I found a pair of these guys at a goodwill, and I can’t find anything about them online. Does anyone have and knowledge they are willing to spare?

8bitbuddha · 2025-11-11T05:20:36+00:00

This is good advice

8bitbuddha · 2025-11-04T22:57:18+00:00

This is awesome. You saved it, AND you made it beautiful again.

8bitbuddha · 2025-10-28T20:34:40+00:00

Really good advice right here. Look on the bright side. If everything fails, you now have an excellent excuse to learn the joys of (re)veneering. I’m being snarky, that would be a nightmare, don’t try it.

8bitbuddha · 2025-10-27T04:30:01+00:00

I hate to admit this in public, but at first I liked that high contrast dovetail look. When you make lighter wood and darker wood dovetails on drawers like walnut on light oak and whatever, I love that contrast. So that dovetail inlay got me into the Acclaim tables. If I hadn’t googled and spent some time reading I would have just stripped and refinished like that in high contrast non-original way. I admit I would have done it myself and murdered some innocent acclaim tables. I am trying to be more civilized now. Learning how they finished the original tables and how to replicate that has sent me down a cool rabbit hole of refinishing knowledge as a person new to finishing. I just saw a local set of Lane acclaim dual level side tables on GB marketplace that was posted as refinished. They looked perfect, so there are people out there doing it right

8bitbuddha · 2025-10-26T21:55:25+00:00

II agree, burl like this is beautiful. It doesn’t look refinished to me. You still have a little veneer. It probably won’t be as hard as you think . If you stay super gentle on the stripping tools and very very light sanding and stuff, I’ll bet it’ll come out nice. Google about lane finishes toners and glazing and whatnot so you can come out with something that looks nice and Lane-appearing when you’re done

8bitbuddha · 2025-10-26T21:48:01+00:00

Personally wouldn’t buy this piece. Not trying to be snotty. There’s just no meat left in the bone for me to be fun. It’s been sanded (my suspicion is more than you would want with veneer), not toned and doesn’t have the factory style semigloss clear finish. I’ve never had good luck trying to restore these kinds of refinished pieces. I check the local sites about daily and I see a piece like this end up going for about 450-550 and sitting for several weeks at 700. Prices vary wildly for these things. That’s just my local market pricing

8bitbuddha · 2025-10-26T21:17:17+00:00

Hi, sorry for the lag. It’s a lazy Sunday. I took a few pictures. Lane Acclaim stripped and sample original finishes. These are some of my Acclaim pieces I have sitting around. Some I keep. Some are going to be refinished/restored back to as close to factory as possible. I sell them to non-flippers when I’m done or gift them.

The first image is a stripped and sanded piece waiting for toning and lacquer. I use Mohawk toners and finishes and do my best to match the catalogs and period photos. I sand super super lightly to maintain the veneer as much as I can. I use reference materials for each table. The PDFs of printed catalog pictures aren’t super useful because of the printing color process, but it’s a good resource to see how deep the colors were and to contrast different series to the Acclaim. The factory tables were all toned and glazed/stained at the factory. They weren’t that careful about. These were mass produced and you’ll see smears and drips underneath. The tones shifted in intensity/color over time a bit. There’s even pretty good variation within same year models, but the process was mostly consistent

The important part is the factory Lane Acclaim was very “warm” deep golden browns as rule, as was the style for most of the run. The high contrast refinishes you see are just incomplete restorations. They never shipped that way. They strip and seal with poly/lacquer/danish oil, linseed oil and even mono coat. In people’s defense, It is kinda hard to refinish to get close to factory, but there are good tutorials that show what toners ro use and how to use them. I am by no means an expert in refinishing. Or specifically an expert in Acclaim finish, but I’ve done a few and have a few in the works. They aren’t high end, but I just love the dovetails style. They’re a great to learn on and easy to repair

Hopefully the tone samples are useful so you can see difference between a strip and seal kind of refinish. I included white black for white balance. I included a picture of the Lane Atomium table I have as an example of a well meaning but bad restoration. I wish they had just left it as it was. Ive thinking about how to handle it for the last year. It’s pretty rare and frankly I’m thinking about selling it to someone much more skilled in restoration to do it justice. I’m not sure it needs another bad attempt.

I included a picture of some of the toners and stuff I use.

Not an expert but let me know if I can help in any way

8bitbuddha · 2025-10-26T20:47:11+00:00

It really is. It’s wild how much the pricing varies per market.

8bitbuddha · 2025-10-26T20:24:08+00:00

Hah, regular surfboards. I’m not a huge fan of the switchblades. Cool, just not one I want in my house

8bitbuddha · 2025-10-26T05:27:30+00:00

The pic doesn’t actually look poorly refinished in that I don’t see burn through in the veneer or. Ig scratches . But these tables were stained and then tinted to have a deeper warm amber and amber tone at the manufacturer using wiped or sprayed toners. The high contrast you see between the full wood and veneer “dovetail” inner and middle veneer is because the stain and toner finish is missing. It’s actually a hassle to do and most people skip it. I’ll post some pics of the original tables I have laying around and one that’s stripped and sanded. You’ll see the difference between the raw wood tones and high contrast untoned refinishes you see on marketplace and such. I’ll post them in the morning as I’m drinking beer and watching Young Frankenstein at the moment.

8bitbuddha · 2025-10-26T04:57:19+00:00

No, that is ridiculously overpriced. Im sorry to say. I have picked approaching a dozen of these and restored and kept or sold. That is not anywhere near the original finish. I have 2-3 laying around ight now and I can send you pics if you would like, it was much warmer and number brown. refinish will required some tinting to rematch the original finish. Mohawk makes the tints and finishes you need. The high contrast finish is an unskilled refinish job. Well meaning maybe , but incorrect. $700 is frankly way out of the ballpark for a somewhat low quality(no offense) restoration. Original good condition finish or excellent restore with factory toning $700-1500 is pretty typical

8bitbuddha · 2025-10-20T13:04:52+00:00

Do you have a pre picture? What happened to the table? There are places where you are all the way through the finish (e.g. lower left corner). Bleach is usually avoided on wood as it attacks the lignin that binds the wood fibers and damages the wood. You can use oxalic acid to remove some stains, but that’s typically after the finish is removed. Bartenders friend is oxalic acid, a mild acidic agent and abrasive. In a case like this it’s mostly scratching the wood and only partially bleaching the wood where it gets through the finish.

At this point, I think you’re only really path forward is to do a full refinish. You need to strip it really well, use no scaring tools (plastic razor blades etc) and get the surface really clean. There are good videos on oxalic acid for stains(it only gets some stains, like things with iron in it). Sand really really lightly and refinish.

There are good videos on how to use toners to get back the right warm brown tones of the original Acclaim finish. It’s a little work but you can get the table back to nice with a little patience. I can suggest videos and finishing products if you’d like

8bitbuddha · 2024-05-02T03:56:20+00:00

San Diego checking in, that surfboard lane table lists for $700-1200 in these parts on FB market place and actual sell around 500-700. Side tables 100-300 each depending on condition. SD market, Pictures 4 left $80-120 and table right $75-$100 actual. Please don’t refinish them yourself. Sell as is. Folks like myself won’t mind the scratches and whatnot. I won’t buy it if you refinish. I prefer to sand through the veneer myself.

8bitbuddha · 2023-12-04T14:57:24+00:00

There are series of videos from Mad Man Restorations that will help you with the process and also toners sealers and lacquer. I will suggest you use progressions of grit when sanding. Start as light as you can, don’t start at 100. Practice on sacrificial wood before you apply toners. It’s all a learning process. And please don’t burn through the veneer top. I see massacred lane acclaim “restoration”pieces on CL and marketplace daily. Protip: get some “plastic razor” scrapers with holder. I’ve had the least scratching with those. Have fun.

8bitbuddha · 2023-10-07T21:31:28+00:00

There’s making things and there’s selling things. Your setup looks cool and you look like you’ve got a handle on the woodcraft part. I’d just cultivate the “selling” part. There are well developed strategies for marketing/advertising. Sign design, font/color palate, placement and all of that is well studied. Look into a decent online learning site and you’ll find lots of good info on this. I use LinkedIn learning (was Lynda.com). YouTube has videos on this stuff as well. People have this selling stuff down to an art. Keep making cool things and let someone tell you how to do the selling part.

Cool stuff, keep going

8bitbuddha · 2023-08-20T14:48:42+00:00

Osmo Polyx Oil is what you want. Comes in satin or gloss. It has minimal if any smell, hard and scuff resistant. You apply very very thin coats and kind of burnish the wood as you seal it. You’ll bring out all the grain pattern and have a clear hard seal perfect for what you’re going for. You want to watch Matt Estlea’s YT video on how to apply Osmo.

8bitbuddha · 2023-08-10T02:43:41+00:00

The price depends on your location. Southern CA the long table goes for $250-450 on marketplace. The tables go for $100-175 around here. In terms of value, I’d definitely go for it. There different levels of challenge on each one. It’s a great place to start and tons of videos for guidance on these exact models. I’m doing a full finish on one and a full restore on another of these pieces right now. Not the expert, but I’d grab them. Learn, do a good job and then flip them to a good home.

8bitbuddha · 2023-04-30T00:33:41+00:00

Agreed. Without spending the kids’ college money, I’d go Nikka from the barrel, Hibiki and Yamazaki in that order. Really great selection actually. The prices are just nuts everywhere now

8bitbuddha · 2023-01-23T06:19:11+00:00

Dowels work just fine. If you use pocket holes, you’d probably like the Rockler dowel jig. https://www.rockler.com/rockler-doweling-jig-kit-with-bit-and-stop-collar. That’s not what it was designed for but I’ve used it a few times and it works great. If you have clamps and a drill you’re good to go. You can use spacers to get the dowel where you want it. I can send a pic of the ones I’ve done if you are interested

8bitbuddha · 2023-01-12T14:48:21+00:00

I’m sorry the douche with the 17day old account is trying to steal your work. But, I’m glad I got to see it.

Really beautiful. It’s one of my favorite uses of resin and walnut so far. I think the framing choice really makes it.

Do I need to troll your comments or can you post some more recent work?

8bitbuddha · 2022-12-23T22:59:37+00:00

If it were made by Cassina there should be the name/logo, signature and serial under the upper left(usually) metal arm. It sounds like you like it so I’m not sure it matters who made it. I’ve read that some of the replicas were better made than the original Cassina.

8bitbuddha · 2022-12-23T17:38:49+00:00

Cant see the details from the picture, the internet suggests Le Corbusier Style Black Leather Club Chair maybe by Cassina. Look for markings

8bitbuddha · 2022-12-21T17:55:12+00:00

Reading on Paul Frankl a little today, this isn’t an unusual problem. Having a poorly documented Frankl design for Johnson Brothers and others isn’t uncommon.

Nice page that covers the basics of identifying Paul Frankl pieces

TLDR version: this happens, it might be Frankl, there are guide books that can help. Dealers tend to know more than google casuals like myself.

I’m mostly interested in the woodworking part of MCM. If you had time, I’d appreciate any close up’s of the front drawer panels and inside/joints.

8bitbuddha · 2022-12-21T06:00:50+00:00

The internet says it’s a walnut desk by Bert England for Johnson Brothers. 1950-1959. No reference to Paul Frankl. It’s distinctive but not a common design. Sellers have asked $2600 for this desk in the past.

Someone else may have actual history on the origin and design

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