jovially.top · workshop ledger
Every refinement job on the bench, newest first.
A five-drawer walnut dresser that had spent nine years under a leaking window. The top was ringed white, the veneer had lifted along the front edge of the carcass, and two drawer runners had swollen shut. Nine hours of the seventeen went on the veneer alone.
24 August 2026 #veneer#walnut#stripper#water-ring#shellac
A farmhouse ladder-back that had been reglued three times with white PVA, each time without taking the joints apart first. The rush was brittle enough to snap between two fingers. Six hours went on the frame, three on the seat.
26 August 2026 #oak#rush-seat#hide-glue#shellac#regluing
A Danish-style teak sideboard whose top had gone from warm brown to pale straw across the front two-thirds, because that is the part the window touched. The end panel had a 180 mm split, and the whole surface had been wiped with a silicone furniture polish for decades.
28 August 2026 #teak#danish#oil-finish#sun-fade#veneer
A 1.9 m pine kitchen table wearing six decades of paint on the base and a century of scrubbing on the top. The top was salvageable by washing rather than stripping; the base was not, and the breadboard end had shrunk away from the field by 4 mm.
30 August 2026 #pine#scrub-top#soap-finish#breadboard#painted-base
Three mahogany occasional tables with a French-polished finish that had gone cloudy white across the tops and had worn through to bare veneer along every edge. Six body coats went back on, and the whole job is really about grain filler rather than polish.
1 September 2026 #mahogany#french-polish#shellac#grain-filler#veneer
A Thonet-style bentwood chair that had been dipped in black lacquer at least twice, the second time without cleaning the first. Took a caustic tank to get it off, which is the only job here where caustic was the right answer.
4 September 2026 #bentwood#beech#lacquer#caustic#thonet-style
A country-made oak press with a detachable cornice and original linen-fold panels. The finish was dirty and patchy, not failed, which made this the one job on the bench where the right answer was almost no abrasives at all.
21 September 2026 #oak#linen-press#cornice#shellac#patina
An end-grain block that had been scrubbed with too much water and oiled too little. The cutting face was fine; the failure was at the joints between the staves, where water had been getting in for a decade. Food-safe finish throughout.
28 September 2026 #maple#butcher-block#end-grain#food-safe#oil-finish
A Danish-style rosewood table with a top that had been wrecked by a hot coffee pot and a spilled drink, and a colour that had gone almost black. Rosewood punishes over-sanding more than any timber on this bench, so this job was mostly about restraint.
5 October 2026 #rosewood#hongmu#teak-oil#grain-filler#danish-modern
The doors were a mess and the case was fine, which is the ideal version of this job. Stripping flat doors on a bench is easy work. Stripping them while they are still hung on a case that must not get wet is a different problem, and that is what this record is mostly about.
7 October 2026 #walnut#armoire#panelled-doors#shellac#hide-glue#joinery
A boarded elm coffer with its original iron banding and a lid that had been sat on for three centuries. The correct treatment was almost entirely cleaning — no stripping, no sanding of the surface, no attempt to make 1700 look like 2026.
12 October 2026 #elm#coffer#trunk#iron-banding#wax-finish#conservation
Nothing on the bench matches that probe.
Stripped & Stained · [email protected] Refinishing information only — not professional, conservation or safety advice. Content is for general informational and reference purposes only and does not constitute professional advice.