A restoration job and a what wood is this question.

A young woman rushed out her front door in on the way to hospital in labour and had a last second thought to water all her plants as she may not be home for some time. There was nothing under the pot to catch the water that ran out the bottom. When she returned she found this had happened to a table her grand dad had made which she inherited when he passed.

This is how I got this tricky job.

Attachment 531313

I have a timber ID problem with it though.

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I can see what looks like
1 Qld Walnut.
2 Silky Oak .
3 Some blonde timber that is to hard to guess but I have something similar .
4 looks like some fine grained hardwood and I don't know what it is but some Walnut I have looks close enough except for the way the light catches the grain.
Here is the walnut up against no 4. Maybe 4 actually is walnut ? Not Qld Walnut .
Attachment 531317
6 is very bland and looks just like some cheap Mahogany I have that is a bit more red in colour but it'll do.
5 is the problem timber. It has a stringy line look about it and has medullary ray showing due to the cut from the tree or board.

The owner is happy with me using what is the best match I can find if I don't have exactly the wood type. She wants to keep costs down so I'm not going to drive around to who ever may ID it as it would add time and $.
So hopefully someone here may have seen number 5 before.


The six wood types are used right around the top.

Here is a section with the crazed finish scraped off and the wood sanded then Metho put on top.

Attachment 531318
And a close up of number 5
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Number 5 as its used around the top.
Attachment 531320 Attachment 531321


And some lines drawn on . The dark lines are the stringy looking grain and the red are the Medullary rays.
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Any ideas what it could be or got any of it?

The water soaked in and separated the Plywood under the veneer so the first thing to do was to get some glue in and press that all flat with my shop made single press. Great tool for this sort of thing. And then I'm starting in the middle and working out from that with re building the pattern.

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Rob

Hi Rob, what a shame it looks like it was beautiful table but I'm sure it will be again. Are you sure all the number fives are the same? The one you've focussed on looks like some sort of Quercus? maybe white oak? ... or quartersawn sweet chestnut? But the one clockwise around from that looks more like quartersawn maple - may just be the photo. number 6 looks like a shorea sp.

Cheers
M

Glad it's you & not me, Rob! :U

One thing that might (& might not!) help would be to ask where grandad lived - chances are he used woods that were locally available to him, so that could help with a list of possibilities. But if he lived somewhere like the north-east of NSW or Qld, in a rainforest area, it would be a long list! It looks like there is enough variation in the existing bits that a 'close match' will go unnoticed once the top is refinished - the biggest danger I foresee is if your patches that match when fresh, age differently. But given the story, I reckon the owner can make a virtue of any visible repairs - it'll enhance the appeal to the child what caused it all when they eventually inherit the table....
:D
Cheers,

What a job! It looks to me that it might have been made with european veneers. The dark one in the middle could be walnut then the next highly figured one looks like english oak cut just off the quarter. Then coming out the larger dark triangles could be walnut again and the lighter contrasting (5) could be beech. The thin striping could be boxwood and the outer pieces look like a mahogany. A mystery.

Hey Rob

Could #5 be a tone-wood? It reminds me of a pale cedar like Himalayan or even a dense native pine cut a certain way. Can you get any sense of the density?

#6 looks like pale Blackwood which is often avoided but may have worked in the grain colours selected.

Good luck with the job!

Cheers

Julian

I've got some Tamarisk (Athel pine) in the shed that looks just like #5 :shrug:

Thanks for the replies.

Ian. I think the owner did say he was from NSW or QLD. Somewhere around there :) . Ill ask her again. The top has Aussie timbers, maybe not all of them? And the base is imported Mahogany.

Len. They are mostly Aussie timbers I think on top possibly. No imported Oak or Beech. I have been working with Oak and Beech almost every day for a long time. Number 5 almost looks like Beech though. If I had to use the closest thing I have to number 5 it may be Beech That I have . Ive included a Beech veneer next to number 5 below.

Hi Julian. I see what you mean by it looking like a softwood top of a guitar / tone wood . It reminded me of that but its not a softwood . Its got an open grain/ pores, though its tight. 6 a Blackwood? The most washed out plain types may look close to that. As you have probably seen, Blackwood comes in so many shades and grain types that it sometimes is hard to pick from Walnut and sometimes its hard to pick from some of the Mahogany's.

TTIT "I've got some Tamarisk (Athel pine) in the shed that looks just like #5"
lets see it if you have the time . I don't think 5 is a softwood but I don't know what it is do I :)

Here's some more enlarged pics of it to see how well I can show it.
Top is up against some Beech veneer I have with the Medullary rays looking like the same direction.
This Beech is probably the closest I have to match and use. With a bit of stain it'll come in a bit closer.

Attachment 531347

Taken from the South end.
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Taken from the North end .
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And a close in shot.
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Rob .

I see what you mean with those new close-ups.

The medullary rays look like a super tight qtr sawn oak (US or Euro?)

Anyway, I’m sure you’re all over it.

Hope you can solve the mystery.

Cheers

Julian

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Originally Posted by auscab

..... TTIT "I've got some Tamarisk (Athel pine) in the shed that looks just like #5"
lets see it if you have the time . I don't think 5 is a softwood but I don't know what it is do I :) ....

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Ah Rob, silly common names again! "Athel pine" is not a pine & not even a conifer; it's a flowering plant, adapted to arid climates by reducing its leaves to scales (like she-oaks). So it's technically a hardwood. :)

My suggestion of knowing where the maker was living when he made it is a long shot, of course. It could provide a clue but stuff gets around - I've got bits of wood in my 'special' stash from all over the globe (I feel sorry for anyone trying to work out what's been used on a few of my productions if they survive for another generation or two!). ID'ing a wood from its superficial appearance can be a very frustrating exercise as I so often say - so many quite different species can look similar, especially in small pieces (& carry the same common names!). I have some "Orange box" (Maytenus sp.) which has a very similar quartered grain to #5, except for the colour (have a squiz at TTIT's page on it).

As long as you can get a good textural match, I'm sure your restoration skills can fix any colour problems so that the average viewer (& even most woodies) would not spot the ring-in without a very careful examination. As I'm sure you are well aware, there is a school of thought (that I don't necessarily subscribe to), that says any repair of an antique should be apparent, so that it forms part of the history of the piece and no-one can pass it off as "original & pristine". While I can see a certain rationale in that, I think it could too easily be used as an excuse for poor workmanship.... :;
:)
Cheers,

Here is the progression pictures of this restoration job. Starting with the damaged top.
Attachment 537436
The blue tape borders all that needed removing before the plywood base lifted splits under the veneer were re glued flat and scraped.
Attachment 537443

Three Silky oak diamonds with the pale wood bits went down first pressing.
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The next four pieces were US Walnut with boxwood stringing. Walnut was the closest I had for the match. I don't know what the original is.
Attachment 537438
Then I used the Beech with Boxwood stringing.
Attachment 537439

Attachment 537440
And the final four outer triangles was Mahogany. The same as what was originally used. But it was a lighter version.
The Mahogany needed bleaching to match and the Beech needed a reaction colour or a stain or both. Same with the Walnut.
Attachment 537441
Below left is half way through the colour and finishing with shellac to get it matching closer. A slight patination near the end will help with the disguise as well and have it matching the look of the base better probably.
A bit of an improvement.
Attachment 537442 Attachment 537436

The veneer pieces were small enough to hold by hand and plane the edges with a block plane most of the time . I did have a shooting board set up as well to use. It roughly took six pressings to fit them. One each day. Then the overhang was trimmed back flush and the original cross banded edge to the top was spoke shaved off around the repaired section and new mahogany was pressed on for about 300 mm. The edge veneer overlays the end grain of the top replaced pieces as it does around the whole top.

This is masterful restoration Rob!.

Have you got a closer photo of the piece Rob, its just spectacular how you managed to restore it and I'd love to see it up close.

Maybe I msised it in the post but how thick are the veneers?.

Really really great job Rob! Now I see the restored original parts the one you replaced with walnut looks a lot like Sapele veneers I have here. But your colour matching is amazing.

Agreed, colour matching to this degree is incredible.

Sorry for flooding the thread Rob, too many questions!, how old would the table be?. It looks Art-Deco?.

Aspirational work - an amazing restoration.

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Originally Posted by EagerBeaver71

Have you got a closer photo of the piece Rob, its just spectacular how you managed to restore it and I'd love to see it up close.

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I never took a picture before the top came off Sam and this is all I have. The top with its base. It'll be back together in a week though so Ill take a pic then.

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Originally Posted by EagerBeaver71

Maybe I msised it in the post but how thick are the veneers?.

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.6 of a mm mostly. Some were a little thicker like .8mm.

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Originally Posted by mic-d

Really really great job Rob! Now I see the restored original parts the one you replaced with walnut looks a lot like Sapele veneers I have here. But your colour matching is amazing.

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It was a hard choice what to use to replace those sections Michael. Ive had Sapele pieces and veneers before and it didn't remind me of those. I actually think the solid Mahogany base to this table could be Sapele come to think of it. To add to the problem of these sections the ones still in the table have a grain angle slope at about 35 to 40 degrees so your seeing end grain almost . Which gives the light and dark effect when you walk around the top or spin it in its relation to the light. Its also pretty dense wood. The closest thing I did have and almost used was Ironbark. Red Iron bark possibly I think. Pieces I cut from sleepers years ago and use as bearers under large table tops on the work tables. The tight fine grain and the density seemed the same as did the colour. And I was considering very closely cutting up one of my bearers to give me the grain angle as well. The reason I didn't use it was there wasn't a piece that didn't have splits through it in the section that suited cutting up. The splits were dark and oxidized. So I gave that up and went the way I did.

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Originally Posted by EagerBeaver71

Sorry for flooding the thread Rob, too many questions!, how old would the table be?. It looks Art-Deco?.

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40s or 1950s I think Sam. The owner is about 35 . And her grand father made it. The top is veneered Plywood

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Originally Posted by auscab

40s or 1950s I think Sam. The owner is about 35 . And her grand father made it. The top is veneered Plywood

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It's good the substrate was plywood and not MDF like we see these days, it would have swelled and never gone back to it's original thickness/shape, great job on matching the veneers and your marquetry skills, there can be more time spent in doing that than making a new top which matches the design.

You did a brilliant job on that. That should be worth a few beers.

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Originally Posted by The Spin Doctor

You did a brilliant job on that. That should be worth a few beers.

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Thanks. A couple of kegs worth. :)

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Originally Posted by Camelot

It's good the substrate was plywood and not MDF like we see these days, it would have swelled and never gone back to it's original thickness/shape, great job on matching the veneers and your marquetry skills, there can be more time spent in doing that than making a new top which matches the design.

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Yep, it wouldn't be fixed if it was made on MDF.
I was thinking while fixing it that making it from new would have been faster. Working out how to fit in new parts with the old and add the stringing took a little working through it to get it right. Once I had it down pat things sped up a little.

How long did it take to restore Rob?.

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Originally Posted by EagerBeaver71

How long did it take to restore Rob?.

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Between 25 and 30 hours spread out over the last couple of weeks doing the woodworking.

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Originally Posted by auscab

Between 25 and 30 hours spread out over the last couple of weeks doing the woodworking.

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And that's what separates mere mortals from the professionals, incredible.

Making from new might be faster, but the new one wouldn't have a good story to accompany it.