What luck have you all had in refinishing and restoring Heywood-Wakefield blonde modern furniture? I just bought another piece (2-tiered corner table M938 from 1954 in Platinum..see pics) and am having trouble deciding whether to attempt to restore the original finish or have it refinished. I did get one quote from Woody's in Orange, but the price (about $600 as I recall) is prohibitive for this piece.
Adding to my troubles is the fact that I can't find anyone in SoCal who has lots of experience refinishing HW at less than astronomical prices, and words of caution from East Coast HW specialists who complain that the stripped natural finish favored by West Coast HW refinishers is not true to what was originally intended for these pieces.
I have some experience restoring and refinishing other antiques, but as I was warned, HW finishes are more difficult to tackle.
Your table is maple and the finish is old. You can take it to the strippers for $75.00 or spend $25.00 on a five pail of acitone pick up a few scotch brites a box of rags and a six pack of cheap beer. If you opt for expensive beer you're back up to $75.00. If it in good shape light sand it with 150 trimite using a Porter speedblock sander. Maple is really hard so don't waste your time getting out dents. If you need to fill any spots with putty don't; you don't own a touchup kit to fix it. Stain it with minwax cherry(or similar)stain. Brush it on then wipe it completely dry and let it sit overnight. The best product that you will want to use to finish it is water based varathane. Work fast because it dries pretty quick. Sand after the second coat with 300 to 400 sand paper then after the third coat with 600 grit. Coating it will take 3 or 4 days but you can do it in front of the tv drinking that cheap beer. cheers. Tristan.
I respectfully...and strongly...disagree with the last post. It's true, professional Hey-Wake style refinishing is out of reach for most of us. And refinishing it in natural brings out the grain, which is what you DONT want. Mid-century Mod is about shape and lines, not wood. I've refinished 4 pieces now with a special formula I downloaded from a web site...don't recall which site...that seems to work great. Contains odd ingredients such as white paint and artist's oil colors. E-mail me at squid@gci.net for the formula. Good luck!
Posts: 67 | Location: Anchorage, AK, USA | Registered: 04-10-03
I need it for refinishing a GIO Ponti Dining set it has this pecular finish too, just slightly different shade. I've been looking for this technique because these refinishers cannot RESTORE the furniture they just put a new finish in todays taste on the old peice, which you absolutly correct , is not authentic and not the way to RESTORE a piece like this.
I'm a professional furniture restorer. Heywood Wakefield is an easy finish. If you think Heywood Wakefield is hard, try tackling Brown-Saltman (that's why all the 1stdibs morons paint them black, they're too cheap to pay for the extensive restoration they need.)
To tackle the first response, as far as I know Heywood Wakefield's modern furniture was all Birch. Maple was only used very early. Second, I would not go mixing up a concoction whipped up by some geezer in his garage to fix your beloved table.
If you really like the table, save the money and have it professionally restored. That's the only way you're going to be truly happy with it.
If you do it yourself, buy some stripper and lacquer thinner. Go buy some UTC or base pigments from Mohawk (not cheap) and sit down and watch some stripping videos on YouTube to get the idea of how its done professionally. Buy some scrap birch, mix up some color and start color matching.
But I still say get it done professionally.
Posts: 9 | Location: Bay Area, California | Registered: 10-01-08
You may know about this already, but someone on ebay sells HW specific restoration kits. Not sure though if either of these is the color you're looking for. I've been trying to figure out how to do a similar finish on a non-HW piece.
Heywood Wakefield pieces are mostly maple, and if you put remover containing lye or sodium hydroxide, you will end up with grayish discoloration at all the end grain because of a reaction with tannic acid in the maple, that you will never get out. Must remove finish at end grain with acetone only. The Heywood Wakefield furniture had no stains or pigments applied, just a satin nitrocellulose lacquer, rubbed with steel wool and waxed at the end. Olek Lejbzon & Co.peter@olekrestoration.com
I am restoring a birch 1952 "wheat" bedside table. I began stripping it with very fine steel wool and lacquer thinner. It seems to have just taken the lacquer off and left the stain intact underneath (sort of foggy looking). does any one know if there was any color added to the original lacquer for these pieces? Can I just re-coat it with clear lacquer? doesn't seem to need sanding or any other kind of abrasives.
I did this with an Eames look-a-like chair from the 70's. The finish on the curved wood on the back was weathered off so I took some fine steel wool and lacquer thinner and spent about 4 days rubbing it down to the bare wood (it is teak). I rubbed it down really good with the thinner, let it dry, applied 3 coats of clear spray lacquer in a can (is this bad?). It looks good as new...can't even tell it was ever damaged and it looks totally original.
Will this work with my Heywood Wakefield piece? advice?
The original finish on Heywood Wakefield was a high quality nitrocellulose lacquer, often over a Japan color stain. The stains are custom mixed. When you put lacquer thinner over the table, the appearance while wet will be very similar to after coating with lacquer. Wet will show you the color you will get. So view it in natural light or where you will keep it, while wet with lacquer thinner to see what your result will look like without sanding.
What you did with the chair should be fine. The spray can won't apply a thick coat of lacquer, but that is how it was finished originally.
I don't recommend spending a lot of time around lacquer thinner, it is carcinogenic, and causes testicular cancer. A face mask with organic filter cartridge is a good idea. Sometimes going to a professional refinisher like Olek Lejbzon & Co. www.oleklejbzon.com makes sense, you only live once.
I've done several pieces with the wheat finish from ebay and have had good results. Most of the pieces I have done were painted or the original finish was so bad that it was not worth saving. All the pieces I have done are birch and have been stripped with your basic chemical stripper you can buy at the hardware store. The guy who sells the finish on ebay will provide samples and step by step instructions that are easy to follow. I'll be buying more soon to finish up a table and some kohinoor nightstands soon.
I'm in the middle of refinishing a Hey-Wake Westwood dining set. This particular is defnitely birch, and just has a clear finish. Most of the original pieces used a nitro-cellulose lacquer, that can easily come off with denatured alcohol. I use a chemical stripper, simply because I don't want to take a week just to get the finish off.
I know there are several camps with regards to refinishing these guys, but my feeling is a) the original finish was never designed to last 50+ years, and b) the finishes they used were great for the time, but aren't necessarily the most durable.
What I'm doing with this particular set is using Waterlox. It actually comes close to the look of the original lacquer, but it is heat, water, and alcohol resistant. This one doesn't have the 'milk stain' that the earlier pieces have, so I can't comment on that.
Sorry, but I have to disagree with the two refinishers/restorers who have commented thus far. Olek....Heywake is mostly birch and no over the counter strippers I have encountered will turn the wood gray. The products you mention will cause the wood to turn gray, but are not contained in most strippers. However....if you take your furniture to a stripping company that uses a hot tank or dipping tank, that is another story.
Also, Heywood did in fact use stains.
Refinishing Heywood Wakefield furniture is only difficult if you don't have the correct tools and information. ANYBODY can do it. I have been restoring furniture for over 25 years and we offer refinishing kits that are very easy to use. We have sold many hundreds over the years and the Ebay seller offers a cheap bad copy of our finish
hw.jpg
