Removing Scratches and Rings and Polishing Wood

I could write a long post on all kinds of ways to tackle water spots, towel marks, glass bottom rings, scratches, etc.  I could talk about different finishes and oils, and the merits of one over the other.  We could talk about polyurethane vs. a natural finish, replacing veneer, and sanding techniques.

But instead I’m just posting what is basically an unpaid ad for Howard Wood Restoration products.  They are bottled magic.

My friend who owned a vintage store in Denver called Lee Alex Decor (sadly, closed now), turned me onto this stuff a couple of years ago.  You can walk into a thrift store and buy a piece of furniture that no one would look twice at, and with a couple of wipes, you’ve got a new looking piece of Midcentury goodness!  (While this might be slight exaggeration, it’s actually not too far fetched!)

Simply pick the color of Howard Restor-a-Finish that most closely matches your furniture (for almost everything I own I use Walnut or Dark Walnut), then apply the product with a soft cloth and wipe off.  Your furniture will look amazing, and you get the added bonus of learning Karate (“wipe on, wipe off”).

If you’ve got crazing (lots of tiny cracks) or a scratch that’s a bit of a doozey, you may need to apply Restor-a-Finish with 0000 super fine steel wool.  It made me nervous when I first tried it, but it worked great.  And you’d be amazed at the kinds of blemishes (even blistering and raised finishes!) this can take care of.

Once that’s done, I always use Howard Feed-n-Wax.  It’s bee’s wax and citrus.  It smells fantastic, and it makes Midcentury teak, walnut, mahogany, etc. look AWESOME.

If you can’t get to Lowe’s or Home Depot, it’s also available on Amazon, though the price is actually best at the local store.

Below are some pics of our Danish bar (in teak).  I actually didn’t even use the Restor-a-Finish on this, just the Feed-n-Wax.  Unfortunately I don’t have any “before” pics, but you think there weren’t copious drink rings, scratches, and scuffs on a 70 year old, well-used bar?

This stuff is amazing.

How to Fix a Squeaky Platform Bed

We scored a fantastic, vintage King Size teak platform bed recently at a local vintage store. After having it set up for a couple weeks, we began to notice creaks and squeaks becoming more and more pronounced.  We simply put up with the noise until we had guests for a couple of days… the guest room is directly below our boudoir.  Regardless of whether we were doing anything interesting, it certainly sounded like it any time we rolled over or moved in any way.

I agonized over a fix for days, until the solution finally came to me in a dream.

Seriously.  It came to me in a DREAM.

I was not gifted with a solution for Cancer or AIDS, or the conflict in the Middle East, but instead divine intervention showed me the way to fix a squeaky 60’s platform bed.

Whatever.  I’ll take it.  Better than nothing.

One morning I awoke smiling.  My wife asked me what was up and I told that I was given the solution to our squeaky bed problem in a dream!  I had dreamt about running a bar of soap along the rail on each side and center of the bed that suspends the slats that hold the mattress.  The bed is built solidly, so it’s not the frame squeaking, it’s just those slats rubbing back and forth, wood on wood (minds out of the gutter).

So that night I tried it.  Right before I did, I thought, “I’m an idiot.”  This isn’t going to work at all.  Who dreams of a solution to a problem like this?

But sure enough: it worked!

Hopefully the next time I am visited in my dreams by the Powers of the Universe, I will be given the solution to something a little more significant.  Meanwhile, I am very thankful to have the solution to our squeaky bed.

UPDATE: While the soap worked for a while, it definitely wore off.  Sure, I could keep applying it, but then I had another idea.  I purchased some cork shelf liner (sticky-backed cork), cut it to fit the edge upon which the bed slats rest, and now the creaking is permanently gone!

Replacement Insert for Midcentury Crane Faucet Handle

Crane sinks ruled the well appointed Midcentury bathroom.

We have a lovely, white “Westland” Crane sink in our master bath.  The chrome around the mouth of the faucet is beginning to flake and at some point I will likely swap out the whole sink with a pink “Diana” that I found in Illinois, but until it’s time for a proper bathroom overhaul (lighting, cabinets, re-grout, and new flooring with radiant heat), the sink will remain.

In the meantime I have swapped the lever handles with the dome handles (Crane referred to these dome handles as “Temple Handles”) from the Crane sink in the basement (either a “Neuday” or “Oxford”).  Turns out, the lever handles were actually originally on the Neuday (not the Westland, which came with the Temple handles).  I believe someone did a previous swap of the handles on the two sinks because the levers were much easier to use then the dome handles for the presumably arthritic hands of the previous owner.

All of these post-war to early 60’s sinks use the Crane “Dial Ese” system with a star tipped stem that inserts up into the handle (I actually have a couple more of these sinks, including the “Drexel,” “Diana,” and “Criterion” that I’ve been saving for whatever project might come up).

In our faucet, the inserts in the handles that allow them to grip the cartridge stem are made of wood (and cheap pressboard at that).  I’m not sure if that’s a handy-man’s fix-it, or if that’s just how they originally came, but it creates a nasty little ring of goo at the base of the faucet (the pressboard wood basically melts when it gets wet), and finally (thankfully), the wood has stripped and failed, and I can put off replacing the inserts no longer.

[UPDATE] The little wooden/pressboard inserts are original to the faucet (not a Jury Rig).  When examining carefully, you can see the word “top” imprinted on the insert.

Luckily there is a nylon/plastic replacement part available, though it was a little tricky to find places selling them at first, and shipping is ridiculous.  It seems like every place that sells them charges at LEAST $10 for shipping.  Bear in mind, this is an item made of plastic (lightweight) that is smaller than a penny.  Ever heard of a stamp and a FREAKING ENVELOPE PEOPLE?! That would be $.44 to ship instead of $10 or more.

Since originally I was looking at around $20 shipped just for the little plastic insert, when I finally found the entire kit shown here for $6.99 on Amazon, I just went ahead and ordered the whole thing, so I have the other parts if I ever need them.

 

Evidently Ace Hardware used to make a specific Crane Faucet Repair Kit that you can still find around (here’s one on Amazon), but the kit they carry now does not include the square nylon inserts (the most important part!).

What Ace used to carry.	What they now carry.

 

FWIW, here are a couple of the places I found before finding the much cheaper solution on Amazon:

DEA Bath
https://deabath.com/Crane_Parts/crane_parts.html

While DEA is extremely knowledgeable with the MCM Crane stuff and even sells whole sinks in addition to the handles and repair parts, this just might be the worst designed website I’ve seen since I sat next to that weird kid wearing the Iron Maiden shirt in HTML class in college. Just sayin’. Also, a major pet peeve of mine is providing images with links that say “click to enlarge” which only spawn a pop up window with the EXACT SAME SIZE PHOTO.

Chicago Faucet Shoppe
http://www.chicagofaucetshoppe.com/Crane_Faucet_Parts_s/3724.htm

The exorbitant shipping plus their use of the term “shoppe” prevented me from ordering from here.

Faucet Fix
http://faucet-fix.com/html/crane_faucet_parts.html

I couldn’t complete my transaction because when I clicked “add to cart” Pay Pal told me that the seller was not able to accept payments!  I’m only providing this information and website to illustrate what one must go through when trying to find repair parts for MCM stuff.