Refinishing This Mahogany Table With Clean Armor 716

Hi, I'm Pierce with Light and Done. And today we are going to be refinishing this antique hall table I got from an estate sale for just $10. I'm not quite sure what Clean Armor product I'm going to use to finish this project or if I'm going to sand and re-stain the entire thing or not. I want to get the top sanded down before I make those decisions.

First, I want to assess the condition of this piece and start off by repairing and sanding, which are the most tedious tasks of any refinishing project. As you can see, the headboard for this project screws in from the back and right into the wood surface with a little other support. We're going to change this very poor design choice. The screws in the back have been snapped off. So, first we're going to use a trick to remove the embedded metal before we move forward. These are the tools we're going to be using today to pull that embedded metal out of the wood. Locate the nail or screw that is broken off. Now, take a similar size drill bit and drill right next to the screw, creating a pocket adjacent to it. Take a small hammer and nail punch and tap the screw into the pocket you've just created. Now you have a space to get in some needle-nose pliers to extract that broken metal. You might need to try a few other tools to get the metal out, but the important trick is to create the pocket with the drill bit. We will be filling these holes once we get the project a little bit further along. Now, to address this design, since the back of the table has been splintered by the screws pulling out, we're not going to simply fix it. We are going to change the way this headboard connects so that this issue is solved for good. By trimming off this overlap with a saw, we are reducing the number of repairs that we need to make by improving the design and removing this cantilevered connection. The headboard will have much more connection area without a leverage point to break the table or the screws. Now that we have trimmed the broken overlap, we are going to use Clean Armor 737 knot filler to patch up the remaining holes left by our repairs. If you want, you can tint this knot filler with colorants designed for epoxy. But in this case, these holes are not going to be seen, so we are just going to leave them as is. Now that we have repaired all of the issues with this antique hall table, let's get to the dirty business of sanding it all the way down. I'm not going to bore you with watching me sand this entire piece, but here's a quick time lapse of some of the progress.

Now, we got to do a little small repair here. So, you can kind of see down here the top has these little blocks that are holding it down right there and there. And you can see it comes out quite a bit if I really want to flex it like this. So, what I'm going to do is I'm just going to pull it tight. And I'm just going to use my little uh 23 gauge pin nailer and uh just tack this back down.

All right, let's take a quick look here and see what we're doing. Uh beautiful piece of mahogany. I can't believe it. It's just one solid piece, 18 in wide. Uh just gorgeous. Not really sure what happened here in the corner. Uh it's kind of funny because it's in the exact same spot on the other side as well. And it's like somebody was dropping something there or I just I just can't wrap my head around why that those would be in the corners like that. But that's going to be impossible to get out without uh burning through a whole bunch of wood. So I'm just going to leave them be. Looking at these legs. Yeah, they've got some little nicks and dings in them and stuff like that, but they're actually in fairly good condition. Uh I don't plan on uh stripping all of this down. This is a lot of sanding uh to do this. What I plan on doing is just using a wiping stain or sorry, a wiping finish and just detailing all this stuff out, cleaning it as best I can, and then putting a putting a new coat of finish on there and just getting all these little uh you know, these little nicks and stuff like that. Uh all uh all repaired up because I'm pretty sure that this piece does not have any stain on it. Uh this is just the natural color of the mahogany once it ages out. So, I'm I'm going to do a little test on the top to see if it needs a dye stain or not, but we're going to we're going to see how it goes. All right, we're going to finish up this project. Uh, so we finished the top uh and the headboard. And in order to finish this project up, what I'm going to do is I'm just going to take this little 220 block and just lightly scuff the finish just like this. And you can see it's coming up white, but when I wipe it off, there's really I'm really not taking too much off. All I'm doing is taking any small nubs off or anything like that. And then when we put the finish on uh the clear armor, it's going to darken all of these little light spots and stuff like that. So, we're just going to do a quick wiping stain on or wiping finish on this. But what we're just trying to reduce the amount of little nicks and little things on it just so that the clean armor has something to stick to that's really nice and that we're just smoothing it out and making it look good. All right. This is what I call no-nonsense finishing. Um, I'm not concerned about any of the dust or anything like that. What I'm going to try is I'm just going to try this medium brown walnut. Uh, it's a Mohawk die stain. And we're just going to try just two little patches here. And then I'm going to cover it with 700 uh clean armor 700. Not going to filter it. I'm not going to strain it. I'm not going to do anything with it. Um, again, this is just no nonsense. We're just looking for uh looking for a rough result here to see what it to see what the best option is going to be going forward. So, we'll let that flash off for just a second. All right, a couple minutes have gone by. That's dry now. Just going to put a little bit of clean armor on here. Oh boy, getting a little low on this bucket. That should be more than enough.

And again, we're just looking for color here. This is that's all we're doing. All right, we're fully cured here. Now, let's take a look and let's see if these colors which color we like best.

So, I'd say we have a pretty good winner here with just clean armor. Uh, and that's it. I don't think we need to stain anything else, which also is going to make our job easy fixing these little uh nicks and and repairs and stuff like that. It's just going to come out all the same color uh the same color that's already here. So, uh this is going to be a great project. I do need to wipe this entire table down. It is so dusty. Uh, I wasn't worried about that cuz I was kind of in the sanding and the dust phase, but great uh great color, great color match. We're going to make that really great for the top and put a really durable coat on there. Uh, still not sure what I want to do. Maybe uh exterior 705 or maybe the brand new product coming out, the 716, which is a wiping varnish from Clean Armor that cures uh instantly. So, um, stay tuned for that. Um, uh, I need to play around with the with the 716 before I try it on this piece. I want to try it on something else first. Uh, like always, test your stuff out on scrap pieces of wood before you put it on your projects. All right, now that we got this project sanded down quite a bit, and it's time to blow this thing off and get some of the dust out of this old

thing. All right, now I'm going to uh, tack this thing down. Uh just try to get the rest of the dust off of it and blow it down one last time uh just to get this ready for this finish.

All right, we're back here in the shop a few days later getting ready to finish this piece. After playing around with the new Clean Armor 716 wiping varnish, I'm confident that it's going to be my best choice for this piece. Plus, I just love applying it. This new product is quickly becoming my new favorite finish. Since I'm going over a previous finish on the legs, I want to match the sheen as closely as possible. Clean Armor 716 comes in a high gloss finish, but when you use it like a wiping varnish and buff it out before you cure it, the gloss level is reduced to a very nice satin sheen. This will best match the previous finish and also be appropriate for a vintage piece like this. Before we get to the finish, we need to complete the headboard fix that we started. I'm going to trim down some of the edge detail on the headboard with a small hand pole saw and lower the headboard so it connects to the legs and the top, creating a larger connection surface. I will be pre-drilling all of my screw holes and countersinking the screws in the back for a flush, seamless look. I'm just using basic drywall screws, nothing fancy. Now that everything is dry fitted and I'm happy with the look, time to disassemble and finish the pieces. We want it to have a silky smooth feel, so we're preparing our top up to 500 grit. The legs have been sanded with a 3M sanding sponge to 220 grit just to clean up the surface and to give the finish something to grab onto.

Since we're using a wiping varnish on this top and not building a thick film, we want the top as smooth as possible. This area is what will take the most abuse and will also be the part most people touch. We're going to pour a bit of finish on the top and work it around. Today, I'm using my Wooster 3-in silver tip brush for the top, headboard, and edge detail, and then switching to my Trico stain pad for the legs so I can get into all those nooks and crannies. All of the applicators you see today are available on my website, link below.

This top is going to get more than a single coat. So, let's add our first round of finish. Let it soak in, buff it off with a lint-free rag, and cure it. If you want to see a longer description and video of how this new 716 finish works, watch part one of my review. There will be a link to it at the end of this video.

Here's what the wood should look like after you buff it off, but before you cure it. Just notice how dry it looks. 

Now that we have our first round of finish on top, we're going to lightly sand this down with some 800 grit, tack it down to remove all of the sanding dust, and apply another coat of finish just like we did in our first round.

I will need to use a lot less clean armor for the second application because the surface is effectively sealed off and none will soak into the wood fibers. All we're doing with this second application is filling in any grain we missed the first time and building a bit more finish and enhancing the sheen and protection.

We're still going for that hand rubbed oil finish look. So, we don't want to fill the grain in too much. Two coats is all we need. Since we have lots of sun today, I'm opting to cure this entire table at once in the sun. I might have to turn it around to face the sun a bit, but it'll be faster than curing with my light. There are a lot of areas on this table to cure, and the sun is very effective at doing this. Now, let's reassemble this and get this piece into the sun to see how it really looks. That color is truly amazing. We nailed a perfect satin finish with this project. I'm very happy the way this turned out. Well, I'm not sure if I'm going to sell this piece or put it in my own home. I can't believe that I picked this up from an estate sale for only 10 bucks. With just a little bit elbow grease and some finish, I've transformed this old antique into a stunning piece of furniture again. Well, what do you think about this project? What do you want to see in my future videos? Please comment below and you might see your suggestion in one of my next videos. And if you like this type of content and want to see more, please consider subscribing below. See you in the next video.