At last writing, we had removed all the trim pieces from the edges and corners of the old cedar chest. Once the trim pieces were removed the rest of the sanding should have been pretty easy. And I guess it was, really. Too easy. I should have known right then that something was about to go very wrong.
There were a number of tiny scratches in the veneer,
possibly created by the electric sanders.
I sanded the surface by hand, using
very fine grit and a rubber sanding block.
very fine grit and a rubber sanding block.
And applied a thin layer of tong oil to protect it.
My earlier conclusion that the surface of the veneer less fragile than I had thought was dead on wrong. Returning to my palm sander to take down the dark areas around the edges was a near-fatal mistake. In the process of sanding down the dark areas where the edging had been, I found out just exactly how thin veneer really is, and how easy it is to damage. While paying too much attention to the dark spots in front of my sander, I failed to notice that the back of the sander was burning through what little surface remained in those areas we'd already sanded.
The resulting "sanding burns"
were the pale blond color of rough cut pine.
I didn't see that this would be a huge problem, since I had several shades of some good quality stain I was sure would fix it right up. Unfortunately, I had just stepped into the realm of "can't be done" without even realizing it.
The pale layer beneath the surface veneer
stubbornly refused to take color.
What I didn't know (yet) was that this layer of wood underneath the surface would refuse to absorb stain, making the blond "burns" stand out worse and worse no matter what I did to cover them up. I tried dark walnut stain. (Minwax, my favorite products for woodwork.) It wiped right off. I tried Old English scratch cover. Same result. Sanded the area very lightly. Tried it again. No change. I tried brown liquid shoe polish. Nothing. Then I tried ox-blood boot polish. That made the areas around the burns look reddish, but didn't color the pale spots at all.
My beautiful blond cedar was getting darker
(and redder) with everything I tried.
Then Larry stepped in to help. He found a tub of camel grey shoe polish that was almost as thick as a paste and would clump up on the bald spot. He dabbed it on thick and let it sit over the weekend.
At least the clotted shoe polish stuck to the wood.
Unfortunately, when I knocked off the dried polish most of the color came off with it. At least, it came off of the "burned" spots. It stuck amazingly well to the stained area around the burns, and trying to lighten those areas took the remaining polish off the pale spots. So I lightly sanded the entire trunk lid again. By hand. (I was seriously worried about cutting through the remaining veneer.)
Larry applied a second treatment with the blotted shoe polish, and this time the color stuck. The bad news; the shoe polish hardened on the wood and wouldn't rub in. Or off. The overall effect was horrible. To make matters worse, the polish had tried to drip and the drips hardened into the wood, too. The undamaged areas around the burns held onto the blotches and drips, making the pale areas look even worse. Damn.
Larry applied a second treatment with the blotted shoe polish, and this time the color stuck. The bad news; the shoe polish hardened on the wood and wouldn't rub in. Or off. The overall effect was horrible. To make matters worse, the polish had tried to drip and the drips hardened into the wood, too. The undamaged areas around the burns held onto the blotches and drips, making the pale areas look even worse. Damn.
The harder we tried to fix the problem
the worse it looked.
the worse it looked.
I figured it could be lightly sanded with a very fine grit paper to take down the blackish blotches. I was afraid of making the problem any bigger, so I tore off a tiny piece of the sandpaper and used my fingertip to rub it. The problem was that while taking out the blotches, the pale spots beneath were again exposed. (The drips ignored my efforts completely.)
About the time most reasonable people would have given up, I got the idea that the blackish blotches left behind from the shoe polish were evidence that the burned areas could take stain if I gave it enough time. So I pulled apart a cotton a swab and stuck the cotton to a piece of masking tape, then soaked the cotton (but not the tape) in a dark walnut wood stain, and very carefully stuck the tape over the burns. I left the soaked cotton taped to the trunk lid over night, and was thrilled the next day when the tape came off and the stain remained behind.
The home made band-aid actually worked.
It was still pretty blotchy from the clotted shoe polish, but the stain managed to cover a lot of that. The truth was that no matter how bad the spots still looked, they would probably look better on the finished trunk lid than the blinding bald spots I had created. We sanded them down very gently, then scrubbed the entire surface with steel wool, and I hit the the trunk lid with another round of the lightest color stain, blond oak. Then I gave it a heavy dose of Tong Oil (possibly the very best product Minwax sells) and buffed it by hand. I was thrilled with the new look of the lid.
The end result was simply beautiful.
Except for the pale spots on the front edge!
Back to the drawing board.
