MacGruer Restorations

I'm focused here on the surface appearance of furniture.  

What we see depends on a number of factors. Light is a part of it. Not much can be seen if there isn't enough light.

The nature or quality of that light influences what we perceive. There is color (spectrum) and quantity to consider. 

More soon......
Continue reading...

Hello,  3/23/2013

The last year has been one of many changes in my life. I had to move my home and workshop.

In the process of this relocating, all sorts of possessions were reviewed, evaluated and sold, given away or kept. In fact, now, some months after settling in a  new house and a new state (Mass, instead of NY) there is more work to do to properly "downsize" our stuff. For two eclectic collectors, my wife and I, this is no easy task.

In addition to the physical labor is the sometimes wrenc...
Continue reading...

Hello blog readers,

After I started this blog, writing again after not doing so for some years, I started to write again for a local regional lifestyle magazine. It's called Berkshire Homestyle and can be viewed online each month and it is archived.

My time has been spent on that and not his blog.

Go here: http://berkshirehomestyle.com/

Look in the November 2010; January, March, May, August, October, December  2011, and February 2012 issues.

Let me know what you think.

Continue reading...

The following is from a posting on a professional finishing website conversation. Dick, a finisher, took in a job to “clean up” or refinish a piece of furniture. The customer was then unhappy with the cleaner look:

>>" Dear Groop:  I now have it back in my shop to try to make it look old ------ help. Dick"

[Dick may have been heavy handed in his processes, though he said he wasn't, or the piece may have just had a lot of age related marks and coloring that were lost in a normal refinishi...

Continue reading...

Glues.

Holding things together. Making it possible to be adventurous in design, and to assemble objects in ways that would otherwise be impossible.

Wheat, fish, hide, mucilage, cyano-acrylate, epoxy, resorcinol, contact cement, hot melt, acrylics, urethanes, one part, two part, multipart, casein, polyvinyl acetate, and on and on..... For a bit more fun you can check the Wiki entry for glue: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glue

While it is possible to design and build a piece of furniture without ...

Continue reading...

Hello, and welcome to my new site,

I will be posting blog entries discussing topics regarding my work, Antique Restoration, and life subjects that relate to the work or the concepts explored. You can expect me to wander, ramble, and leave some topics open-ended or unresolved.

Your comments, professionally inspired or otherwise, are always welcome. Please feel free to ask a question that might start a blog discussion, or just bring up a matter that interests you.

Restoration vies for the title "...
Continue reading...