Antique Desk Refinish

Nice find and just a beautiful finish project…this should continue the legacy of pin…Blkcherry

Very nice restoration job! Well worth the effort!

-- Gary, East TX -- The longest journey begins with a single step.

Great job! Looks like you restored it to its original beauty without destroying the character that comes with age.

-- Charlie M. "Woodworking - patience = firewood"

Very nice restoration, Kevin. You have taken a piece of furniture that had seen some hard times and restored it to a thing of beauty. Great job. I like applying an oil finish before applying a top coat of poly as well.

Thanks for the post.

-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.

vey nice piece you got and restored to original finishes.

-- Bong

Nice refinish job, Kevin!

-- Les, Wichita, Ks. (I'd rather be covered in saw dust!)

Great looking finish , my wife has an old desk that she`s trying to refinish.

-- Mike, Bruce Mississippi = Jack of many trades master of none

Beautiful restoration job. I found some old mahogany chairs at a yard sale last summer covered with black lacquer paint. You said you had it dipped Kevin, what did you mean. I would really like to refinish these chairs but don’t want to spend a fortune on stripper. Any suggestions. mike

-- Mike. Profisher50@yahoo.com

Beautiful restoration job. I found some old mahogany chairs at a yard sale last summer covered with black lacquer paint. You said you had it dipped Kevin, what did you mean. I would really like to refinish these chairs but don’t want to spend a fortune on stripper. Any suggestions. mike

-- Mike. Profisher50@yahoo.com

Dipped = I took it to a professional refinisher, and he soaked it in a giant tub of whatever industrial stripper he uses, and then stripped it for me. Cost me about $100 I think for him to do the desk… but I would have had to buy $50 worth of supplies at HD (stripper, gloves, scratch pads, brushes, etc), plus spend a few weekends to do it myself, so I considered it a good deal. Plus, I got to get right on to the fun part!

PS Mike – my wife is looking for a chair to match her desk – you interested in getting rid of any of yours?

-- -- Kevin in Mentor, Ohio

Sure, but I’m not absolutely sure its mahogany. I’ll find out for sure. I only have a small section of one stripped. I’m not sure if its white oak or mahogany. mike

-- Mike. Profisher50@yahoo.com

Great save of the desk. It looks great.

-- Maplewood, MN

Beautiful job!

-- Only the Shadow knows....................

If you’re not sure whether the wood is mahogany or oak, look closely at the grain. Mahogany is a very close-grained wood, which is why those old (and new) cabinet makers loved to work with it, it made carving easier. Oak is more “coarse,” which resulted in the Arts & Crafts movement recommending filling it with black wax or something before fuming or staining, giving it a lot of dark streaks. it’s also a very tough wood—I’ve cut down a green white oak, and it was … fun. If forced to guess, I would put a tentative vote for oak as the most likely wood to find in furniture at a yard sale—Stickley chose it for most of his furniture because it was the cheapest and most plentiful hardwood available at the time (which is also why he didn’t buy an industrial lathe when he started his original chair factory, commenting later that he was unaware at the time that his poverty would result in a new furniture style!). It’s many virtues were a bonus.

-- Hibernicvs

Very nice restoration

-- jeanmarc manosque france