About
Finishes |
| About Our Wood
Finishes |
| One of the most unique things about
Robert Bergelin Company products is the quality of the wood we use.
In the finishing process, we want to enhance the beautiful grains of
our wood rather than cover them up. Most manufacturers use toners,
which are brown paints, to hide the fact that they use poor quality
wood and have lots of glue joints. In our case, however, each board
speaks it's own language. If it happens to be a shade darker or
lighter than other boards, or if it has character marks or grain
patterns that make it unique, we think it is only expressing the
beauty of nature. Our finishing artisans take this character and
bring it to life. This is the most artistic part of the furniture
making process, and the art, by nature, requires variation. Our
antique finishes especially require variation to look as if the piece
has been lovingly cared for over 200 years. |
| We
finish all surfaces of our furniture. This gives the best protection
to the wood and virtually eliminates warping and splitting problems.
It also takes as much as twice the time because each surface has to
dry before turning to do the opposite surface. Quality requires
time. |
| Technically, we use a nitro-cellulose lacquer
top coat, which is the industry standard. It offers a very beautiful
and durable surface if properly taken care of. It is alcohol and
water-resistant. |
|
| About
Our Paint Finishes |
| We offer a wide variety of
paint finishes. Most are antique finishes. It isour suggestion not to
paint large top surfaces because of the difficulty of making them
look naturally aged. If you really do want to paint the top
surface, we would ask that you order it with planking as this gives
us something to "age" on the top surface. We also prefer to
use at least a #2 distressing level. This allows more dimension in
the finish as glazes fill the distress
marks. |
|
| Finishing
American Black Cherry |
| We choose to use cherry
as our primary wood selection because of its' grain patterns, smooth
texture and workability. Cherry darkens slightly with age. This is a
natural oxidation of the wood stimulated by light. For this reason,
for the first year that you own your furniture, you should move
accessories that are on your furniture from time to time and put
table leaves out where they will get some
light. |
|
| Finishing
American White Oak |
| Few furniture manufactures
today use quarter sawn white oak. However, we at Robert Bergelin
Company like the controlled grain patterns that this sawing technique
creates. It was the preferred cutting technique in 17th and 18th
century England and today the antiques are highly sought after. When
we finish oak we do not fill the pore thus you will see more texture
to the surfaces. This especially shows in paint
finishes. |
|
| About Rubbed
Finishes |
| If you prefer a shiny finish, we can
rub the lacquer to be very bright, smooth and shiny. This looks best
on more formal pieces and with dark finishes. However, this surface
is more prone to show scratches and may be more difficult to care
for. There is a 10% extra charge for rubbed
finishes. |
|
| About
Distressing |
| Distressing is the act of aging
furniture. This consists of many different techniques depending on
the level that you order. It is a very artistic process. Because of
this it is highly variable. We are glad to take note of what your
wishes are, however we cannot guarantee that the final piece will
look exactly as you had envisioned it. We attempt to age a piece as
it would happen naturally over a 200 year period. Thus, the
vertical surfaces take less abuse than the tops do. All edges receive
much attention in the Level 3 distressing level. It is also
impossible to properly represent distressing on small panels.
It is best to look at examples in our
showrooms. |
|
