Asphaltum Varnish and Golden Oak Victrolas et.

[EarlH]

I bought this XVI awhile back and since I'm in the middle of refinishing a few other things (as usual) I decided I would try my hand at "Golden Oak" This Victrola had the polished version and other than the finish being much worse than it shows in the pictures, and reeking of a cats attention around the base, it is in pretty good shape. It's a craigslist find and came from the family that's always had it but no longer wants it. The cat may miss it however....

I stripped it and worked on a black stain down the front of the lid with Oxalic acid and bleach to get that out of there. There was also a couple of stains on the top of the lid but the bleach and sunlight got them out. I pretty much ended up bleaching the whole cabinet to even the color up and get rid of the cat stains on the bottom of the case below the front doors. And then I decided I would see how they came up with that "golden oak" color back when these things were made. I knew they used asphaltum varnish, but I really wasn't sure how it was done, and most of those old books on wood finishing were written with the notion that you were working with a painter or whatever and that you already knew what most of the terminology was and if you didn't, you could ask the old guy you were learning the trade from.

Between the 3-4 turn of the century books I have on finishing I realized that I could still get the things needed. It was a mixture of about half and half asphaltum varnish and gold japan size. Which is still used by they folks that do gold leafing. That mixture is then thinned with turpentine. I had about a cup of the asphaltum and gold japan and then added about a cup of turpentine, and then ended up thinning it some more once I got started on the cabinet. It's tricky stuff to work with as it drys fairly quickly. It's easy to get fingerprints in it and easy to miss spots on the cabinet, especially corners, and around the cock-beading. But you can go over that some with a cheap brush with some turpentine in it and then it will flow down into those areas. It's kind of sticky, so you don't want to use a linty rag to wipe it down with. And I also used a rag to put it on the large flat areas. I actually am pretty happy with how it's come out. It's a perfect match for the color of the original stain and has to be what Edison used also on those waxed golden oak Chippendale cabinets. It cost about $40 for the materials but I have enough left over to do 3-4 more cabinets if the notion should overwhelm me. Haha! It is darker than it would have been when it was new, but oak usually does darken with age.

The fourth picture is how it looked the day I got it home and then the one's above that are where it's at today. I still need to fill the grain on it and I'll get to that this weekend if the weather is decent. And the top picture shows it with just the horn door stained. It really does a nice job of showing the grain off and I'm kind of looking forward to seeing what the grain filler acts like on this as that's supposed to be quite dark and I got some burnt umber pigment to tint the grain filler with. The varnish and size are supposed to stop the filler from changing the color on golden oak so that when the grain if filled, it will be quite dark. So I guess I'll find out when I get a little further into this. Has anyone else tried doing it this way? It really is hard to believe how much time and effort they factory put into these things.

[martinola]

Hi Earl!
I'm dying to see how it comes out. I'm looking forward to updates and photos...
Regards,
Martin

[alang]

Me too! I love those detailed restoration stories. I learn so much every time.
Thanks
Andreas

[EarlH]

Most people don't really do much refinishing, and I can totally understand that. But, having said that, most people can do a reasonably good job of refinishing something like one of these old phonographs if they take a little time to do it. Unfortunately, we live in an age where we think something like a 'finish' can be properly done in 3-4 hours and then collectors wonder where this shabby chic nonsense comes from, or in the 1960's... "Antiquing" and you can see what happened to "big bird" below. They spent months finishing most of this stuff when it was new, and it's kind of hard to get around that if you want it to look nice again. And in some ways, it will take longer now since they were working with it when it was new. We do have finishes that dry much faster now, but it still can't be done in 4-8 hours as most cans of finish from the box stores will lead one to believe.

This whole Golden Oak thing has bugged me for years and I did finally buy a 1915 book on wood finishing, and between that that guy says, and what is mentioned about it in two other old books, I finally figured out what they are saying. Asphaltum is really just roofing tar, but the asphaltum varnish is a bit more because it would have thinners and some driers in it. I also didn't know that it was still being made. The other half, is the Gold Japan Size. They really didn't have many finishes 100 years ago that dried quickly and this stain actually does dry fairly fast (in their way of thinking) and it can be top-coated in 24 hours according to the old books. And since it's not a stain, but more of a dye, it won't muddy the grain. I'm really happy with how it looks so far, but it will be darker now than it was when it was new as oak does darken with age. Especially if it's around ammonia and I'm thinking the cat may be part of that equation, and cigarette smoke.... There was certainly a lot of that in most households after WWI. Before that, it was considered effeminate and not many men smoked in this country. The Red Cross changed that (with help from the Phillip Morris people) But that's another story.

Because the Oak has darkened, after the grain is filled I'll put white shellac over it instead of orange shellac which is what they would have done when it was new. I will probably have to tone it down under the lid so it doesn't have a halo around the old decal. But that shouldn't be too hard to sort out. I really didn't want to lose the old decal so I scraped the old finish off with a card scraper as close as I could without disturbing the decal.