Refinish antique chairs

This chair, and another just like it, came from my wife’s grandmother’s home. The cane is original. The other chair had six coats of various colored paints and an original coating that was orange-like in color. Factory maybe? It was the hardest layer to remove.

It took us about a week. Both were stripped down and given a coat of polyurethane and currently reside at my wife’s parents home. Taking a closer look there is some nice detail work in the back of the chair…

and a curiosity too…can you see it? One of the backrest main spindles is flat on one side.

The other chair as the same thing, only on the other spindle. I don’t know it was rebuilt at some point and the builder ran short of stock and had to use a narrow piece. I have no idea how old they are but at least 60-70 years old.