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Hand Stripping

Every piece of furniture is different and must be carefully examined to determined the proper method of stripping. A lot of furniture I see these days are from the late 1800's, early 1900's. The glues used during this time was animal glue and it susceptible to drying out. Dipping furniture that is from this period and older can be very detrimental to the piece. If dipped and finished quickly and delivered a customer can expect to see cracks due to the drying out process.

We prefer to hand strip. Taking each piece individually, examining the piece to determine the kind of finish that is on the piece to know which chemical to use to best remove the finish with out damaging the furniture. Each time furniture is refinished the integrity of the wood is brought into question.

We also examine to determine whether or not the piece even needs stripping and refinishing. Sometimes the alternative is not to strip but clean. After a good cleaning and removal of a top layer of dirt we will hand finish, French polish, or add a wax finish which can be removed with a mild solvent and re-waxed when the wax finish has retreated.