I was inspired by John's Merklen Brothers table refinish project

John's recent post about his Merklen Brothers table refinish project has inspired me to post a before and after shot of a Renaissance Revival library table  I just completed.  I believe the table to be by Thomas Brooks, but that is only my best guess, based on a very similar table at Antiquarian Traders.  The table required an extensive restoration but I believe it came out rather nice.  Had many fun hours of hand stripping the finish.  At some point in its history, a previous restorer (note that I am using that term very loosely here) decided the best way to cover a multitude of problems would be to paint it in multiple coats of a dark mahogany stain.  As woodwright pointed out in a previous post, better stripping results can sometimes be obtained in the case when a coat of stain/paint was applied over the original finish.  That was the case here as most of the original shellac finish remained underneath the stain.  The shellac acts as a barrier and prevents the stain from sinking deep into the wood.  At the time we purchased the table we were not even aware that the table had a great many walnut burl panels underneath all the dark stain.  Unfortunately that stain also concealed the fact that the burl on the top surface was totaly shot.  The veneer required replacement with new burl.  Burl veneer can be challenging to work with due to all the interlocking grain.

What  a beautiful result!  You are very talented and have a great table to show for it.  I too found Rare's 2 vidoes to be very informative and inspiring---I am now on the hunt for a great piece of victorian furniture hiding under the disguise of paint or stain!  Charles