amiegayle

My home was built in 1940 and is in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Our home has solid wood 5 panel doors throughout. But they have been painted over MANY times (WHY?!?!). I have discovered that 2 doors have an original finish on one side. The wood is beautiful but I have no idea what it is. I plan to strip the paint off the doors and refinish them but I'd like to know what I'm working with so I can proceed accordingly.
This is the door in my daughter's closet. It had been sealed off with wood and insulation. It was very dried out but I rubbed some furniture oil on it and it came back to life. BEAUTIFUL! I would like to know what kind of wood it is and also how it was finished as I would like to do the same to the rest. (Sorry for the glare from the flash!)









Please help! I would really appreciate it!!

Joe Lyddon

Fir?

daryl in nanoose

__________________
www.geocities.com/edimprovement

skymaster

top panel looks quarter sawn, I also vote Fir. That seems to be the dominent wood used for "solid" doors

amiegayle

Thank you so very much> Fir seems to be the general consensus. So I have fir doors throughout my house... now what? LOL Does anyone have any advice for refinishing the rest of the doors to this condition? I love the deep rich color of this door and would like to do the same to the other doors after they have been stripped of many layers of paint (sigh). I'm not sure if I should sample with different stains or if I should use an oil finish...any suggestions? I appreciate all of your help!

Gerry KIERNAN

I would also vote fir. If so, that is good. Old growth fir is very nice wood to work with, and takes a good finish. My thoughts for refinishing would be to remove the door from the house, set it up on some sawhorses, and apply a good chemical stripper to it. You should be able to scrape away the old paint layer by layer. Once you get the paint gone you can finish sand the wood and refinish the door. Natural colour looks good with fir, but in time, exposed to sunlight, the wood will redden and darken. That can be pretty too, so your choice. This will be a fairly labour intensive project, but well worth the effort as you will end up with some very attractive doors.

Looking at your pictures again, I am guessing that the doors were originally done in a natural finish with varnish, and have reddened with time and light. My brother had kitchen cabinets installed about ten years ago, made from natural fir, and the colour now is very similar to your doors. They were almost blondish when installed.

Good Luck with them.
Gerry

amiegayle

Thank you Gerry, I appreciate the help. Most of the doors apear to be pretty dark under the paint. I'm wondering if when I strip the doors if that will also strip the stain? If it doesn't, could I just do some light finishing sanding and then poly? Or should I use shellac (I love the character it brings out)? It needs to be durable and easy to clean, since my almost-2-year-old gives everything in the house a beating. Any thoughts?

Gerry KIERNAN

I think that when you strip off the paint it should not affect the reddish colour of the wood. When you sand the wood you may lighten it somewhat. I do not know how deep the reddish colour goes into the wood. You can experiment a little and go for the affect that pleases you most. As to finish, I would tend to go with satin varathane, or satin poly. They are more durable than Shellac, and I believe shellac can water spot, while poly and varathane do not. Poly and varathane are very easy to wipe down.

Gerry

amiegayle

Thank you so much Gerry! I really appreciate all the help! I'll will keep you posted on how things go when I start the project. Thanks again!

Gerry KIERNAN

No Problemo.

That's what we're here for, to learn from each other.

Gerry