Saturday, May 12, 2012

Supporting Coastal Maine Furniture Restoration

Joshua Klein, of Klein Furniture Restoration in Brooklin, ME, is a young furniture restorer who needs to expand his shop. That's good, because it means business is good. He's currently renting a 14'x17' space, and would like to build a permanent 28'x28' space.

To help fund this expansion, he's started a crowdsourced funding campaign at Indiegogo that runs until June 6. This is to cover half the costs; he'll be covering the remainder himself. Take a look, and if you'd like to help out, make a contribution. I recognized the first contributor, so I can see he's in excellent professional company. I think it's great to help young woodworkers like Joshua. It's one thing to keep the craft alive as a hobby, but even better to keep it alive as a trade.

He also has a very informative blog. Looking at the photos, he does amazing work. What does that mean for restoration? It means he can take a damaged piece of 100 or 150-year-old furniture, repair it, and blend the repair so well that you can't tell where the old ends and the new begins. That requires a variety of skills to graft on new pieces and match the color and finish. He reminds me of Freddy Roman, another fine example of a young woodworker doing restoration work.

Among his posts is a link to this absolutely fascinating video about shellac manufacture. You'll never complain about the price of shellac again after watching this!



I'll also just mention that I'm absolutely jealous of his location. Brooklin is on the Maine coast, just south of Acadia National Park. It's an achingly beautiful area. For a few years, we had a vacation house down the coast near the Damariscotta River in Boothbay, ME; I had an O'Day 22 sailboat that was built the year I graduated from high school. Unfortunately we had to sell the place to pay for college. Darn kids!

7 comments:

  1. Great reading, thanks! Sometimes I just happen to stumble over info that arrives in a timely manner. Spot on ;-)

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  2. I went through your post and found it really informative. Restoring and refinishing your furniture is much more cost effective than buying new furniture. It is also better for the environment. Thanks.

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  3. Thanks for sharing this video. Hopefully as more people understand the issues pertaining to these photos, they may learn to extend the life of their existing furnishings.

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  4. Furniture restoration requires great skill and dedication; it may be hard to find a good woodworker. Thanks for posting.

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  5. Supporing coastal Maine furniture is given in the post here. Useful post

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  7. I thought haven’t read such distinctive material anywhere else on-line.

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