Wood 1021 Wood Refinishing: Putting it all together

We are now in wood refinishing! We've gotten through all the other sections and we are at the point where we put it all together. We must establish the need and use of the object, then make informed decisions as to what the appropriate course of action would be, then we execute that plan. You can see that we are stripping and staining some chairs. This is real world, hands on experience, and the students can point to some of these projects as a culmination of their year here at DCTC.

There is a great pride that can be taken in the knowledge that you began a project, planned it out, can justify your decisions and have a beautiful piece of furniture at the end of the process!

Wood 1019 Spot Repair II: Working field trip to St. Paul's Cathedral

Getting out into the real world and doing some service with our new found skills is a big part of the NIWF program. Today we took a trip to the Cathedral in St. Paul where the students had the chance to attend to some real wear and tear on actual furniture in a public place.


In the past we have done work at the Governors Mansion, the State Capitol, any number of different churches, The Glensheen Mansion and The Landmark Center to name a few places.

Wood 1032 Furniture Conservation: French Polishing

In furniture conservation, we teach the conservation techniques I learned at my internship at The Smithsonian Museum. With these techniques we can restore and preserve valuable wooden objects. Among such techniques is French Polishing.

In the Victorian era, French polishing was commonly used on mahogany and other expensive woods, and was considered to be the best possible finish for exclusive furniture. The process was very labor intensive, and many major manufacturers abandoned the technique around the 1920's & 1930's, instead preferring the cheaper and quicker techniques of spray finishing nitrocellulose lacquer and abrasive buffing. Sadly, today, French Polishing is somewhat of a lost art.