Sutherland Welles Limited

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ANNOUNCING.........WOOD PRE-FINISHING !
Building a new home or addition? Now you can expedite the finishing process by pre-finishing the wood with Sutherland Welles Ltd. products. For years, many have benefited from the knowledge and expertise of Mary, president of Sutherland Welles Ltd. and owner of Phoenix Inc. She has traveled throughout the United States and Canada teaching her skills to other wood enthusiasts. Now you can have your floors, furniture or any wood products pre-finished by Mary. Phoenix Inc. is now offering staining and pre-finishing services for any wood and porous stone exclusively with Sutherland Welles Ltd. finishes. Call today for more details. (800)-322-1245.

Few wood finishes equal the beauty and ease of application that is characteristic of the Sutherland Welles Ltd. complete line of Polymerized Tung Oil products. We provide a product for every step of the finishing process; from wood preparation, to coloring the wood, finish coats and maintenance. Whether you are doing small antique restorations or finishing thousands of square feet of heartpine floors, we have the professional wood finishing products for you!

Is to continue to help people achieve success with wood finishing projects that include the use of Sutherland Welles Ltd. products. We will also continue to develop quality products that meet the real-world finishing needs of you, our valued customers with the highest quality and the lowest toxicity possible.

Frank Sutherland Welles "discovered" wood while working as an artist in New York. There he began the self-education process which was to make him one of the country's experts on wood finishing as an art form.To support himself as a painter, Frank took a variety of supplementary jobs including the running of a handyman agency. By 1969, he had established his own floor sanding and finishing business and in 1972, having abandoned painting as a full-time occupation, moved the business to Connecticut and continued his study of wood. While in New York he developed a new method for sanding parquet floors with a drum sander that left the wood completely smooth and without sanding lines. Until this discovery, good parquet sanding had required either disc sanding or sanding by hand, both of which are tedious procedures. Now, working on wood in Connecticut houses built hundreds of years ago, he became aware of the aging process which gives wood its patina. By experimentation, he discovered a staining method using oil and color to restore the patina to wood after it had been exposed due to sanding. But he was convinced that none of the available stains or finishes did justice to the potential beauty of wood, and he began his search for the perfect wood finishing product.
The business grew, and Welles set up a branch office in North Carolina. It was here that he was introduced to polymerized tung oil, which he often describes as "God's gift to wood." In its natural form Tung Oil is unsuitable for fine finishing, but in its polymerized state it becomes ideal. By substituting polymerized Tung oil for the base oil in his experimental mixtures, Welles hit upon combinations unsurpassed in their ability to bring out and protect the beauty of wood. Today the Sutherland Welles Ltd. label is on a full array of interior and exterior wood finishing products. His company markets the Sutherland Welles line of products, finishes & restores wood floors, walls and furniture, and handles complete wood floor installations. Frank Welles continues to find time to paint and can sometimes be found working in his newly renovated studio in New York.

"Can I just say......WOW!! The floors look great and I just wanted to say thank you so much for all your help with my project. I look at the floors and I still can't believe I did it. And your products were wonderful and easy to work with . I will definitely be using them again when we do our front porch, our family room and our front hallway. Again, thank you so much for all your assistance."
L.Cormithier, Greenville, NY December 2008

"I tried many finishes over the years before settling on your products. Now I will use nothing else. What I was searching for was a finish that gave me a "hand-rubbed oil" look, could be applied without an exhaust hood in an environment that was not dust free, did not darken the wood excessively, did not give the hideous build-up of varnish finishes, provided more protection than Danish oils, and yet was benign as possible to both the environment and the applicator. You are too kind to be dragged through a recounting of my travails, which included the discovery that most "Tung oil finishes" have little or no Tung oil, but I am delighted with our botanical oil finishes and recommend them without reservation to all my friends. Congratulations on not only a singularly excellent product, but on excellent technical support as well."
R. Chaleff, Pennington, NJ July 2007

"I have been using your products for years and have been very happy with the results. I recently tried the Murdoch's table top finish and am absolutely amazed at the results. Two coats of sealer and three coats of thinned table top and I am getting a finish that looks like glass. Good bye to polyurethane and spray lacquer forever. I am sticking with Murdoch's.
S. Norman, Dobbs Ferry, NY August 2007

"Thanks so much - we love our Tung oiled oak floors - they are still gorgeous after 2 years of kids, dogs and mud in the Colorado mountains. Great product!
Our old house had a standard polyurethane type finish on the floor. We found it to be much more prone to showing scratches. The Tung oil finish seems to kind of self-heal, so that any scratches don't show. We love that the floor will never need to be sanded down and refinished, since you can easily renew that finish by putting on a fresh coat of Tung oil. Thanks again."
S. Caughfield, Rye, CO March 2006

"I really appreciate the help you have been on this project. I certainly understand how your Tung Oil and Spar Varnish are so SUPERIOR to other products available. Your products are the best...period."
S. Arquilla, Orland Park, IL www.besthomesinc.com June 2007

" I've used Sutherland Welles Ltd. products since 1986. The high lustre Tung Oil gives my cabinets a custom look that lasts for years. I've gone back to the cabinets that were made 20 years ago, a little sanding and re-oiling and they look like new. There's nothing like it on the market!"
D. C. Swan, Master Cabinet Maker, Pittsboro, NC www.woodmoods.com Customer since 1988.

"I'm a small hobbyist who is reporting back on your tung oil product. Two years ago I applied your finish to our koa dining table. This large surface was finished without difficulty and we use it for all our meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner). It remains beautiful. I ordered refinishing supplies from Sutherland but have not yet used them: the table remains gorgeous. My two daughters have gotten into the habit of doing their homework on it. Consequently I can see their press-thru handwriting on the wood, which warms my heart. This reflects the flexible property of the finish. We damp sponge it at least every day. I have left beer bottles on it over night that sweated a puddle all night long and in the morning, left no mark. I continue to be amazed at the beauty and depth of this finish and its sheer resistance to all manner of liquid spillage encountered in a home with two young girls. I am a customer for life, and my only regret is that I don't have enough time to build or refurbish to use more of your long list of products."
H. C., MD, Honolulu, HI March 2003

"I recently called for some information on one of your products. The lady that answered the phone was GREAT. She had a passion for the product and was very knowledgeable. The information and experience she had with the product was very helpful. I was also impressed with a company that believes in the integrity of its customers when I found out I could not pay on line or by credit cards. The fact that you trust your customers to be a professional as your staff represented was impressive. I look forward to dealing with you again."
Mr. G. L. Calvert, Wichita, KA January 2006

"I want to say again how thankful I am to have had your help and encouragement on the Memphis project. The finish is beautiful and my client is very pleased."
Mr. S .Thompson., Ashland City, TN March 2003

"We couldn't be more pleased with your technical support and the results we have achieved with our floors! You certainly were there every step of the way. It was that assistance and your excellent product that has everyone who sees our floor exclaiming about their beauty!"
Mr. P. Mullin, Fancy Gap, VA September 2002

"I have a north facing exterior door that I finished with your exterior polymerized Tung oil six years ago that looks as good today as the day I first finished it."
Mr. M Greaves, Littleton, NH Customer since January 1998

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