Howard's Restor-A-Finish!!!

[WEBellSystemChristian]

I decided to start working on a Kellogg wall phone recently that has been in the family since it was new. It's been sitting in our garage for at least the 6 years we have lived here (until I dug it out of the garage late 2013) plus the 20 years or so in our previous house's garage that it lived in. Since then the door and bottom inch or so of the phone have developed salt stains, dust, ground-in dirt, and a general sandpaper-like finish to the front of the door. I decided to try restoring the wood without completely refinishing it, with Howard's restor-a-finish and steel wool. I've used the Howard's stuff many times before, but other than resurfacing the Christmas train rails every Christmas, I haven't touched steel wool at all in the phone hobby.

I started off pouring the Howard's directly onto the steel wool, which the website and the instruction videos clearly recommend for rough surfaces. I did this with the door, shelf, and parts of the box itself. The rest I used a paper towel on. The results didn't seem all that great initially (took me several hours to complete, so it didn't seem like an incredible transition in that time), but I was amazed after looking at the before picture!! Bear in mind that other than the space under the shelf area, the phone was as wipe-down clean as I could possibly get it in the 'before'. The wood doesn't look new, but that isn't really an issue on a 100-year-old phone! I'm happy with Restor-A-Finish!!!

[dsk]

Really nice, and an old phone shall look like an old phone, not as a new!  Now it looks like an old phone nicely cared for during its full lifetime.  I have some projects too but does pretty often run out of elbow grease,,, so it takes time. Or maybe I just like better to solve the technical problems.

Great job!!!

dsk

[Doug Rose]

Beautiful!!!

[Tonyrotary]

Looks great!

[Greg G.]

I love Howard's!  I've used it on an old radio and a dresser I have with great results.