Refinishing a TV Gibraltar - Walnut

Anyone refinish a TV Gibraltar tripod with the Walnut color? What is a good stain to use? Should it just be sanded down lightly, and stained with an all weather stain or stained and then clear coated?

What about touching up the black metal parts, or is it probably best to paint the entire surface with something like Ultraflat Black? They have a slight texture to them which is nice, but probably not able to be reproduced by myself.

Thanks for any input.

Any quality stain will work, such as minwax. You'll need to sand ALL the old finish off (I don't mean color but whatever sealant was used) to expose the pores of the wood for the stain to penetrate. You can't actually make it look like walnut, at most you can make it dark brown.
Then you MUST reseal it using some type of water-resistant sealer. Polyurethane will work (its water-resistant), or Spar-Urethane (which is pretty much waterproof). Whatever you do don't use one of those stain/sealant mixtures.
If you want to repaint the metal parts you will need to scuff them everywhere for the new paint to stick. Epoxy (appliance) paint is best for this as its more durable and will be less prone to scrapes and scratches.
Keep in mind that your tripod legs should already be snuggly fit together. If you sand off more than you add back on they will have more slop. If you put on more than you took off they will be hard to extend. Also if you don't let the parts dry properly before you use them they probably will stick together.

If I was going to do this I would use
100 grit, then 150 grit sandpaper to remove the old finish.
Minwax-American walnut stain
Satin Polyurethane spray.
(Scuff between 2 lite coats of urethane with 220 grit sandpaper.)

Scuff the metal parts with 220 grit sandpaper
Spray with Black epoxy paint.

Fred

Hi Anthony,
I was reading Freds reply to your question and can say that he has some good points, but I don't tend to agree with some of his methods. My father builds reproductions of 18th century furniture as a vocation. Over the years I have learned a lot from him. I listed the link below so you can see where I am coming from.

That said, here is what I think you should do. First I would get a good quality gel stripper and use that to get the majority of the old finish on the tripod legs. Use a course steel wool to help get into the open grain of the Oak legs. A brass brush works even better. Fred was right about using a 150 paper to remove the rest of the finish. Make sure you do this after the stripper has completely dried. It won't mess anything up, but it will gum up the sand paper.
Next is the stain. I HATE Minwax. They are typical home owner grade products. Try going to a local Woodcraft store and pick up a gel stain....Walnut color. Make sure it is a sealing stain. Follow their directions and then use a polyurethane. Sand with 400 grit before applying the polyurethane. If you look at my fathers furniture, he uses a laqure finish. This will not hold up to weather as well as the Poly. I would spray the finish on, but if you don't have access to the equipment brushing it will be fine. The most important part is sanding between coats, but because Oak is an open grain you want to sand the legs across the grain so the open grain will fill with the powdered polyurethane. When you put on the next coat it will fill in the holes of the grain. I would sand with a 400 grit paper. Three coats should be fine. There are other steps to make the finish a really high shine after the last coat, but you should be happy with the results with just the three coats.

Ask if you have any other questions.

Jay

http://www.18thcenturyfurnituremakers.com/