Can I 'restore' weathered rattan?

We have a cool old rattan bar that we'd like to spruce up. A lot of the surface is greyed bare wood, from sun and age, I guess. Ours is identical to this one. http://cgi.ebay.com/Large-Vintage-40s-Rattan-Bar-2-Railings-BUY-IT-NOW_W0QQitemZ6205664715QQcategoryZ12514QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I did a search here, and saw a thread about using Citrus-strip to re-do rattan, but I can't find any info on what to do when it's down to the bare wood.

We don't want a musuem quality resto or anything, just 'patio-presentable'.

Any help? Thanks.

[ Edited by: hanford_lemoore - Fixed glitch in subject formatting - 2005-09-05 14:08 ]

I bought my rattan bar at a flea market for $30 years ago, it was very weathered and grey. Fortunately, the rattan can be sanded down and re-varnished... I lightly stained mine a golden color before varnishing, to give it that authentic golden look that only comes from aging. I actually stripped quite a bit more off than I thought I'd have to, but it looks great now that it is done. The wood surfaces should be easy to sand down and refinish, just be careful if it is veneer, as you can easily accidentally sand right thru the veneer!

Agreed. It's a lot of work, but if you sand it and use some varnish, the color will really come out. I used "Honey Pine" varnish on some pieces years ago and it came out beautiful.

If the finish is too far gone and sanding doesn't yield results, put a couple good coats of clear over what you have and then faux paint it in. You can color it more like bamboo than rattan and it will last a long time. See this link how to "paint" bamboo.
http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=15159&forum=7&14

Thanks all, for tips and info. I wasn't sure if the weathering could be sanded away, but I'll give it a try. I'm thinking a 150 grit or finer?

Traderpup, when you say veneer, are you talking about the bartop surface? Or the rattan itself?

Ive got a rattan bar that Im refurbishing now. Im using the citristrip method to strip away the old finish and was going to use the boiled linseed as suggested on it afterwards. I was under the impression that sanding with sand paper would wreck the rattan. Traderpup your bar looks great and doesnt appear damaged by the sanding.

veneer on the bar top surface.... the rattan is solid all the way thru and can take one hell of a lot of sanding abuse! I actually used a stripping wheel on a drill (the kind that have lots of little sand paper tabs all around it)... and it worked fast and got pretty well into the curves between the rattan pieces.

[ Edited by: Traderpup 2005-09-06 17:06 ]