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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;808 raver, post: 9544203, member: 4654&quot;]I&#039;m in the South East UK, Kent, I restore nearly all the antiques I buy to some extent. If you can do it well you improve the value of what you have bought, try not to over restore, ie if you French polish a piece you will need to take the shine off using wire wool then wax it after, if you don&#039;t it looks too new. Restoration isn&#039;t hard on most antiques but there are some antiques that I can&#039;t do like micro mosaics, nor would I attempt to re-French polish a black piano and expect it to look perfect. If you are local then I&#039;m happy to help but if not it doesn&#039;t cost a lot to start, mix your own french polish from flakes and isopropyl alcohol (blond), 000 wire wool, glue, a few hand tools (second hand) some wax, I make my own but Antiquax is about the best you can buy, screws are a pain, they come in many different sizes up to a inch and most antiques have Nettlefolds screws, these are well made brass and steel screws, the brass is a different colour and if you use a new non Nettlefolds screw it will stand out. I buy new old stock but these can be very expensive £4-5 for 10, fortunately I managed to buy 20 or so boxes of different sizes a while ago for £70 in auction so I&#039;m set now. Please don&#039;t use coloured wax in replacement for wood, if it&#039;s a crack you can&#039;t close then mix the right wood sawdust with glue to make a filler and if there is wood missing then cut a new bit and inlay it, I can&#039;t stand restorers who think melting wax is a long term or acceptable restoration. Being able to restore antiques is a licence to print money, I never do it for other people, I often see antiques going for a fraction of their real value because they have something wrong that I can fix in a few hours (or less) and once I finished it would sell for top end because it looks so much better than the best out there. The last thing I would say is this, almost whatever you do to a antique (as long as you use the original materials, hide glue, french polish ect) can be undone and redone if you mess it up, so don&#039;t panic.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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