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It's almost certain that the "clear coat" on your
cabinets and millwork is just plain old urethane. I have not
had much luck with touching up spots of urethane, because you
can usually see the boundaries of the new spot.
My approach is to just do a
quick light sanding of the old finish and apply a new coat.
You don't normally need to remove all the old finish, just
"feather" it so there are no stark transitions. Only
light sanding is desired here, because if you sand too much
you will begin to remove some of the stain. I always apply at
least 2 coats of urethane, 3 or 4 coats on high-traffic areas.
A light sanding is necessary to scuff-up the urethane before
re-coating. I can't say that the results will look absolutely
perfect, but they won't look scratched up either. Just try a
small section.
The only issue with urethane
is sheen (shininess or gloss level). Most cabinet
manufacturers use a satin sheen, but you can buy semi-gloss
and gloss. That glass look you mention sounds like high-gloss
urethane.
Matching stain color is
something else. Unless you know the exact brand of stain used
originally, all you can do is try some samples on a piece of
wood of the same species. If your wood is oak, it's probably
red oak, which is widely available.
Personally, I don't always
try to make stained wood match. In the case of your doors, if
you can't get some samples to match closely, I would consider
trying some complimentary stain color.
But... I would bet money that
your millwork is either "golden oak" or non-stained
oak. This country is awash in those two colors of millwork.
There are many manufacturers of stain and finding the exact
color may require shopping around to find a few different
brands of Golden Oak or Honey Oak stain.
Usually you can re-stain
light-colored woods to a darker stain color. You can do a lot
of experimenting, that's all I do.
If you want to re-stain any
woodwork, you will need to completely remove the old urethane.
Sanding may work. Chemical strippers work okay but require
washing and drying and this takes a bit of time. The stripping
is best done outdoors in warmer weather. I recently did a few
test pieces on our 95-year-old oak trim. The stripper took the
stain out completely. I've got a whole house full of trim to
strip, re-stain, and urethane. I can't wait until spring!
I have made custom-blended
stains by mixing carefully measured quantities of various
Minwax stains. With their Red Oak stain (which is really red)
and their Jacobean stain (which is almost black) I have made
some interesting shades that made clear pine trim look the
same color as the red-stained red oak in our old house
project. But keeping track of the color proportions is
critical, or else you won't be able to reproduce the stain
again. For small test batches I used eye-droppers with a
calibrated scale. I've got a bunch from the
industrial-strength cartons of Rogaine that I use! Ask some
bald guys if they have any spare Rogaine eyedroppers, maybe
they can save some up for you.
Bruce W. Maki, Editor.
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