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Career Details :: Furniture Finishers
Description
Shape, finish, and refinish damaged, worn, or used furniture or new high-grade furniture to specified color or finish.
Experience
Some previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience may be helpful in these occupations, but usually is not needed. For example, a drywall installer might benefit from experience installing drywall, but an inexperienced person could still learn to be an installer with little difficulty.
Education
These occupations usually require a high school diploma and may require some vocational training or job-related course work. In some cases, an associate's or bachelor's degree could be needed.
Training
Employees in these occupations need anywhere from a few months to one year of working with experienced employees.
Tasks
- Mixes finish ingredients to obtain desired color or shade of existing finish.
- Stencils, gilds, embosses, or paints designs or borders on restored pieces to reproduce original appearance.
- Removes old finish and damaged or deteriorated parts, using hand tools, abrasives, or solvents.
- Treats warped or stained surfaces to restore original contour and color.
- Polishes, sprays, or waxes finished pieces to match surrounding finish.
- Replaces and refurbishes upholstery of item, using tacks, adhesives, softeners, solvents, stains, or polish.
- Disassembles item, masks areas adjacent to those being refinished, and removes accessories, using hand tools, to prepare for finishing.
- Examines furniture to determine extent of damage or deterioration and determines method of repair or restoration.
- Finishes surfaces of new furniture pieces to replicate antiques by distressing surfaces with abrasives before staining.
- Spreads graining ink over metal portions of furniture to simulate wood-grain finish.
- Smoothes and shapes surfaces with sandpaper, pumice stone, steel wool, or chisel.
- Brushes, sprays, or hand rubs finishing ingredients onto and into grain of wood.
- Washes or bleaches surface to return to natural color or prepare for application of finish.
- Fills cracks, blemishes, or depressions and repairs broken parts, using plastic or wood putty, glue, nails, or screws.
- Selects appropriate finishing ingredients, such as paint, stain, lacquer, shellac, or varnish, for wood surface.
Related Careers
- Floor Layers, Except Carpet, Wood, and Hard Tiles
- Painting, Coating, and Decorating Workers
- Upholsterers
Important Abilities
General Work Activities
- Handling and Moving Objects
- Getting Information Needed to Do the Job
- Performing General Physical Activities
- Identifying Objects, Actions, and Events
- Inspecting Equipment, Structures, Material
Important Skills
- Equipment Selection
- Problem Identification
- Solution Appraisal
- Monitoring
- Judgment and Decision Making
Frequent Work Context
- Indoors
- Objective or Subjective Information
- Using Hands on Objects, Tools, Controls
- Importance of Being Sure All Is Done
- Kneeling, Crouching, or Crawling
Related Majors
| Major | Add to XapPack |
|---|---|
| Crafts |  [ add ] |
| Fine Arts/Crafts | [ add ] |
| Wood Design | [ add ] |
| Wood/Furniture | [ add ] |
| Woodworking/Furniture Design | [ add ] |
Institutions Offering Related Majors
No institutions found.