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Cleaned my 100th piece of old furniture this week and it hit me
It was a beat up oak dresser from a garage sale in Toledo. I was just doing my normal thing, stripping off the old varnish, when I realized I'd done this exact job a hundred times now. I remember when I started, a piece like that would take me a full day just to prep. Now it's maybe three hours. The old guys taught me with lacquer thinner and steel wool, but man, the new gel strippers are a game changer. Anyone else feel like the speed of the work has totally changed from when you began?
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andrew_gonzalez8824d ago
Honestly, that's how everything goes. You get so good at the basics that you start seeing the whole process differently.
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jesse_allen18d ago
Ever try going back to the old way just to see? I grabbed some lacquer thinner and steel wool for a small job last month and it felt like trying to write with my other hand. The new stuff is faster, but I swear you lose a bit of the feel for the wood grain when you're not fighting it for so long.
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