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Doug Gregg writes:

I am working on a Steinway piano that was in a fire.
There is quite a bit of carving on this art case which was
made of spruce veneer with some knots. It was made
to look like knotty pine panels. The carving is mostly
words in molding around the bottom edge. Most of it is
only slightly scorched finish and will clean up OK.

One piece, I thought I would have to completely
remake because the wood was charred and came off in
1/6 thick charcoal. That took off most of the lettering
but it did leave the original knife marks of the carver
that outlined the letters. I was able to re-carve the
lettering and also scrape down the molding and keep
the original profile.  It actually looks pretty good but the
wood (clear spruce) is still dark from the fire scorching.
It looks even darker when wet.

I could keep scraping it down to get to blond wood
eventually but I think I would have to go pretty deep
and maybe have to re-carve the words again as a
result.  I tried bleaching the wood with oxalic acid with
no luck. Then I tried chlorox. It made the light areas
lighter but the dark scorched areas were unchanged.

Perhaps I may be able to salvage the piece by coloring
it with opaque stain and try to match the rest of the
piano when I get it finished. Does anyone have any
suggestions.

Sorry I forgot to take pictures of the charcoal before
starting to scrape it. I thought the piece was a total
loss at first.

Doug Gregg







Greg Williams replies:

Doug, the picture here is of charred walnut finished with
an opaque background aerosol, glaze (to pick up the
grain) dye type (transparent) toner, and clear topcoat. 
This is a common solution to your situation.

Greg Williams
High Point, NC



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