A Passionate Tale
A Frank Welles drawing featuring himself on the left.
Historic Preservation is on the fringe, a side note inside a colossal industry. We are a small group of passionate building stewards, advocates, designers, and craftspeople crazy about preserving buildings and the trades that made them. We are constantly searching for products that respect the thought and effort that we put into these buildings. We expect beauty, functionality, longevity, and reversibility all while being mindful of our environmental impact.
One of these products was revealed to us in 2007 as we were working on the Cooke House in Providence. Al the floor finisher was and is one of the most skilled we have ever met. He told us about this great floor finish from Sutherland Welles Tung Oil Wood Finishes, and how he would use nothing else. And after months of talk, hand work, sanding, and repairs he started to lay the finish....and POW, there it was. The white oak, mahogany, and walnut parquet floors exploded with a depth and luster unlike any polyurethanes I was used to. The finish was extremely durable, bonding to the wood and each successive layer of finish. It could be scuffed and recoated at any time now or forever AND it didn't stink everyone out of house and home.
Cooke House white oak parquet floor with mahogany and maple border, finished with Sutherland Welles Murdoch's Urakalyd 500 Satin
Since then, we became a bit obsessed. Heritage found the family of finishes at Sutherland Welles extremely versatile, fitting the very definition of being a good building steward. We would constantly play and practice with finishes and color, blending and matching colors and finishes once thought impossible. We used almost all of their products, including the Concentrated Stains and Murdoch's Urakalyd 500 Satin floor finish on hundreds of floors, Murdochs Hard Oil and the Interior Polymerized Tung Oil on cabinets and furniture, the Table Top on a counters, the Exterior Marine Spar Varnish on dozens of doors, the Exterior Polymerized Tung Oil on all of our old bare wood surfaces before oil primer as well as a finish on south facing doors, and the Mille's All Purpose Penetrating Oil on all of our cutting boards and wood turning. We talked about it so much people questioned our sanity.
In August of 2021, we had our chance to profess our love to Sutherland Welles owner Mary Goderwis in person. The dinner conversation revealed the legacy of the founder Frank Welles, and how important it was to see the company grow and thrive. We learned (and not so shocked) that wood and historic preservation weren't the only uses, but metal, stone, and rope too, and there was equally passionate, talk your ear off consumers of everything Sutherland Welles like us. And we certainly had no idea it would lead to us buying the company.
In January of 2022, Mara Cagnetta became the President of Sutherland Welles, with me Rob, in tow as the Vice-President, now the third owners in the 56 year old company. Sutherland Welles Tung Oil Wood Finishes will operate along side Heritage Restoration in our Providence shop, with the same passion to be exceptional in this vast industry of choices. So don't be surprised when we promote Sutherland Welles as our own, cause it is:)
