Hi,
You're most welcome Ivan.
Above is an excellent video showing how to apply fake oak to a panel. This takes a lot of practice and as with your door there is no quick easy fix unless you simply paint the door with coloured paint. For a door that is used a lot I would recommend Polyurethane Matt Varnish as the finish coat but a full sized door is very ambitious for a novice to have a go at.
I previously mentioned finger plates and a suitably sized finger plate would save you endless frustration in fact you could make your own finger plate from a piece of brass sheet. I enjoy both wood and metal work so a project like this would be interesting to me.
When I left school Ivan at the age of 15 in 1962 I failed my woodworking exam and I detested woodworking in fact I never liked my bully of a woodwork teacher. When Bron and I married in 1976 we took out a mortgage on a stone built semi detached house borrowing our absolute limit; the building society retained some of the money until we replaced rotten timber to the frames of the bay window; unable to borrow money for new window frames I painstakingly removed the leaded glass then chopped out using hammer and wood chisel the rotten sections of frame and let in new timber then finished it with paint; this was passed by the building society inspector and the money was released; so Ivan I was introduced to woodworking out of desperation but suddenly my efforts were much admired by family and friends giving me such a powerful feeling of satisfaction and pride in a job well done. From then on I started to really enjoy woodworking and quickly moved on to making a veneered 8' long sideboard; my enthusiasm by now knew no limits and I still love all kinds of woodworking having made lots of fitted and free standing furniture; veneering; woodturning and French Polishing I can now do but I sure made lots of mistakes because I'm entirely self taught unlike now when YouTube is so brilliant.
I started restoring vintage radios as an hobby being a total novice and having to learn the hard way; after ten years of practice I can now restore any vintage radio both the chassis and cabinet; below is one which might be of interest to you because the cabinet had a missing piece of burr veneer; no way could I ever buy and insert a matching bit of veneer so I experimented; I'm hopelessly colour blind and spent an entire day struggling mixing artists paints before stumbling upon a new colour match; Bron kindly offered to do the colouring for me but I'm as stubborn as they come and was determined to succeed however long it took me.
This is a 1931 Ultra Tiger Radiogram; one of the legs was very loose and it needed a full and comprehensive makeover; I completely stripped the original finish to bare veneer and French Polished it; I also completely stripped the chassis and rebuilt it now it not only still looks good it works.
It's still raining outside so I'm happy to spend a bit of time trying to encourage others to have a go when so many would give up and say "I can't do that". I've heard just about every excuse over the years as to why friends and visitors who see work Bron and I have carried out say they cannot do similar work; no tools; no time; no skills; no patience; no space etc; we don't ask people to copy us it's just remarks we seem to attract; I wasn't born with skills or a fully equipped workshop and we started off very poor indeed with a huge mortgage.
Take your time Ivan and look at lots of options available to you; this problem you have might only appear to be a simple repair patch but it's far from that and involves quite a few specialized skills which aren't grasped overnight; never be afraid of failure or you'll never do anything of use. If only it would stop raining I want to install two outside 13A double sockets.
Good luck.
Kind regards, Colin.
Missing piece of burr veneer; this immediately drawing the eye to it.
After lots of thought this is what I decided to do. Taped and filler added.
The filler very carefully brought flush taking lots of time not to sand right through to the substrate.
If I didn't tell you would you notice the repair?
The cabinet completely stripped of original finish. Not a job for a novice.
The loose leg being repaired.
The loose leg removed allowing the entire joint to be cleaned then the leg and a new securing block were glued in with hot hide glue.
The pictures don't do it justice; the veneers are beautiful; fully French polished.
In all its glory now fully restored and we still have this radiogram. I'm completely self taught and still make many mistakes; but I don't see problems I see projects. I enjoy leaving my comfort zone to try something totally new; years ago I removed "t" from can't so now I can and so can anyone who really wants to have a go. Since starting this message; Argos has delivered two garden chairs; BT have phoned twice with an automated message about texts; we're not with BT and I don't know how to text so BT are now blocked and the postman has just delivered yet more junk mail. I might have mentioned I tend to ramble on a bit.
