1881 Singer Model 12 Cabinet Restoration

Those who have read my blog know that I own a few Singer Model 12's with Mother of Pearl inlay. The first one I purchased was in fantastic condition but the cabinet left a little to be desired. Follow this link to my earlier post on the machine.

The cabinet that the machine came in was missing a set of drawers, the center drawer, and the table extension. On top of that, someone had spilled ink on the right side of the table top and coffin top. Then they reveneered the top with cheap veneer and refinished the rest of the cabinet.

Ever since I had bought the Mother of Pearl Model 12, I was never happy with the cabinet. I have been consantly looking for the correct period cabinet in decent condition to house the machine. Trust me.....they are not easy to find. I've seen a few and most of them were overpriced or not in good enough condition (or both!).

Recently, I traded a sewing machine for an 1882 Singer Model 12 (MOP) and cabinet, a 1874 Singer Model 12, and a Model 12 clone. The MOP was actually a hand crank machine(missing it's hand crank) but wouldn't work in the cabinet because the hand crank belt guard is different than a treadle belt guard and therefore the belt wouldn't line up with the belt holes in the table. However the cabinet was a great candidate for my pristine 1881 MOP! Below is a picture of the cabinet and the machines the day I brought them home.

As you can imagine, I was extremely motivated to get working on this cabinet. It took me about an hour to tear it down. My goal with this cabinet was to refinish it but keep it's old appearence. No sanding was done during the process and all of it's little scars including veneer chips were not fixed. I did reveneer the back of one drawer frame because the veneer was essentially gone.

The first step of the process for me was gluing down any loose veneer. I started with the top so once the glue was dry I could start stripping the old shellac while I was gluing other parts of the cabinet.

To strip the old shellac, I use denatured alcohol and scrub lightly with a green scotchbrite pad. You must not scrub hard because you run the risk of removing the original color of the cabinet. The goal is to just remove the old shellac. Once the shellac turns liquid, I use a blue paper shop towel to wipe off the liquid shellac. Sometimes it's not even necessary to remove all of the old shellac. Below are some before and after pictures of the coffin top. As you can see, the difference can be pretty dramatic!

The next part of the process is applying shellac. On this project I tried a new process for applying the shellac. I used a 1 pound cut (self mixed) of blonde shellac. I essentially dampened a blue shop towel with boiled linseed oil. Then I poured shellac on to the shop towel. I didn't overly soak it but got it wet enough......definetly more shellac than oil. Then I just wiped it on the wood. The oil makes it glide on easily and the 1 lb cut made it thin enough to glide on smoothly without any towel marks. Below are pictures of the coffin top and table top after some shellac.

As I mentioned earlier, I did reveneer the back of one drawer frame. I didn't want to have to do this but the veneer was too far gone. Actually it was mostly gone! These cabinets were put together with animal hide glue which is reversible. To liquify the glue all you need is water and heat. I used a steamer to heat the veneer and glue. Then I scraped off the veneer/glue with a razor blade. I cut a new piece of veneer to the proper size and glued it on. Below is a picture of the new piece of veneer after I had glued it on the back of the drawer frame.

The new veneer was then color matched to the rest of the cabinet with some gel stain followed by some medium brown spray toner.

Once shellac is applied to the entire cabinet all that is left to do is to reassemble it.

See pictures below.

I ended up using the irons from my original cabinet as I had already prepared them. I used Rub N Buff to apply the gold on the side logos of the irons. This is really easy to do. I apply just a little bit of Rub N Buff to my finger and remove any excess. Then I just wipe my finger across the top of the raised lettering. If applied lightly, you can get an "old" look.

Last but not least, a friend from the Victorian Sweatshop forum has just finished recreating the decal for the coffin top. Once available I plan to replace the decal as mine was completely missing.

Below are pictures of my restoration on this cabinet. Enjoy!

Edit: With the help of a sewing friend I created a decal for the bonnet of the machine see the lasts pictures below.