scott grandstaff

Well its official.
The inventor of modern factory veneering has just been named
"One of the most sadistic monsters of the ages!!"

Thinner than paper and made from any one of 1189 woods so similar you can't tell the difference until -after- the stain is applied. When your carefully fitted patch suddenly glares like neon.

I am in the middle of restoring a 1940's waterfall style chest of drawers.
Kitty got it and was awful excited and I couldn't imagine why, until I finally got the truth out of her (and it wasn't easy)

It was fabric storage. Oh goody.

My mother sewed all her life and my sister sews like a maniac and Kitty goes on and off. All their fabric always resides in either a trunk, as it should, or slowly degenerates into piles on the floor in the corner.
Stored fabric will break out drawers everytime.

Frilly clothes you can stuff standard drawers with, but tightly folded yard goods of heavy cotton?? The weight adds up fast. And if there is one cubic millimeter of space left, then 20 cubic mm's of fabric will quickly fill it.

So I started with the drawers and added gussets everyplace and reinforced the bottoms. Made new drawer guides and beefed up the divider frames. I'm expecting the cabinet and drawers will take about 100 pounds apiece now. At least for a while........

After the basic construction was addressed, it was time to scrape the old finish off and start making it presentable.
122 (at least it feels like) veneer patches later..........

As usual, the basic veneer is "light and airy" which excites feminine senses but also means death on a stick trying to make it right again once its been lived with for a few decades. Everything shows any minute defect something awful. Everything!

Why oh why didn't they just use walnut or rosewood or anything that blends easy??
(this one has one zebra drawer face/panel and that was a joy to repair.)

But NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO they always used some pale mahogany relative nobody could match, at gunpoint, for the bulk of the case.

Guess I'll be using my faux painting techniques to get close again and then try a few coats of orange shellac.

Lets dig the monster up and kill him again, what say??
yours Scott