Veneer, brass, hardware

Veneer repair and brass polishing in Westminster

Lifting veneer reglued or patched with matched wood, tarnished brass pulls polished, missing hardware replaced.

When veneer lifts and brass goes dark

Veneer is a thin skin of fine wood glued over a plainer core, and on old furniture it fails in a handful of ways. An edge lifts and catches on a sleeve. A bubble rises where water got under it. A corner chips away and leaves the core showing. A piece goes missing altogether. None of that means the furniture is finished.

Brass fails more quietly. Pulls and bails turn brown and then nearly black, lacquer flakes off in patches, and an old chest looks tired even when the wood underneath is fine. Hardware also goes missing over the years, so you end up with a drawer that has one pull, or a set where two don't match. Veneer and brass are both on David Teegarden's list of what the shop handles, next to stripping and refinishing.

Reglue, patch, polish, replace

A lifted edge is the easy case. The old glue is cleaned out from under it, new glue goes in, and the veneer is clamped flat until it holds. A blister is opened along the grain, glued down and weighted. Where veneer is gone, a patch is cut from matching wood with the grain running the same way as the piece around it, and fitted tight so the seam disappears under the finish.

Hardware comes off before any stripping or finishing, so nothing gets stained or buried in finish. Each pull and bail is polished on its own until the brass is bright again. If a pull is missing or past saving, a replacement is fitted, and on a set that has lost one the goal is a match rather than a compromise.

Why veneer is not a flaw

People hear "veneer" and think cheap. On antique and period furniture it usually means the opposite. Flame mahogany, figured walnut and matched panels were cut thin and laid over a stable core because that is how the best pieces were built, and the pattern you admire in a serpentine chest or a waterfall cedar chest exists only because of veneer.

That is why veneer gets repaired instead of stripped off. Sand through it and the piece loses the very thing that made it worth keeping, so the work is done by hand, with the thickness of the veneer and the finish in mind. A chest with its original veneer repaired and its original brass polished keeps its character.

Bring the piece to 37 West George Street (Rear) by appointment, or call (410) 857-9353. Send a photo of the damaged corner or the missing pull and David will talk through what it needs. You don't pay until you're satisfied.

A tall mahogany chest of drawers with flame-figured drawer fronts and brass bail pulls

T-n-T Furniture Refinishing, Pay when you're satisfied. Call (410) 857-9353.

Veneer and brass, finished

Chests and cabinets with their figure and their hardware back.

Westminster, MD
West George Street
Westminster, MD
West George Street
Westminster, MD

Pieces that need more than veneer

Once the veneer is sound, the finish over it is the next question, and that is refinishing and staining. Old chests with original hardware often turn up under antiques and heirlooms, and a broken leg or a split top is furniture repair. The before and after gallery shows how pieces looked when they arrived.