Posted 30 January 2010 - 11:47 AM
freddiec
Persimmonpal does very nice work, he would be a good teacher. I have been refinishing clubs for about twenty years and learned by trial and error. Very good idea to start with some "veteran" clubs to practice on.
I have been told (by old clubmakers) and have read that polyurethane did not exist prior to 1960, so its not a good idea for the classic MacGregors of the 1950s. Shellac, lacquer, varnish and various oils (linseed, tung etc) were mostly used on the old clubs. The oils on the antique clubs. The thing is, there are many types of varnish, lacquer and shellac. And I have found that the term "varnish" is used generically in a lot of cases.
The "warm" satin or matte finishes you are referring to, in my opinion, are most easily applied by hand rubbing varnish or lacquer and "building" up the coats to the desired "sheen". There is a really good book called Hand Applied Finishes by a guy named Jeff Jewitt that I found very handy. He describes and demonstrates hundreds of finishing techniques and recites their histories in many cases. I think lacquer or varnish is almost always the best choice for classic clubs. But to hand rub them, they have to be thinned out, what you normally buy in the store is way to thick. Shellac is hard to work with in my opinion. The only time I use it anymore is to use it as a buffer coat to put polyurethane over varnish (you can't put poly over varnish).
Marine Spar Varnish is good but not as strong as polyurethane (plastic) if you are going to play the clubs. Lacquer is able to withstand play also (I play with many clubs that have spar varnish on them, it just wears faster).
Speaking to what Maxwell said about combined stain and lacquer, I have tried for many years to try to recreate the original purple/red finish that came on your favorite clubs (and mine), the M-85s. I still don't know how MacGregor applied that but it appears to be a colored stain over an already stained and filled head. I have come close to the original color by mixing stains.
In my opinion, you have to decide what type of refinsher you want to be. I would consider myself a "minimalist", I try to refinish a club to its original condition in a way that you can't really tell it has been refinished. The 1920s MacGregor World Win driver I posted a week or two ago is an example. It doesn't look perfect and I don't want it to. That club was a wreck when I started.
I always try to save all original decals, whipping, grips, shafts etc. and don't worry about deep nicks and dings in the wood/soleplates etc. Also, any backweights in my opinion should not be sanded smooth because then they look unnatural. Also, I own many types of sanding machines but I almost always hand sand all clubs. Paste wood filler is really important also, if you don't do it, it totally changes the way the finish looks.
Decals can now be recreated thanks to a relatively new product by a company in Florida (although I have thousands of original decals, I think I cleaned out Golf Works when they were still selling them). In the past you could not create a white decal because printers don't actually print white ink.
Have fun with your new hobby.
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