Pulling The Wool Over My Eyes

Wooly, originally uploaded by http://andrewskelton.net.

Well, that’s another string to my bow… no, I’ve not taken up the violin, Rocksmith is keeping me more than busy in the music department at the moment, no I can now add Furniture Restorer to my limited list of skills (well, you didn’t expect after all this time, Dear Reader, for me to actually “big myself up” did you?). I mentioned how nearly a year ago we bought a small tropical aquarium however what I might not have mentioned, though possibly I did (this blog is in a small way my attempt at Kerouac’s “stream of consciousness”), that the aquarium actually leaked losing over half it’s contents. The escaped water as well as making a mess on the floor, also seeped under the mat which the tank was resting on straight onto a polished teak sideboard which when removed had a large white water stain right across the top of the surface. Drying the surface had no effect on the large white mark, so we consulted an expert, a relative who restores furniture professionally, and he suggested wire wool and methylated spirits. Before you rush out and try this yourself, you have to realise there is more than one type of wire wool in the same way there is more than one grade of sandpaper, and working on a wooden surface meant I needed to get the finest grade wool I could, which it turns out is Grade 0000 (there is a 00000 but I couldn’t find that in any of the shops I visited). I’ve now had three separate sessions working on the stain, stopped only by the repulsive smell of the Meths, and the white mark is now starting to face, and completely gone in certain places, however there was one other thing I needed that the expert neglected to mention.. lots and lots of elbow grease!

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