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.

Wood 1026 Advanced Finishing : Lori Shade demonstrates distressing

Lori Shade, from Plato Woodworking, came in today to discuss and demonstrate distressing techniques that they use in the manufacturing and finishing of some of their kitchen cabinets.

Plato Woodwork is a family owned cabinet manufacturer located in Plato, MN. They have been in business since 1893 and have developed quite a reputation, including winning the "Most Imaginative Kitchen Cabinet" award from Women's Day Magazine in 2008. Thanks to Lori for showing off some of their great techniques.

Wood 1021 Wood Refinishing: Caining a Chair

Cane chairs are not only beautiful but they evoke a sense of history and craftsmanship. There are two kinds of cane seats--those woven by hand with long strands of thin cane and those made of a machine-woven cane sheet. Even if all the original cane is gone from a chair, one tell which type of seat it had. If there is a narrow groove around the seat frame, the chair had machine-woven cane. For years cane chairs were made in the factories but sent out to weavers who would weave the cane seats and backs by hand. Eventually, machines began to do the weaving mechanically. Pre-woven cane makes re-caning a chair a much simpler process, but it still takes patience and a steady hand to bring old cane chairs back to life.

In Wood Refinishing, we learnhow to install both types of cane. We learn a basic 6-step weave for hand caining of chairs, we also learn installation of a factory weave.

Wood 1026 Advanced Finishing: 3M visits to show off their newest spray guns

3M visited us to demonstrate their latest spray guns. Just one of the benefits of attending the NIWF is that industry leaders come to us to alert us of their latest innovations. With 1 on 1 face time, we can ask questions, observe and try their products.

Wood 1032 Furniture Conservation: Past Grad Seth Stevenson talks antiques

Past NIWF graduate, and professional antique dealer, Seth Stevenson, came in today to talk about his business in dealing, refinishing, refurbishing and conservation of antiques. Seth was dealing in antiques before he came to DCTC, but decided to take his knowledge, skills, and abilities to the next level by attending the National Institute of Wood Finishing.
Seth is a walking encyclopedia of American Furniture, and it shows when he talks to the class. It has been a lifelong study for him and his expertise pays off.
Seth came in as part of our Furniture Conservation section, because that is such an integral part of the antique business, who better than Seth to talk about it.

Wood 1032 Furniture Consesrvation: Tim Inman visits to discuss and demonstrate restoration techniques

Tim Inman, from Randolph, Iowa was kind enough to join us to discuss restoration. Here he is showing the students techniques for restoring antique picture frames.

Tim has been in business doing refinishing since 1974. His company, Historic Interiors, offers both custom restoration services to individuals and businesses for antiques and other quality furniture items, including clocks, movements, picture frames, etc., as well as providing specialty products and training to the trade and other active hobbyists. They also make custom reproduction pieces as commissioned.

Tim has served as an advisory board member for the National Institute of Wood Finishing at Dakota County Technical College since the early 1980's

Wood 1019 Spot Repair II: Mirka visits to demo new products for polishing marble

A representative from Mirka came in today to demonstrate new materials for removing the scratches from marble. Information like this is so valuable for doing on-site touch-up and spot repair, it just adds another service that the professional touch-up artist can provide.

products are always evolving in this competitive marketplace, we are always happy to have our students getting the 1st hand demonstration of the latest innovations from the professionals!

Wood 1032 Furniture Conservation: Cleaning & Conserving

Sometimes furniture comes in that doesn't need, or shouldn't be refinished, sometimes preserving the original finish is the way to go. In fact, there can be some wonderful surprises in store when preserving a finish. This chair came in and the goal was to clean the years of grime and build up that had accumulated.

After determining what the finish was, the right solvents and cleansers were chosen, and the chair was meticulously cleaned.

After a bit of careful, skilled work

we discovered beautiful, ornate painting that was previously covered with years of dirt and oil.
Learning to make these decisions of refinish vs. refurbish is something that sets NIWF grads well on their way to a successful career in wood finishing technology.

Wood 1026 Advanced Finishing: Practice Boards & Story Boards

When it comes to Advanced Finishing, it is so important to get lots of hands on experience. The students get about 20 boards that they must prep and finish using different materials and techniques. From crackle lacquer to varnish and shellac, from dying, staining and glazing; Advanced finishing give a hands on approach to the use of many products wood finishers will encounter.

Another important aspect of Advanced Finishing is to create Story Boards. A Story Board is a recipe, of sorts, for wood finishers. It is a step by step visual and written set of instructions for creating a color, finish or effect on wood. You can see in the picture that each step in the process is masked off, preserving it so that the end result can be obtained again and again. This is a valuable skill for wood finishers because, if done well, any finisher should be able to look at a story board and re-create what has been done in the past without having to do a lot of guess work.

Wood 1026 Advanced Finishing: working our color theory with dyes

"Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence."

-Abigail Adams

The color theory never leaves us, we just get the opportunity to apply it differently. We are in advanced finishing (Wood 1026) and we are, once again, matching colors, but this time we are using dyes instead of pigments. We are still using our color wheel and going about the process the same way to match the hue, value and chroma of the color, only the materials have changed. Exercises like this really solidify color theory and give us a greater understanding of the materials we are using.