Stripping Bertoia Wire Chairs  

Powder coating
Have them powder coated. Any shop that does powder coating will strip the old finish off as part of the process.

i second that
had a friend refinish his this way. great results.

wire chairs
I just picked up a set of 1950's wire Bertoia chairs that i had striped
re welded and powdercoated and they look great one had that old white baked enamel the other was black with several breaks. this is a simple process as taking the old paint comes right off when sand blasted and looks great after powder coating , these chairs are going to be out side and the fellow told me they should last for years .free from rust,

stripping Bertoia Chairs
If you don't mind me asking, how much did it cost to have them stripped?

wire chairs
25.00 dollars each to strip and to powdercoat 30.00 each they look gret and ready to put outdoors

Not a Bad Price
Thats not a bad price. I've got an old DKR that is solid (no breaks or rewelds) but the enamel is all gone and it looks like it was spraypainted some time ago. I assume the same treatment for the Bertoia as for the Eames.

lucifer
yes they all need to be striped and powdercoated and they look like they rolled out the factory in 1952 very cheap fix for wonderful chairs that are over 50 years old, check your yellow pages to find powdercoaters they know the strippers ( not the dancing girls)

strip then powder coat
Often you will find the stripping and powder coating in the same shop. PC is also used on Saarinen tulip tables.
http://www.finishing.com/Library/pennisi/powder.html

I had a Bertoia diamond...
I had a Bertoia diamond chair re finished last year didn?t go for powder coating instead I had the chair stove enamelled.
Had some pieces car parts powder coated in the past and have never been that impressed with the finish. Instead I had the chair stove enamelled in black the end finish is superb with a deep glossy finish
With stove enamelling the paint is applied with a spray then baked hard in the oven it?s a pretty old school technique but the results are superb
Just waiting for a new Agean boucle pad from Knoll to finish it off
If the chairs going on a hard floor or outside don?t forget new glides as well
If the chair still has the original rislan coating it can be pretty tricky to blast off :--(

Hmmm... Does it look like this
pete -
sounds like what i'm looking to do. does the end product look something like this.
http://www.fabrieknl.nl/chairs/page/2/
this is where i first saw a set of bertoias stripped... or so i believe.
in the end how much did it cost and where do you get something like that done?

Hi Kubo
Thats a great...
Hi Kubo
Thats a great site 🙂 mine have a different finish to those from what i can see
I am based in the United Kingdom a local guy did the work he?s been doing stove enamelling for over 50 years so he does an excellent job in total it works out at fifty pounds Stirling per chair
The previous owner had stripped the old rislan off and it had been very poorly repainted it was pretty much like this all over
Before

After
Unfortunately the chair is a little dusty in the pic,

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v138/Petephoto/IMG_6225.jpg
I replaced all the hardware with new stainless if in the future I decide to use the chair outside
I?m having some Bertoia side chairs done in the next few weeks so I?ll get some pics up of them if anyone is interested

Finish
Pete - They look amazing - unfortunately I live in Toronto so we may end up using different finishers. 🙂
Do you think the finish on those chairs on the site are original finish or have they just been stripped bare? No one has answered that question yet.
To me they look bare bones.

Thanks Kubo
They do look...
Thanks Kubo
They do look like bare metal to me,
Somebody correct me if I?m wrong but I believe the side chairs have only ever been available in white, black, chrome, satin chrome, red, yellow, green and blue the grey colour of those definitely looks like they have been stripped
I guess buying them stripped can help when spotting cracks or weak spots as the rislan coating may hide or cover up any flaws
When I have the side chairs done I?ll try and get some pics of them after they have been blasted for reference