Hacker Mayflower II wood finish
 

Hello,

I bought a nice Hacker Mayflower II valve radio and was thinking about polishing the wood.

I believe the mayflower II came in different wood finishes.
I dont have any experience in wood polishing and was wondering are there different polishes for different woods?

Or am I over thinking this?

Any recommendations on what i could buy?
I only am polishing the mayflower and so a small volume of good value polish is all I am after.

Thank you for your time
Martin

Re: Hacker Mayflower II wood finish
 

Hello Martin and we!come.

I find That Rustins Scratch Cover, which comes in 3 shades, works well.

Nick.

Re: Hacker Mayflower II wood finish
 

Hi,
Yes, as Nick says the Rustins scratch cover polish is excellent and will cover up a lot of marks on cabinets, personally I would try that rather than strip the finish off and re-do it - I have tried that a couple of times and never been happy with how it looked.


The Mayflower II RV20 that you have came in 3 different veneers:
Walnut, Sapele Mahoghany and Teak which seems the most common.
Steve.

Re: Hacker Mayflower II wood finish
 

If you use scratch cover polish be sure to try a lighter shade than what you think is the correct shade first. If not you will end up with all the lacquer cracks and scratches being highlighted in a darker colour and looking like varicose veins. Something I learnt over 40 years ago.

Re: Hacker Mayflower II wood finish
 

If the varnished/lacquered finish is looking a bit dull I like to rejuvenate it with a few passes of T-Cut. In my experience this brings the old finish right up.

I follow this up with a bottle of suitably coloured scratch cover. This is essentially a wax polish dissolved in a solvent. A few passes should do.

I finish this off with a good quality neutral wax polish from a tin. I use Antiquax because I was given an old unused tin from 1993. A nice shine can be developed with lots of elbow grease.

After doing this you will never want to use Mr Sheen again!

Re: Hacker Mayflower II wood finish
 

I believe I used a Danish oil on my Mayflower II. It just means a blend of varnish and linseed oil - the oil soaks in and 'nourishes' the wood, while the varnish provides a bit of a protective surface finish. I'd say the end result is 'satin' which is what I was looking for.

A stick of beeswax and elbow grease is another good way of getting a resilient finish.

My favourite way for most woods remains simple linseed oil. It's terribly easy to apply, can't go wrong and its only downside is not sitting on the surface to protect the wood like a varnish does. For most purposes I find this not to matter.

Re: Hacker Mayflower II wood finish
 

Sorry for the late reply.
Looks like my post got shifted and i got no email notification so completely missed them.

With this being a radio I have bought second hand i would like to give a cleaning polish to get rid of the marks and dirt on it.
I think it would be better to use the scratch polish to later.

Any suggestions for a cleaning polish or is T-cut as mentioned the way to go?

Re: Hacker Mayflower II wood finish
 

T-Cut is not in the first instance a cleaning polish - although with enough elbow grease it will do that. A 'first pass' cleaning solution would be four parts white spirit mixed with one part linseed oil. That will remove years of grime and old wax polish which I assume you are referring to. Then use either T-cut or scratch cover polish as appropriate. If you can provide some good clear photos of the finish then advice can be more accurately tailored to suit the actual problem.

Re: Hacker Mayflower II wood finish
 

OK. Thanks I will see if can source the white spirit and linseed oil.

Re: Hacker Mayflower II wood finish
 

Both are an easy find in your local hardware shop - I think you'll be amazed at what comes off!

The wood grain might be raised by the process, in which case some fine-ish sandpaper (180?) will take it down again, ready to be polished, waxed, oiled, varnished or whatever you desire.