Wood 1019 Spot Repair II: Jerry Behrens visits DCTC Wood Finishing Program to talk about touch-up work

Jerry Behrens was in talking with the students about some advance touch-up. He was happy to share his years of expertise with the class, do a demo, and was open for questions. Jerry, a former grad of NIWF (class of 1989), has also served on the NIWF board since 1992.

Jerry was the Touch-Up Technician for Gepharts Furniture, until he accepted a position as a Technical Sales Representative with Mohawk Finishing Products Inc. in 1992, he was awarded the National workshop instructor Rookie of the Year, Most Valuable Rep, and Goal Buster in his first year with Mohawk! He was also a three time member of the President's Club (top 5 in company). Next Jerry accepted the Vice President position with national franchiser Kitchen Tune-up where he does technical training for new franchises and on-going support for existing franchises.
He has also wrote, produced, and hosted two Wood Restoration Videos.

Wood 1007 Methods of Fastening: Re-Glueing a chair

Methods of Fastening covers the dismantling and rebuilding of furniture joints. In wood working (Wood 1004) we learned how to repair or replace furniture components, now we take those repaired or replaced components and rebuild our furniture. Here you can see some chairs being re-glued.

Wood 1019 Spot Repair II: DCTC visits Schniederman's Furniture

NIWF students went on a field trip to Schniederman's Furniture warehouse and meet some of the graduates of the NIWF program. Kathy Morse (in the green shirt), a past graduate and now employee of Schniedermans gave us a tour of the warehouse and demonstrated some repair techniques as well. There were opportunities for the students to try these new techniques with the Master Technicians.

A Master Leather Technician at Schniederman's shows the students real world leather repair techniques on furniture that is soon to hit the showroom floor.

Students get lots of opportunities to see professionals working, it is crucial that they see the hows and whys of the entire process. To go out and see masters making a living using the same skills that they are learning at the National Institute of Wood Finishing in invaluable!

Wood 1004 Wood Working: Being Creative

Sometimes when we are making components for our furniture, we need to be creative. Here we needed a bead for a chair, instead of using the lathe for this small piece, we decided to do the work on the drill press.
Getting the detail of the bead was crucial to achieve the right look, we were at a loss for the exact right tool, so we made our own from a piece of tool steel. The drill press spun the bead, it was anchored below by a dowel, then the scraper was fed into the piece, while being stabilized by the block of wood behind it.
It is just this kind on craftsmanship that is needed when taking on antiques, as each piece was usually hand made and unique.

Wood 1004 Wood Working: Making Components

We are in the thick of our 4th of 9 sections. This is Wood Working (Wood 1004) where we start the section by learning how to sharpen out hand tools such as chisels, block plains, cabinet scrapers and just about anything that needs sharpening. After that the goal is to repair damaged wooden components, or, if something is missing, we must replace that piece. We work with both hand tools and power tools, including wood lathes, band saws, routers, table saws as well as hand saws, files, rasps, chisels and many others to hone our skills as wood workers so that we can re-create the original look and feel of furniture that has been worn, or damaged.
You can see in the photos, students are working in the power tool room creating various parts to go into repair work, or working with hand tools making new components. We also focus on veneer repair and hand joinery. Understanding of how furniture is constructed is an important part of knowing how to fix it in an authentic manner.
Although we do not build furniture in this section, we are re-creating almost an part of it in order to complete our repairs.

Wood 1019 Spot Repair II: DCTC Vists HOM Furniture

HOM Furniture employs several NIWF graduates. Today we are going on a working field trip to learn about the life of Spot Repair Technitions in the warehouse. The day was full of learning new techniques and the students having a chance to use their new skills of wood, leather and vinyl repair.

Wood 1019 Spot Repair II: Leather Repair

Spot repair wouldn't be complete without a working knowledge or leather and vinyl repair, as well as an understanding of upholstery. In Spot Repair II (Wood 1019) we cover Vinyl & leather repair. You can see the students working hard to repair and hide the damage done to these leather chair pads.

Wood 1019 Spot Repair II: Bondo fills on a chair

In Spot Repair II we are looking to do problem solving with our furniture. One option would be to replace the broken section or piece with a new piece of wood as we do in our "Wood 1004 Wood Working" class, but for Spot Repair, we are going to look to Bondo to fill and repair this chair. Bondo makes a durable repair, especially for larger repairs in high traffic areas or on edges where you need a strong repair.
Here you can see there was a pretty sizable chunk of the chair missing.











After mixing up some Bondo, we trowel it into the damaged area


Next we get a rough shape of the chair

Then we refine the shape, and prep the Bondo.

Next we paint in a background color and get ready to in-paint, where we mimic the appearance of wood.

The finished product should be unnoticeable to the untrained eye, with the look, feel and durability of the wood, as if the damage had never happened.

Wood 1032 Furniture Conservation: NIWF and the Minnesota Institute of Arts National Antique Show

The Minneapolis Institute of Arts was conducting their 25th Annual National Antique Show October 23rd through October 26th. This show has some of the finest furniture, art work, jewelry, paintings and glassware that you can find.

The DCTC students have portered in these valuable artifacts for every one of those 25 shows. It has been very rewarding being a part of this show and the opportunity to handle millions of dollars worth of art. The dealers involved with this show have always been willing to share their knowledge with the students.

Andrew Wellesley (red shirt) from Lake Forrest Illinois always has some really wonderful furniture. Andrew is always willing to stop and answer questions about the history of the pieces he sells. The chest on chest has a date written inside the cabinet with the makers name and the date of 1795

Wood 1019 Spot Repair II: Leather and Vinyl Repair

Wood 1019 Spot Repair II would not be complete without having leather and vinyl repair. A Furniture Service Technician needs to be ready for damage that occurs to wood, coatings on wood, upholstery, leather and vinyl.

Studying leather samples is an important part of identifying various leathers. All leather is not repaired the same way.

NIWF Advisory board member Ken Norgaard is sharing his leather repair skills with the students. Ken is employed by Mohawk Finishing Products.

Wood 1019 Spot Repair II: Graduates returning to teach the new students

Graduates continually return to DCTC to share their knowledge. Wilfried Hien and Josh Boyer are back sharing their new skills learned since leaving school. Both Wil and Josh are employed by HOM Furniture.

Hom Furniture has hired several graduates from the Wood Finishing Program. Here you see Rosendo Delgadillo, Delivery Prep Manager from HOM Furniture addressing the new students about employment possibilities.

And don't think it's just lecture and discussion, we get to see these pro's in action!

Wood 1019 Spot Repair II: Upholstery Repair

Along with repairing damaged wood, this class also involves minor upholstery repairs. The photo on the top photo shows Joe Renchin, a Wood Finishing Advisory Board Member, sharing his knowledge of 35 years of upholstery.

Wood 1019 Spot Repair II: Large Damage to Wood

Wood 1019 Spot Repair:

This class instucts students how to repair large damaged areas of wood. Polyester fills are one of many methods of returning the damaged areas to their original shape. They must then have a faux finish applied which color matching and inpainting.

Wood 1015 Spot Repair I: Nick, dent and scratch repair

The second class of the year is Wood 1015 Spot Repair I. The students are learning the art of scratch, nick and dent repair. Several different methods of achieving the repair of small damaged wood and coatings. Each student will purchase their own repair kit and repair several different species of wood. One method of repair is using the traditional "burn in". method. It involves a hot knife and melting a colored plastic stick into the scratch. Once the excess stick is removed, in-painting is needed. This involves painting in fine lines to recreate the grain pattern of the wood that is missing.

Wood 1012 Color Theory: A color matching class.

The first class of the year is Wood 1012 Color Theory. In this class we discuss the terminolgy of the artist, and then complete a series of laboratory sessions at their benches to put the theory to practice. The photo shows a number of panels that each studentis required to duplicate.

Short term Wood Finishing Classes

Here is the DCTC summer session classes for 2009. Please go to http://www.woodfinishing.org/ for detailed information on each class, registration and housing.

Color Matching: $465.00
June 29th – 30th 2009
Instructor: Mitch Kohanek

Introduction to Spot Repair: $465.00
July 1st – 2nd 2009
Instructor: Mitch Kohanek

Restoration, Chemistry and Technology of Transparent Furniture Coatings: $750.00
July 7th – 10th 2009
Instructors: Donald C. Williams, Mitch Kohanek

Hands on Finishing: $750.00
July 13th – 17th 2009
Instructor: Mitch Kohanek

Advanced Finishing: $750.00
July 20th – 24th 2009
Instructors: Greg Johnson, Mitch Kohanek

Spraying Equipment and Techniques: $465.00
July 27th – 28th 2009
Instructors: David Smith, Mitch Kohanek

Piano Grain Filled Finish: $465.00
July 29th – 30th 2009
Instructors: Kevin Hancock, Mitch Kohanek

Follow us through the year and see what our students learn

This blog is designed to show a prospective student what the NIWF experience is. You can follow our curriculum throughout the year by class title. The 9 month program is broken up into nine classes:
Wood 1012 Color Theory
Wood 1015 Spot Repair I
Wood 1019 Spot Repair II
Wood 1004 Wood Working
Wood 1007 Methods of Fastening
Wood 1010 Wood and Finishing Technology
Wood 1026 Advanced Finishing
Wood 1032 Furniture Conservation
Wood 1021 Wood Refinishing

Most of the blog posts will be titled with the corresponding class, so if you want to know what goes on in any of these classes, stay tuned and see first hand what and how we learn!


On a side note, NIWF offers a Furniture Service Technician certificate program for completing the first three courses (Color Theory, Spot Repair I & Spot Repair II). Furniture Service Technicians repair minor damage (referred to as spot repair) to wood, vinyl, leather and fabric. Spot repair usually involves (but is certainly not limited to) repairs such as minor water damage, scratches, nicks, dents, cigarette burns, or even a fairly large damaged area such as the corner of a table. These repairs are made by filling the void with a solid material and applying color to it, matching the surrounding area. Leather and vinyl repair is done much the same way. Upholstery can be repaired without having to re-upholster the entire piece.
Furniture refurbishing means cleaning (instead of stripping) furniture and furniture maintenance (polishing and waxing).
Furniture Service Technicians may work at the customer's home site, in furniture stores, or in a workshop. Possible job opportunities include self-employment, furniture stores or outlets, or an existing furniture service business. While total furniture restoration requires a workshop setting, the Furniture Service Technician can work from a small toolbox.

Welcome to the National Institute of Wood Finishing

Hello,

This is the first blog coming from the National Institution of Wood Finishing at Dakota County Technical College (DCTC) in Rosemount Minnesota.

It is a nine month program that began in 1970 by the State of Minnesota. To my knowledge it is the only certified nine month post secondary Wood Finishing Technology program in the USA.

It is dedicated to preparing individuals for the wood finishing industry including: the finishing of new wood products, the conservation, restoration, refinishing of "old' wood, and the repairing of damaged wood and damaged coatings - old or new.

Stay tuned for more information about this program and the educational "hands on" wood finishing courses that I offer for the hobbyist, the professional and those who want to be a professional finisher.


Mitch Kohanek
http://www.woodfinishing.org/
http://www.dctc.edu/