Restoring 18C longcase clock case

[rowan.bradley]

I have just bought an old long case clock (said to be from about 1780) with a mahogany case with some inlays

and want to set about restoring the case myself. I have the following questions:

1. How do I safely remove whatever old sealer, polish and dirt is there, and reveal the true colour of the wood?

2. Having done this, do I need to sandpaper it? What grade paper should I use? How much sanding can I do without risk of damage?

3. Does it need any sort of stain?

4. What is the best treatment for the wood once it's been prepared? What type of sealer? What type of polish?

5. There are some cracks in the veneer where the veneer has raised slightly on each side of the crack.

What is the best treatment for these? Do I need to inject some sort of glue (e.g. diluted PVA) into the crack and then clamp something over to press the wood flat while the glue sets? Or what?

6. There are some places where small pieces of veneer are missing

How do I find small bits of veneer which will match the bits I'm trying to replace? Does it need to be OLD veneer, or will new wood be good enough?

7. The front panel of the base has an old crack in it.

What is the best way to repair this. Remove the panel, take the two parts apart (splitting them apart if necessary), clean up the two surfaces (wire brush?) trying not to remove any sound wood, and re-glue together? Or what?


8. To do the above I am going to have to remove the front panel of the clock base. How do I soften the existing glue and avoid the risk of damaging the wooden panels?

9. If things need gluing (e.g. the crack mentioned above), what sort of glue do I need to use? Can I use PVA, or do I need to use some more old fashioned type of glue? What would a professional restorer use?

10. There are places where the case has taken some knocks and bruised the wood.

What is the best way to treat these?

11. Which order do I do all thee things in?
- fix crack in base panel
- replace missing veneer
- replace any missing bits of wood
- glue down loose veneer
- deal with bruised wood
- strip off old polish, sealer, dirt
- sand paper
- stain (if necessary)
- seal
- polish

12. I saw in an American web page the suggestion that the best treatment for antique wood was penetrating oil, followed by wax. Is this really a good treatment? What sort of penetrating oil? Surely not the sort loaded with graphite? What is the best oil to use for this purpose? And what is the best wax?

I hope that someone can give me advice to get me started on the right road to restoring this clock, or can recommend a good book that answers these sorts of questions.

Thank you - Rowan

 

[Simon89]

I’m no expert Rowan but that looks like a huge amount of work.

re no. 10 -are the dents around the clock not nice patina you want to keep? If you are wanting the clock to look like new you may have an uphill fight.

 

[Dee J]

Beautiful antique that shows its history with a wonderful patina. Personally I'd leave it as it is and enjoy. If subtle repairs are needed then that needs considerable expertise. If (and its entirely your perogative) you strip /repair /sand refinish then you'll end up with something that looks like a bad modern repro with considerably reduced value. If you want to get into furniture restoration then maybe start with something simpler...

 

[rowan.bradley]

Surely I should at least reattach any loose veneer, and fix that crack? And I think the colour of the wood will show much better if it's cleaned. Liberon make a product called Fine Wood Stripper, and
Priory Polishes makes one called Clock Case Restorer. Does anyone have any experience with these? I know it's a lot of work, and needs expertise, but it must be possible to learn this...

Rowan

 

[bourbon]

Have a watch of ' The repair shop' on catch up. Will Kirk has a concoction that he made up to clean the dirt off wood. I can't remember what he used off hand. Clean it well, THEN you can see what you have/want to do. Another question is, how much woodworking experience have you got. that will have a bearing on how far you can go into the restoration.

 

[Dee J]

Surely I should at least reattach any loose veneer, and fix that crack? And I think the colour of the wood will show much better if it's cleaned. Liberon make a product called Fine Wood Stripper, and
Priory Polishes makes one called Clock Case Restorer. Does anyone have any experience with these? I know it's a lot of work, and needs expertise, but it must be possible to learn this...

Rowan

All possible to learn, but subtlety and sympathy are key (in my opinion, others available). A thorough knowledge of original materials and techniques is a good start... But the chances are that as a beginners project it's more likely to get worse than better. Certainly please don't do an all over refinish. Any repairs that are necessary to conserve against losses are OK if don't carefully with the right materials, but, for example, is that crack actually getting any worse? Research the glues used in the original construction (probably a hide glue) rather than introducing plastics like pva. Antiques are only ever original once, best kept that way.

 

[gasman]

That looks a beautiful clock. If you sand it etc etc I think you will ruin it. It won't need very much. Maybe fix any loose veneers but patching a veneered piece is an astonished time-consuming job to match the grain then stain it to the same shade then finish. Just not worthwhile in my opinion. Clean it to start with. There are 100s of recipes out there mostly based on turpentine / linseed oil and vinegar mixtures to varying degrees. The easiest solution is to clean it with microcrystalline wax on 0000 wire wool. Good luck!

 

[rowan.bradley]

Have a watch of ' The repair shop' on catch up. Will Kirk has a concoction that he made up to clean the dirt off wood. I can't remember what he used off hand. Clean it well, THEN you can see what you have/want to do. Another question is, how much woodworking experience have you got. that will have a bearing on how far you can go into the restoration.

Thank you, I will try to find that episode. I have a reasonable amount of experience working with wood, and a reasonable collection of tools.

Rowan

 

[Fidget]

A real professional shows how it should be done here with 3 different clocks

Recommended viewing before you start

 

[Fergie 307]

Looks like you have a very nice old clock there, would be a shame to spoil it. Can I suggest you would be best to go to your local car boot and buy and old wooden cased mantle clock. You can usually find loads in the £20ish price bracket. Alternatively there are always loads of wooden clock cases on e bay for peanuts. Practice restoring these. You will learn a lot and if you make mistakes and bigger something up, which you will, then no great harm done. Then you will be able to approach the restoration of your clock with confidence, and do it justice. And make sure that wherever it is going to live the temperature and humidity are fairly stable all year round. Many of these long case clocks are ruined by central heating which dries them out and caused warping, splitting and all sorts of other issues.

 

[Adam W.]

I would say that it's best to leave it alone for now and just live with it and enjoy the patina of a historic piece of beautiful furniture, instead of rushing in and trying to "repair" it, as you may not make it better.

 

[pe2dave]

If you want a new clock fine.
If you want to restore the one you have, leave those 'dings' alone. A good sign of a lifetimes wear?
And please don't sand back that lovely patina which gives it the warmth?
Clean and polish? Then show us the result please.

 

[Fergie 307]

I would agree wholeheartedly with the above. Definitely a case of less is more. Clean it of surface dirt by all means but anything more really needs to be very carefully considered. As i said, get a cheap one with similar issues and practice then you will get some idea what you are up against. I would also seek the opinion of an expert on what could be repaired and what ought to be left as is. The dents and dings for me should be left, they are part of its history and character. I might replace missing bits of edge veneer, but this is MUCH more difficult to do unobtrusively that you might think.

 

[Johnwa]

+1 for Thomas Johnson, loads of videos on you tube, he specialises in what you want to do. Do not put sand paper on that clock case, you'll destroy it. As many others have already written, get an old tatty bit of furniture from a car boot or somewhere and practice on that. I've tried restoring an old box and believe me, it exposes just how much you dont know!.

 

[JEC]

I'm with the majority, leave it as it is and certainly don't go anywhere near it with sandpaper, IMHO you can easily make things worse trying to repair and, given its age, a few knocks and scratches are to be expected. If you are intent on filling the cracks Liberon and Gilboys make wax filler sticks in a range of colours which work well, there is an excellent 3 part video on French polishing on the Gilboys Youtube channel which shows their use and is well worth a watch - How To French Polish - Part 1 of 3. As for a light clean, I don't think you can beat the old staple of 1/3 meths, 1/3 pure turpentine and 1/3 boiled linseed oil.

 

[Fergie 307]

To clean it initially just use distilled water with a couple of drops of washing up liquid. Dampen a cotton wool ball and wipe, you dont want to get the surface wet, be especially careful round and loose or lifting veneer. This will remove regular dust and dirt, just keep going until you arent seeing any more dirt coming off. The original finish is very probably French polish, this is soluble in alcohol so you do not want to use alcohol to clean it as you may destroy the finish. If you find you need a slightly more aggresive solvent, to remove nicotine staining for example, which can be an issue if the clock has ever lived in a smoking household, then liquid lighter fuel can be good. Again just dampen a cotton wool ball with a few drops. Always test any more aggresive cleaner than water on an out of the way place to make sure it doesnt have any detrimental effect. A good tip is that if it still has the glass then that will be contaminated with the same dirt as the rest of it and so is a good area to test the effectiveness of any cleaning method without doing any damage.

 

[mcgranag]

My Dad repairs clocks and on the cases, he does the minimum amount of work, enough to keep them structurally sound. He does occasionally replace mouldings, structural parts, or undo earlier poor repairs (recently he removed and replaced a horrible mahogany veneer on an old face door, which someone glued in to replace missing walnut burl). It is usually an agonising task to ensure his repairs match the grain, figure, colour and patina of the original. He keeps a supply of odds and ends from old furniture to suit miscellaneous repairs, pianos being a good source for older veneers. I agree with the advice of the others here, do the minimum.

 

[Alasdair]

The clock is very old and you would expect some damage and marks etc. As previously said leave it alone as the marks and dirt are the history and in my opinion add to overall beauty and age. Obviously treat rot and woodworm and repair structural items and if it needs cleaned or vineer repair then see if there are any antique restorers or french polishers local and ask them what to use. Personally the beauty of old furniture and clocks are the ageing marks and dings etc and depth of colour created by years of polishing . If you make it look new by restoring it will drastically reduce the value and as said may look like a repo.

 

[Sgian Dubh]

I agree with others with the general sentiment of you doing very little. If you try to repair such items without having the knowledge, experience and skills already in place, which seems highly likely because you're asking the sort of questions indicating you lack those essential qualities. Given my previous comment, which in no way is meant as an insult, I'd go as far as agreeing with Adam and do nothing at all for the moment (because of the risk of causing more damage and/or inappropriate 'repairs') except put the clock in place, wind up the mechanism (assuming it works) and enjoy its appearance and whatever timekeeping ability the mechanism provides. If that bit's non-functional it would be a good idea to take it to a decent horologist for repair.

Following that 'do nothing' strategy would be a good time to try and develop some essential restoration skills on less challenging old bits of furniture. Slainte.

 

[KevinLycett]

Remember you can’t un-restore your restoration. There is no undo button. The clock looks absolutely beautiful as it is. Other than a very gentle clean with distilled water as suggested above, I wouldn’t touch it. Why buy a 17th piece if you’re then going to remove all patina and history? Buy a modern retro.