Resurrecting Macassar Ebony Fortes

[RobBeamer]

Gave them a week to fully dry and did some more touchups on the finish during that time along with working on the grills to try and get them looking close to new. 

 

Used the Howard Feed N Wax on them and like the results. Since the staining was done recently they already had a good amount of "pop" so the change with the wax was subtle but I like it. Evens the finish out and makes it look .... rich ... for lack of a better word. 

 

As good as (I think) they look in the pictures they do look better in person. Overall very happy with the results and done f'n with them for a while. 

[Ceptorman]

Those look fantastic, all your hard work has definitely paid off....well done.

[rplace]

Great pictures, great result and a fun story to read. Thanks for posting them!

[Coytee]

On 9/13/2017 at 7:16 AM, Frzninvt said:

Those are some of the most beautiful Forte's that I have ever seen.

 

 

^^  This ^^

 

I've always LOVED that wood and once warned the wife....  if I ever found a pair of Khorns like this in good cosmetic shape....  they might end up here in addition to the other goodies.

[DizRotus]

Thanks.  Great results.

[GeorgeK]

Wow! Great job!  Good story

[Grizzog]

Those look great!

[CECAA850]

They look great!

 

What stain did you use and what grit paper?

[RobBeamer]

27 minutes ago, CECAA850 said:

They look great!

 

What stain did you use and what grit paper?

 

Thanks ... and thanks for all of the other positive comments.

 

I had a range of different grit paper when I was experimenting on the first pass but ultimately figured out  that using 120 to get through the lacquer and scratches and then 220 after that to smooth it out was all I needed for where I wanted to be. 

 

The 120 on that hand/mouse sander wasn't too aggressive and actually takes a number of passes (sanding, wiping them off, sanding, wiping them off ... etc) to get through to the actual wood. Which is good I think otherwise you might sand right through something you didn't want to. 

 

Then the 220 (still using the mouse) just to remove any of the fine marks left by the 120. Thought about switching to something a little finer and doing it with a block in the direction of the grain after that but it was getting late in the day on Saturday with rain in the forecast for Sunday so just stopped there. And even looking closely after finishing it all up looks good to my eye so probably wasn't necessary to do any more.

 

I used Minwax Provincial 211 because I already had some but probably anything on the dark side would work. Even though the wood looks really pale after the sanding I think there's a fair amount of the factory staining still in there and the little bit of the stain I used just seems to bring it back to the original color(s).

 

One thing I figured out that helped on the second pass was, because it's a dark wood, if what's coming up from the sanding is still light colored you're still taking off lacquer. Once it starts turning brown you're through to the actual wood. 

[CECAA850]

Good info, thanks.

[YK Thom]

They look great, remind me a bit of the Palladium look.

[RobBeamer]

On 11/10/2017 at 9:48 PM, YK Thom said:

They look great, remind me a bit of the Palladium look.

 

Thanks.

 

I want to run some model from the Palladium line (probably the bookshelf as I don't have a convenient spot for the towers) through one of my systems at some point. Wish I'd picked up something when they were on clearance everywhere as it's pretty rare to find them coming up used these days.