Refinishing a redwood burl coffee table

May 7, 2007 1:58 PM

How do I refinish a heavily overwaxed, overused redwood burl table?

My wife brought home a redwood burl coffee table that has about .1" of waxy buildup. There are various stains and mug rings. I'm thinking of taking it to a lumber yard, having them plane off the top quarter-inch, and then refinishing it. Is this going to end in tears? Are there better methods than this?

posted by felix to home & garden (13 comments total)

You can buy finish strippers that will remove the finish from the surface, at which point you can sand it and refinish it. It isn't a too big of a job, but it might take a couple applications depending on the finish that is on there. Your local hardware store surely has something of this nature.

Planing it will likely be a lot more work and I suspect most people aren't going to want that mess of wax or whatever it is gumming up their planer blades. You'd also have to remove the top surface from the supports before planing. Otherwise, you could plane with a hand planer, but that takes a lot more work.
posted by ssg at 2:09 PM on May 7, 2007

It might be easiest to get it steam-cleaned. It isn't very expensive; it's just that you may have to hunt a bit to find some place that can do it. (Back when my mom was into refinishing furniture as a hobby, she always got that done before she began. It took off everything, and left bare wood.)
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 2:17 PM on May 7, 2007

This is a job I've done many times. That waxy film could be wax/furniture polish, or it could be varnish that has softened. Plain paint thinner (mineral spirits) will remove wax. Paint remover (stripper) will take off wax and varnish or other finishes. I suggest you use a gel-type stripper instead of liquid, because it's easier to work with and it stays wet long enough to penetrate whatever is on the wood. If it dries too fast, cover it with a wrap such as Saran -- I was surprised to find that stripper doesn't dissolve it, even overnight. After you scrape off the sludge with a wide metal scraper, go over the surface with medium steel wool and wipe it down with a lot of paint thinner or denatured alcohol. If you're just doing the table top, it'll take about 45 minutes to apply the stripper, remove it, and clean up -- what's unknown is how long you'll have to let the stripper sit. If you have to do the legs, it could take a lot longer. Wear neoprene-coated gloves (not dish-washing gloves) and make sure to have plenty of ventilation.
posted by wryly at 3:16 PM on May 7, 2007 [1 favorite]

Try naptha first to remove the wax.

Never heard of redwood burl, so if you have a burl (usually walnut or mayyybe carpathian elm), its probably a veneer, planing it will take the veneer right off, then you have a regular old table.

Again naptha, 0000 steel wool and elbow grease will remove wax and leave the original finish intact.
posted by Max Power at 3:24 PM on May 7, 2007

Oddly enough, there is such a thing known as 'wax and grease remover'. Apply, dry, sand, refinish. Good luck, my mom and I did my desk this way and I have another one waiting for me right now (it also needs straightening).
posted by IronLizard at 3:36 PM on May 7, 2007

Never heard of redwood burl, so if you have a burl (usually walnut or mayyybe carpathian elm), its probably a veneer

There are definitely redwood burls (there are burls from all kinds of hardwood species), and I don't see any reason to assume it's a veneer...
posted by svenx at 3:58 PM on May 7, 2007

Max Power, I live in redwood country and can confirm the existence of redwood burl. In fact, I'm looking across my office at a shelf made from it now, with rough burly unfinished edges (also a popular style for coffee tables, or was in the late 70's/early 80's.) It's beautiful wood, grows in big lumps around the base of the tree. When I first moved up to Santa Cruz in 1999 lots of the gift/trinket shops downtown sold living chunks of it in trays of water for people to keep as a houseplant of sorts (it sprouts little green shoots.)

I can't say for certain that it's not a veneer but I doubt it. Planing would probably be fine, except for all the arguments against it given above. felix, is it the type of table that consists basically of one large chunk of crazy-shaped wood that's been sliced to create a flat top with irregularly shaped borders? If so, I'd say take it to the lumberyard and ask them what they think. Maybe they'll have a tool that can do it, maybe they won't. Chances are it's the same place you'd be buying the refinishing supplies anyway, so you might as well bring it along.

If it's badly stained, you probably will have to remove a significant amount of wood to get rid of the marks. Definitely invest in a handheld power sander and plenty of coarse paper in addition to the stripping supplies, or you could go the hand-planing route after it's stripped.
posted by contraption at 4:26 PM on May 7, 2007 [1 favorite]

A "burl" is a tree cancer. The reason they look neat when finished well is that the grain goes all over the place. (But redwood is softwood, not hardwood.)
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 4:28 PM on May 7, 2007

My mother has had lots of success refinishing using something called Kotton Kleanser , if you want to try to be delicate about the surface. Otherwise, maybe try a citrus-based stripper ( I can't remember the name of the one I've used; I thought it was citrusol, but that doesn't seem to be coming up with hits).
posted by leahwrenn at 5:49 PM on May 7, 2007

Try: Citrusolve
posted by IronLizard at 9:09 PM on May 7, 2007

If stripper doesn't work (it probably will) you'll want to have it run under a drum sander, not a planer. Any cabinet shop will have one of these and it will come out nice and smooth and flat and will only take a hair off the surface.
posted by zeoslap at 6:17 AM on May 8, 2007

felix, is it the type of table that consists basically of one large chunk of crazy-shaped wood that's been sliced to create a flat top with irregularly shaped borders? If so, I'd say take it to the lumberyard and ask them what they think.

Yep, exactly. I'll see if there's a local lumberyard.

Thanks to all for the suggestions and replies!
posted by felix at 9:33 AM on May 8, 2007

The advice above on removing the finish is good. If there's damage to the wood, I wouldn't recommend using a planer. Because the grain goes in all kinds of crazy directions, you're sure to tear large chunks of it out if you use a power planer. If you can find a cabinetmaker or carpentry shop with a wide belt sander (a big machine that feeds the wood horizontally past a moving belt of sandpaper), that would be the way to go.
posted by jewzilla at 8:16 AM on May 9, 2007