Tasmanian oak desk - ex Army

Brought this desk home to save it from being in the elements and hopefully breathe new life into it. Top has bowed but I will try putting on wet grass on hot bay and see how much I can recover. The frame is reasonable and solid. The drawers will take some repairing. I've never worked with this timber so I'm looking for advise on what to do with the frame and then the top if I can save it. I was thinking of brush on estapol this time but maybe an oil with some colour to highlight the grain. All advice appreciated.Attachment 424135Attachment 424136Attachment 424137

The Top looks Cactus mate :).
Each joint is loose and each board looks cupped.
Laying it out on grass may work, and you could fix it back down with the loose joints and polish that for a rustic look . Depends how you want to use it maybe . Ive put vinyl and felt tops in some of these over the years . I do leather tops on earlier Cedar and Mahogany ones. On some of the hard wood ones a channel was routed and then sloped from that up, to feather out at the top . The slope was done with planes. This is a quick way of doing it . For a top in that condition though , Id use four of the boards as a surround, if its thick enough , biscuit joined to a pine veneered chipboard center , raised a touch , then vinyl or felt or leather in that. with some new handles as well, the brass half round old office ones , they come up OK. Or polish up the originals handles.

Id rub the finish off with metho and steel wool . Then stain , seal that in with an estapol sanding sealer , cut back and use shellac over that, then a wax. Wattyl Craftsman sanding sealer goes well under shellac.

Thank you auscab. On the weekend I hope to pick up large solid red cedar wardrobe (damaged). I will be looking at breaking it down to make it into desk tops with the first lot for this one. I'll still have a shot a flattening this Tassie oak but I have another option of using it for the shelving in my silky oak wardrobe come bookcase. I agree with you on the handles for this. I'll try cleaning and polishing it but maybe it will be time to buy some of those nice brass ones. :) Thank you for the excellent description on how to stain and seal. Can I ask how you apply the stain to make it consistent across the whole area?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Blackout

Can I ask how you apply the stain to make it consistent across the whole area?

---

Yeah sure . You cant stain over patchy original finish if you want it consistent . Stain has to soak into wood and a random barrier is not going to give you consistent results. Most of the time staining is done its done with a glove on and a rag folded so you don't have loose ends following and flicking stain off as you go around corners. You can Spray and brush stain on as well . When using stain usually the aim is to apply it and then wipe off and even out the look . Having excess on and letting it dry is not on . Specially if its running . Doing it in the sun on a hot day makes stainng harder .This is pretty much the way for water ,Oil or spirit stains. Tassie Oak is not up there with the timbers that take stain well . It does stain but because of the way it stains , if you have a look your chasing , then techniques like rubbing back to raw wood then sanding, light or heavy , then using a water stain , and then a oil or spirit over that once the water stain is dry , can give you more options like if you want darker colours. Just a oil or thinner based or spirit, out of the can may not get you there. Or it may be perfect.
You can do good darkening with the oxide powders Bunnings sell for staining concrete. The Brown and Black oxide colours mixed in the bottom of a tin with some Mineral turps and a touch of linseed oil , brushed on and wiped off straight and left to dry , in the sun if possible for not to long, can give a good start. Or mix it with the sanding sealer I mentioned before, and use the same way. Done correctly and once dry , fast light secondary stains could be put over that, then sealed in. To wet and slow to dry at this stage and you could be stripping out the first application.
A Cedar top on a hardwood base and drawers is a pity , wont look right, wont stain the same, wont polish up the same . Personally Id stick with the Tas oak. Up to you though . Those Hardwood desks can look real good done the right way. Ive seen plenty , worked on plenty . Have one of my own ATM packed away I don't have any where to use so may make a buck out of it .
Rob

H Rob, Thank you , you have given me a lot of valuable advice. You have reminded me why I have so many other smaller pieces - practice. On the decision to use the cedar for a top on the Tassie oak I will now put that on hold and consider it. It may be the case that red cedar is better utilised in another way. I think this weekend will be about trialling some staining on some lesser important pieces and learning from any mistakes :)

Desk top has finally had it's wetting and sunbaking to reverse a lot of the cupping. This evening I decided to heavily sand the top to reveal something better or surrender. Happily something decent has come from it and now I'm looking for suggestion on a finish. First it was 40G on a belt sander and when that looked good I smoothed it down with 120 on an orbital and happy to keep going smoother after another bask at wetting and leaving in the sun for a bit more flattening. There are some splits in the top but I think less than before the water and sun treatment to flatten. I was impressed with the results of the first go.

I took auscab's advice to heart and abandoned the silky oak idea. I was thinking either linseed oil or my first go with Estapol. Would either of these be good to seal the remaining cracks?

On the pictures there is the 1st where the back has been wetted and allowed to sunbake.
The second is the top before cleaning.
The next 2 are top after sanding.

All advice greatly appreciated.
Attachment 424848Attachment 424849Attachment 424850Attachment 424851