Post #329021 by sputnikmoss on Thu, Aug 30, 2007 8:08 AM

Nice find! I had a drop leaf table and four dining chairs in my shop a while back and while I didn't need to fully restore them I noticed that it was the paper bindings that were the first to go. Here are some pictures of my HW barstools. I hope they can give you an idea of what the wood should look like. Not sure if you know this but as the name implies "Ashcraft" is made of ash not rattan. The wood was burned to create a faux rattan look during WWII because they couldn't get rattan from Asia. Mine were in pretty decent shape and I just re-coated them this year with Minwax polyshades in Honey. I followed the directions of someone on this board in an old thread about refinishing rattan. It turned out great. I would go for it yourself...it was free what can you lose!