Mike - I didn't read your orginal post very well. If i follow, you're trying to print/varnish a portion of the finish to match the rest. That's going to be extremely difficult, when you consider the evolution of printing methods and materials over the years. "Good" varnish for example (like good ink) will kill you and most of it is now illegal to manufacture. Paper was not white back in the day - more of a yellowed color. Modern inks/toners age and fade differently from older materials. I could go on and on - enough doom and gloom! I would attempt this project in the following manner: First, scan a portion of the existing finish in grayscale. Try to get the whole "panel", or as much as you can. If there were multiple scans, stitch them together in GIMP, etc. For testing, can at 100 for speed. You'll probably need at least 300 dpi to fake the original process. Next, adjust the image (contrast/levels) until you can print it out and it matches the darkness/pattern of your original finish. I would print out several versions of the image (lighter, darker, etc - you might even switch it back to RGB mode and tint or colorize the image), and print several copies of each variation. You may have to expirament with paper/printer/copier combos also. Next, formulate your varnish/stain and set about to staining - the goal being to fake the original process as closely as possible. If it's not right, go back to step 1 - adjust your scanning and repeat 2 and 3. Once you have your method, refinish the entire set. My thought being that even though the old finish is gone, the new one should really "fool" you - it should look/feel/taste like the real thing. even if I were to try and make a patch, I'd probably still go through the steps above. Chris PS - I work in a print shop - without physically examing the finish, I cannot tell you if we could replicate it. If you want to (and you have access to a scanner), scan a very small portion of it at the highest resolution you have available, save it as PNG or TIFF and email it to cr33dog@xxxxxxxxxx I'll at least give it a look. PPS - feel free to email me off-list about this one... I check in about twice a day.
