think the problems are related. Once one of the outside pedestals has been fixed, I think this will cure the "droopy" leaf. I've refinished about 3 of these tables and believe this is one of the earliest tables that were manufactured under this particular manufacturing number. There are some clues why I think this may be an earlier model. The first is the glides that open and close the table for leaf insertion. This particular table has a steel rotating wheel system that I haven't seen before on this table. another is the strapping under the legs that hold the "wishbone" portion of the legs together. All the tables I've done have a wider and thinner strap holding the legs. And this table has the number hand written under the leaves, rather than the stamps that were used for most of the pieces I've encountered. It also doesn't have a finish stamped with the particular color. In my opinion, this was originally done in champagne.

I'll keep you posted later on the ongoing progress on this particular project...

Last but not least is a bit of a request for all you that may be following along for some identification

help with a chair that one of my customers may consign in the future. I think she has a pair of these and I've already spent more than a couple of hours trying to ID. They were manufactured by Heritage furniture and tagged as such. Drexel acquired the company in 1958, but they manufactured under their respective names until the 70's. Here's a couple of pics:

Apologies for the sideways pics, but these are what were sent. Any help with attribution would be greatly appreciated! My original take on these was Wormley, but could not find a match. Have any of you MCM lovers seen this particular chair before??

As always, thanks for taking a few minutes to take a look...

Some clean up on past posts, a different take on Heywood Wakefield restoration and a product review...

I've been remiss about posting lately as I have been way too busy with so many projects and keeping the store up and running, but here are some conclusions to past posts and some other fun informational stuff!

First up is the completed Heywood Wakefield M524 dresser...

 

Yes, I know I should have gotten some better pics and didn't see the dust lingering on the side until after I looked at the pics. This turned out great and can't wait to find it a home in the store!

Here's a pics of how our "over" stain project came out from the last post. Looking much prettier with less work than a total tear down! It's amazing what you can do with a little "elbow grease", some stain and some fresh upholstery...

 

How about some new mid 50's plaster harlequin pieces we have just gotten in house?

This particular post may interest those of you who own Heywood Wakefield pieces and are not fans of the lighter "wheat" and "champagne" finishes and although you love the lines of the sets, would like to see in darker finishes. For those of you who are big DIY fans of refinishing, please follow to the end as the product review may be helpful...

A super nice younger couple were in the store a month or so ago and were admiring our H/W dining set as well as the rest of the pieces we have on hand. They advised they had a wishbone table and 8 dogbone chairs that were in need of refinishing and asked for a quote for their set. I gave them my best price and they advised they would let me know soon. Subsequently, they picked up a H/W "Cadence" suite dresser and chest and asked for pricing for refinishing on this as well. I gave them a ball park estimate and they sent me some pics. Yes, they were definetely in need of some attention. Little disclaimer here: these are not the pics they sent, although pics of the same piece...

This set was originally finished in "sable" which was one of the H/W finish offerings for their finish options. With these pics it's a bit hard to imagine what they looked like originally. As they were looking for me doing their table and chairs down the road, they opted to give their pieces a shot for a DIY project and save a few bucks. I never argue, as I love to see someone take on projects they have never attempted before. How else do you learn anything new unless you give it a try!

To make a long story just a bit longer, I will tell you that after giving it a go on their chest, they contacted me on refinsihing the dresser. It seems it was just a little more work than they expected.  I think they actually have better things to do with their time! Sometimes you just have to pick your battles. So they dropped what you see above off for me to complete their set.

The "Cadence" suite was a bit of a departure from some of the other H/W lines and trended more towards the danish lines that were starting to be favored in the late 50's. This set was introduced in 1955 and ran through 1959. It features much more angular lines but still the same clean look. I would guess that much of this particular suite was finished and purchased in the sable finish. I have a twin bed on hand in the original sable and I haven't seen any other pieces of this line in other than the sable finish.

Here's how we look with two sands down and one to go.

As they had already gone through the work to get their chest mostly done and up to speed, I asked them what procedure they had used for the chest so I could replicate for their dresser and advised that I would need the remaining stain they had used to ensure a match. They wanted as close a match to the original "sable" finish as possible and I'm afraid I wasn't of much assistance in their original inquiry. The picked up their stain from Sherman Williams, which coincidentaly manufactures the finish for the "new" Heywood Wakefield furniture that's being offered on-line according to their website.

The Cadence line is probably a bit more difficult to work with, as you have to be very careful not to change the original fairly sharp shape of the set when working with it. Little more time consuming, but worth the extra effort. Now here's the product review section of the blog if you have managed to get this far without being bored to death!

Finished the final sand and ready to put down the stain. What is up with this stain? I didn't realize until after I had dipped my rag and started, that this was a water based stain! Yes, you should probably take a look before starting...but I assumed. No more will that happen...

The blue streak on the label should have given me warning but I was already into this project full on.

Now I'm as much and probably more of an environmentalist type than most people I know. I love clean air, water and anything to help keep the planet healthy and I'm sure these products are manufactured to help that happen. The trouble is, most of the water based stuff I've used over the years has never lived up to expectations and this is one of the worst! I don't think anyone in the Minwax R&D department ever tried this before they decided to put on the market. This is the equivalent of attempting to stain with acrylic paint. Even followng the directions on the label...My personal reccomendation for use of this product may be for a good paper weight! Seriously not recommended for your refinishing needs! We managed to get the job finished and I hope I got close to what my customers came up with for their chest! I'll post some after pics soon.

As always, thanks for following along and taking a look!

Close to completion on the Heywood Wakefield M524 dresser, couple of Knoll chairs?, and a bit of DIY advise on over staining...

First up is our current progress on our Heywood Wakefield M524 dresser. All but done with the last of 4 coats going down this evening. All that's left is the reassembly process, probably tonight or I may give it a day to cure out a bit. The weather here has been kind to my refinishing efforts with nice temps and reasonably low humidity for Florida. Absolutely the best time of the year for tourists and for me to expedite projects!

Started here:

Well no, we didn't actually start here, and you are welcome to take a look at the start of the project on older posts. This is how our new beauty looks with all her former "clothes" removed. Nice clean pallete with few if any flaws. I love a challenge, but appreciate not having to go the extra mile sometimes! I have pics of all the coats going on, but they seem a bit redundant so I'll just give you the finals before reassembly....

I have more than a few hours time buffing with the 0000 steel wool between each coat but if you want something done right, you just have to put in the time! I'll get some good after pics up when it's reassembled and photo worthy...and in the daytime!

Next up are a couple of Eero Saarinen Knoll side chairs that were consigned from none other than our landlord! He's a lawyer by day and a very good artist in his own right on his time. Still can't get my head around that whole concept, but he has good taste! Here are the chairs we took in for consignment...

I just know that these have been recovered and it really bugs me that whoever did these didn't reattach the original labels. Looking at the construction, I would definetely say these are Knoll  pieces, but without some attribtion I have no way of marketing as the real deal! I would never sand off a H/W stamp on pieces I refinish, so why would an upholsterer remove a makers tag and not re-attach?

Feel free to comment with your input as to their authenticity! Not in the best of shape, and I might consider having the bases re-chromed if they belonged to me...

Lastly, we are offering a bit of DIY advise on your thrift store picks that may need a little TLC. I know a lot of individuals out there that follow my posts are interested in bringing their pieces a new life and many can't afford to have their pieces redone. Here's a little teaser on a recently acquired MCM dining room table and chairs that are in the works.

We recently acquired 4 of these modest little chairs along with the matching table from an aquaintance that was moving out of state. Table is nothing too special but the chairs have some nice lines and the set it definetely worth bring back up to speed. All the chairs had loose joint issues but a little glue, some clamping and the trusty brad nailer I had them all tight and ready for some major cleaning. A few more hours with some 0000 steel wool and mineral spirits to cut most of the built up grime and we are ready to pretty them up. These were well past the point of just going over with some Restor-A-Finish. You actually need some finish to work with, and these were missing finish in too many areas. At this point the fastest and easiest fix is to over stain the pieces with a fresh coat of Early American stain and top coat with a satin lacquer. Stain is on and in the drying process...

And those seats really need some help as well. How boring... The drawback to overstaining is the extended wait time for the stain to dry. Often it takes a couple of days before you can shoot. Still a lot less work than completely stripping and starting from scratch. It won't cure all the issues but certainly brings the pieces back to a respectable condition. More pics to come when we have finished!

Thanks as usual for taking a look...