George Grotz - The Furniture Doctor

Also by George Grotz

THE CURRENT ANTIQUE FURNITURE STYLE & PRICE GUIDE
DOUBLE YOUR MONEY IN ANTIQUES IN 60 DAYS
GROTZS ANTIQUE FURNITURE STYLE

A previous edition of this book was originally published in 1983 by Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc. It is here reprinted by arrangement with Doubleday.

The Furniture Doctor. Copyright 1962, 1983 by George Grotz. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher. For information, address: Broadway Books, a division of Random House, Inc., 1540 Broadway, New York, NY 10036.

BROADWAY BOOKS and its logo, a letter B bisected on the diagonal, are trademarks of Broadway Books, a division of Random House, Inc.

Visit our website at http://www.broadwaybooks.com

First Broadway Books trade paperback edition published 2001.

The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has cataloged the Doubleday edition as:

Grotz, George.
The furniture doctor / by George Grotz
Revised and expanded,
p. cm.
1. Furniturerepairing. 2. Furniture
finishing. I. Title.
TT199.G73 1989
684.10443dc19 89-31315

eISBN: 978-0-307-76861-2

v3.1

This book is fondly
dedicated to
MY INFAMOUS UNCLE GEORGE,
because he once told me
that he loved his old wife
so much that it was all
he could do to keep from
telling her

Or, Hello, out there, again

Well, when my publisher told me that it was time to revise this book, I sat down and read it over, and Ill be darned if it didnt all sound pretty interesting and reasonable. I mean, after twenty years, who was that fellow George Grotz who knew all that stuff when he was just a forty-year-old kid? I sure was smart. A little long-winded, of course, and I wouldnt be surprised if his Uncle George wrote most of it for him.

So the main changes are where I mentioned anything about money or the price of anything. Boy, we sure have had a lot of inflation in the last twenty years.

And then I had to change what I said about Minwax stain. Either it has gotten a lot better in the last twenty years, or I didnt know what I was talking about twenty years ago when I said you couldnt varnish over it. You sure can now. Or maybe my Uncle George wrote that part.

And finally, my Yellow Pagesabout where to buy supplieshave gotten pretty out of date, so Ive made a bunch of changes there.

And, of course, Ive written a new little section on the modern finishes. And varnishes have been getting better, too. But still dont let anybody sell you one of those damned spar varnishes that never really dry out crisp enough so that you can polish the surface with steel wool.

To give you your moneys worth, Ive written almost a whole other book about using tools that youll need in restoring and refinishing furniture, and thrown in a lot more drawings about understanding furniture styles as we see them in both antiques and reproductions, which I notice are getting better and better these days. By which I mean that the reproductions are getting to be far more exact copies of the original antique pieces in the museums.

So as the years and times of life have been going by Ive been having a pretty good time, and I hope you have, too. Dont take any wooden nickels!

G EORGE G ROTZ

Preface to the First Edition

Now there is a heading to make women weep and strong men cry!

How to use this book, indeed!

Who ever reads a book he has to find out how to use? Not me! Why thats like reading the directions on a can before you have messed everything up. Personally, I always prefer to wade in profoundly uninstructed on the obviously nutty theory that I already know everything. But there is a way of justifying this. I tell myself that I will learn more from my mistakes than I ever could by being a submissive follower of instructions and bowing to the dubious authority of some distant and unknown manufacturer. What can he know sitting in his alternately steam-heated and air-conditioned office? Its us fellows out on the firing line that know what goes on. You have to wear gloves in your shop in the winter and roast in your own sawdust in the summer to really know a thing or two!

Therefore I suggest to all readers like myself that they read no further. Cease and desist. It will only make you neurotic or something.

STOP READING HERE.

Now for those of you who go about things in an adult and intelligent way, let me say that this book is designed to give specific answers to specific questionson all aspects of furniture care, .

Thats right, just like a cookbook. Glance through the and you will see.

But there is lots more to it than that, because I wanted to make this a really comprehensive bookthe kind I always wished I could find when I first started. That was about fourteen shops ago, but that is another story. Anyway, you will also find many listings that define, describe, or explain.

Lets say you want to find out what tulip poplar looks like, and how to identify it by color, feel, grain, and so forth. And you want to know if it is the same thing as tulipwood, which the fellow down the street says it is. Well, it isnt the same, and you will find both of them listed in the section on . You will also find a lot more that I think is interesting and you ought to know if you are going to work with either of them.

But lets get back to your questions that involve a how-to-do-it process. If your question is how to refinish a pine table, simply find the listing for pine in the section on . Not to mention that there are all kinds of cross references back and forth to help you find your answers as quickly as possible.

And so it goes. The best thing to doas it is with a cookbookis to spend a few minutes scanning the Contents to orientate yourself to the Grotz brand of logic that underlies the organization of this book. In fact, there is even a mild logic to the order in which the various sections are arranged. This is for people who are tired of reading dictionaries and are looking for a small encyclopedia to read straight through.

Finally, for those who can spare a few minutes, I have gone to the trouble to write a general introduction to each separate section. I am told by experienced authors that nobody ever reads these eitherany more than they read prefaces or instructions on cans. But I have conformed to tradition and done my part by writing them, so anything you feel you could do about reading them will be appreciated.

And thats all. Except, in the words of my dearly beloved sister, when you get old and gray, may you spend all your winters in Florida, and your summers midst the cool, green grasses of Vermont.

Good luck.

G EORGE G ROTZ

OR, GOLD IS WHERE YOU FIND ITWHATEVER THAT MAY MEAN

BEING A SCIENTIFIC SURVEYOF THE EASIEST WAYS OUT!

IN WHICH THE POLISH VERSUS WAX CONTROVERSY IS SETTLED ONCE AND FOR ALL, AND UNCLE GEORGE CUTS DOWN A SWING TREE

OR, PATCH IT UP, WEAR IT OUT, MAKE IT DO, OR DO WITHOUT

INCLUDING SOME SECRET FORMULAS THAT CAN SAVE YOU PLENTY OF PESOS