Church pew finish

[teacher]

A lady at church took it upon herself to clean several church pews with Murphy's oil and has rubbed hard enough that she has went through what little finish was on them, basically down to bare wood.  These are Oak pews close to a hundred years old and I am looking for some ideas on what type of finish might be suitable to repair the worn places on the pews.  Church council president caught me the other day and made a comment about maybe I could fix the problem now.  Problem area seems to be on the ends where people always place their hands when entering/leaving the pew. Probably going to have to go with some type of wipe on finish, but now just looking for ideas from someone who may have already had this problem.  Looking at approximately 60 pews that may have to have something done to them.

Thanks for any info help,

Don

[Cooler]

If you cannot remove them, then you will need something that dries really fast.  That pretty much limits you to shellac or water based acrylic/poly.  But even the water based stuff doesn't fully cure for 7 days.  If it is just for quick touch-ups I might go with shellac.  It dries in 30 minutes or so.  But smells for about an hour or more.

Shellac is not a hard-wearing finish but it does adhere well to most other finishes and most other substrates.

[jteneyck]

Hard to believe Murphy's Oil Soap removed any finish.  My guess is the finish was gone already and all that was removed was dirt revealing the underlying problem.  In any case, most church pews I've seen appear to have been finished with OB varnish, though I suppose some really old ones might have been finished with shellac.  You can determine if the finish on the ones in your church have shellac on them by putting some DNA on a rag or Q-Tip and wiping it in an inconspicuous place.  If it pulls up the finish then it's shellac; if it doesn't it's likely varnish.  I'll bet it's varnish.  

In either case you may need to clean some more of the area around what needs to be refinished.  Mineral spirits followed by Murphy's Oil Soap or dish detergent will remove both oil and water soluble dirt.  I would not sand anything unless needed to remove roughness, splinters, etc.  Begin the repair by carefully brushing or wiping on a mix of Sealcoat shellac + Transtint dye on the bare areas to match the color of the good finish.  Which dye?  Which ever one or combo gives you a good color match.  This can take some effort to figure out, so practice on the underside or a piece of scrap until you are satisfied that you have a good match after applying the finish coats.  Let me say that again.  You are trying to match the color after the last coat of varnish has been applied.  Your shellac+dye mix will in all probability have a different color as will the pews after the shellac work is done.  On small areas you will need to work with small artist's brushes.  The final result is dependent upon how meticulous, patient, and persistent you are.  

Once you are done with the shellac you can put varnish on the areas you put shellac on.  The first coat or two you might need to apply with an artist's brush if you need to build up the thickness.  Likely not, however, if the old finish was worn away, in which case you can probably just wipe it on with a rag and feather it out onto the good areas with the last coat or two.  You can use whatever varnish you like and make a wiping varnish out of it by adding some mineral spirits.  I'd look for one with a fast drying time.  You may need to apply 3 or 4 coats to get a good protective coating.

60 pews?  This could be a lot of work.  Good luck.  

John

[KingwoodFan1989]

You may need to apply 3 or 4 coats to get a good protective coating.

60 pews?  This could be a lot of work.  Good luck.  

John

Yes to both of these...to the OP, I didn't see you specify this in your post, so I'll ask here...are these padded pews or are the seat and backrests all wood as well? I hope they're the former (both for your sake while finishing and the people who have to sit in them during the services 
 )...I'm sure you'd need quite a few more than 3-4 coats on the seats if those areas only have finish between people's jeans and the wood.