Witco Stool Refurbishment

After seeing the Witco tiki bar that I found and bought a while back, Erich Troudt told me that he had the matching stools that he'd be willing to sell to me! They just needed a little work. 

So I went out to his place and picked them up. You can see the whole story (and his incredible bar, here)

I was ecstatic about them as they sat, but I had visions of restoration in my mind...

I pulled the seat covers off of them and tore off the cushions.

The owner of the stools before Erich had clear coated them with some kind of shellac and it was looking pretty bad. After about 5 minutes of sweating and trying to scrape the stuff off, I thought about doing the unimaginable... 

Re-burning these Witco stools. I've used my torch on a lot of wood and knew what to expect, but burning vintage Witco seemed like a dangerous idea. Like a sacrilegious idea...!

It seemed to be the only solution though.

Here are the side by side pics. The one on the right was torch burned and brushed with a bbq grill brush.

But after some Burt's Bees Wax meticulously rubbed in to them, I thought the results were absolutely incredible! Look at how that grain pops out of that swamp ash wood.

Next up were the stool covers. I found some material and had a guy in a shop in Costa Mesa make new covers based off of the old ones. 

I love how they came out!

100 furniture tacks and staples and I fit them back on. 

Astro approved, though his ears folded down makes him look a little concerned about being up on the stool. 

Thanks again for hooking me up, Erich!

~Spike~