Thread: Need advice with this table...

Originally Posted by tea.drinker

So where do I start?

Start with the splits. Fill the splits with wood glue (preferably titebond III, available from Masters) and clamp, if possible. Then check all the joints. If there are any wonky joints then disassemble, replace/fix the joints and glue up with titebond.

Fill holes with filler, preferably with a filler matched to the grain of the timber.

I like leaving some furniture as is, if possible, as the patina and the 'roughness' adds to the character. In this instance you could give it a light coat of oil to enhance the character. Otherwise sand starting with 80 grit sandpaper, then 120 grit, then 180 grit, then 240 grit, then 320 grit and finally 400 grit. Sanding through the grits gives you a lovely smooth finish.

Finish with oil or lacquer, whatever takes your fancy.

This is a completely abbreviated version of what needs to be done. There will be many more questions/steps as you go along. Feel free to come back and ask more questions. Other's many provide some further input

I am mostly in agreement with what Scott suggests as it would be a logical manner in which to restore the table.

Only perhaps a few points I might suggest other wise. In terms of papers to use, unless it is so rough to the finish, I would start with 120, go to 240 and finish off with 400. The reason I suggest this is that by doing so you increase the chance of removing less patina, which as any furniture restorer will tell you should always be the aim, its less work and importantly it still will give you the fine finish that it deserves.

Oils, be they danish, tung, orange, or even organoil (hard burnishing are all lovely). However, I work with shellac and always a bees wax polish after 0000 super fine steel wool cut back. But perhaps that is just me and what I like.

The one thing I would strongly urge you not to do is use any sort of poly finish on this, as it is too modern and plastic finish for a nice old table.

Thank-you for outlining an order for me. I feel like I have a bit of a path to follow.

I was thinking of mixing up my own oil finish for this.. not that I have ever used any sort of oil finish in my life but I thought, why not! I'll do it all from scratch.

Do you think a finish mix of equal parts would work, or would that still be a bit too modern for the style of desk? Any idea how old the desk is? They guy I got it from said it was already 'old' when he acquired it 40 years ago...

~Izabela

Alright, I'm onto the sanding and now that the grim and horrid orange finish are gone from the top, I have noticed that someone was an avid drinker of hot beverages and I have lovely ring marks all the way down into the wood on the left-hand end. Is there a way to get rid of those or at least make them minimally visible?

Ok, re the age of the table. Given that the guy you got it from says, that in the first instance suggests it predates the 1980s, but more importantly the design and especially the use of dovetail joints for the drawers let alone the style of the handles I would have said definitely pre 1960/1950s so at a guess my thoughts are that it could date back to the 1930s or perhaps the 40s. I am not sure it might be much older than that, but perhaps someone else may have some ideas on this.

The other thing I can't quite tell from the photos what is the main timber used in the construction, it certainly appears that the secondary timbers are pine, probably baltic or something similar. So again that seems about correct re the age I would suspect.

Regarding oils, I am not sure I can really provide any advice on this. I have only used tung oil in the past but that is on floors, and linseed oil for my outdoor furniture.

In terms of mixing oils, I am not quite sure why or what that might achieve by this, and suspect just using a proprietary oil might be probably ok for your needs. The other thing to consider is whether or not you want to give the table a wax polish at the end.

In terms of the drink cup ring marks, sanding the top as per the suggested methods should largely remove these, depending on just how hard you sand, similarly depending on what finish you apply this too should soften the appearance of such marks. The only other thing of course to consider is, in a way this is kind of a part of the patina of the table.

I'm not sure what sort of advice I can give regards the cup marks. You could sand until they're gone but how deep the marks have penetrated is anyone's guess. As far as mixing oil goes, my favourite is tung oil. Try mixing 50/50 tung oil and citrus turps. The turps will help the oil penetrate the timber.

Thank-you for all the information.

A little more sanding has removed the ring marks, so that's one problem solved. However, in the very centre of the table are two 2.5cm round marks which I'm guessing are water damage. The wood has turned a greyish colour. Can those be removed?

The tables is coming up a nice ash blonde now. Still sanding away...