$5 Goodwill Find, Refinishing a Vintage Oak Captain’s Chair

Goodwill Find, Refinishing a Vintage Oak Captain’s Chair

On a recent Goodwill stop I spied a pair of these vintage oak Boling’s captain’s chairs for the low low price of only $5 each. 

Personally, I don’t particularly enjoy refinishing chairs, the spindles are usually more trouble than they are worth, but these spindles were pretty straight and would be so easy to wrap sandpaper around.    And they are only $5, why was I hesitating?

Here you can find the last set of chairs I refinished.  Even cheaper as these were a curbside find.

Here is the second one.  Equally beat up but super sturdy and heavy.

A quick Google Lens search found that these were Boling Furniture Company captain’s chairs.  These were selling for $75 each, so my Goodwill chairs at $5 a piece were definitely a good deal.  

Hesitate no more, the chairs were in my car.

I hadn’t noticed in the store, but one of the spindles had pulled out on the back of one of the chairs, and at first this was a mystery to me.  How does one spindle pull out and the rest remain firmly intact ?  The entire chair seemed solid and well put together.

It wasn’t until I turned the chair over that I noticed that the metal bar connecting the  top arm of the chair to the seat was missing it’s nut.  While all the spindles appeared to be tightly in place, the missing nut allowed the arm to be lifted just enough (with the help of  a hammer),  to shove the spindle back into place.  Of course I replaced the missing nut.

With an antique piece of furniture you always grapple with the dilemma, will the piece of furniture lose it’s value if I strip it and take off it’s varnish? That is always up to you to decide.  

For this chair I looked into it’s worth.  Online prices varied from about $75 to $150.  While these chairs appear to be antique and have a nice weight to them, they are not extremely rare.  They are also more likely to get another lifetime of use if they were not quite so beaten up. 

I started sanding.  I used a Dewalt random orbit sander  (120 or finer grit sandpaper ) for most of the flat areas.  and a detail sander for the tight corners.  Finish up with hand sanding and fine sand paper on the spindles.

Almost finished sanding, just a little more fine detail work.

Back to one of my favorite finishes, Watco Danish Oil in a walnut finish.  I love the way you get a hand rubbed finish and the level of shine and depth of color you achieve is up to you and the number of coats you use.  It also goes a long way.  This is probably my 5th or 6th project with this one can.

The chair on the left is after only one coat.  Let dry completely between coats and use a lint free rag  and fine steel wool to buff in between coats to achieve a beautiful smooth finish.

I didn’t notice the missing rung on the bottom of one of the chairs until I started the refinishing process.  Measure your hole and buy a dowel to fit.  Use the same walnut oil to match the finish on the rest of the chair.

This was a 5/8″ oak dowel, sharpened at the ends with a sander (like a pencil but not as sharp)  to fit snugly.

My first thought was to resell my Goodwill chairs on Facebook Marketplace, but maybe they could be used by someone in the family.  I’m thinking of you Kevin and Mollie.  (my son and his wife)  What if I replaced those black chairs they currently have on both sides of their buffet?

They were out of town while I was over for plant watering, so at the moment they don’t have any say in the matter.  If they no likey, I can still sell the chairs and their current chairs are in the basement.

I did like the contrast of the black chairs with the wooden buffet but the chair on the left’s seat was splitting.  It was fine for the infrequent times an extra chair was needed but the unexpecting guest could get a pinched rear end.

Totally different look than the black chairs but the wood colors do coordinate.

Peeling varnish is one of the easiest finishes to remove.  You might want to keep that in mind next time you see a sad little chair at the thrift store.

Until next time, stay inspired.

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