I have an Artek Aalto stool of fairly recent production, I think 2001 from the 08 01 numbers stamped on the bottom. Early Aalto stools I believe had oil based finish, but I assume one from 2001 had a water based (polyurethane) finish? It has water staining and damage, if it was early production I wouldn’t mess with it, but since it is 21st century made, I’d like to clean it up and put a correct finish on it.
Does anyone know what the recent Artek finish is, or even what hardware store product would be an equivalent match? It seems to be satin finish, not gloss, BTW. Thanks to anyone who might have ideas.
@gropius, There have been so many new and different wood finish formulas available to furniture manufactures over the past half-century or so that it would be virtually impossible to guess which Artek used a couple decades ago. That said, testing with various solvents may provide clues for how best to remove or repair the finish on your stool. Closeup pix of the damaged areas may help to determine if stripping the original finish will be necessary if you care to post any.
P.S. Somehow I (mistakenly?) remember that we might be located not too far from each other in New England. I'm probably just confused. It's been a bizarre few years.
P.P.S. I got into a little trouble stripping one of these years ago when I splashed either acetone or lacquer thinner onto the linoleum top surface (oops!) and ruined any patina of age that I might have wanted to preserve. It ended up looking rather new instead. Oh, well. Living and learning ...the hard way.
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