Help with a partners Desk restoration project

Hi,

I recently picked this mahogany partners desk up on ebay.

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The previous owner told me that it was used in a law firm in Sydney and he thinks it was made around 1905.

It has a felt top in poor condition that I want to replace with a tooled leather top. This is covered by a piece of glass that I probably wont include on the piece once it is finished.

The desk has a number 'character' marks on it which look great but there is also some damage where someone has taken to the drawers with a screwdriver to get them open.

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I need to source 3 or 4 more lock mechanisms for the desk as it is missing some.

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And I also need to source 2 more drawer handles like this as it has two that are different to the rest of the desk.

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I have read on this forum about using steel wool and metho to strip the surface back.

I would like to get some advice from the group as to how I can fix the damage to the wood and also strip the desk and then finish it.

Any and all help is appreciated. :2tsup:

Brenton

You can check out Graeme Brown Antiques or the Furniture History Society for the locks and brassware.
If the finish is shellac (good chance it is) it can be removed with 0000 steel wool and metholated spirits. Check on an inconspicuous part first. Mop with the steel wool and plenty of Metho, then clean up with paper towels or newspaper. Repeat if necessary.
To repair the damage on the front, I'd try to replicate the moulding in the same type of timber using a scratchstock, then remove the damaged area using a router and glue the new moulding on. It only needs to be a couple of mm thick, probably the thinner the better.
I'm no expert restorer, and someone from the Furniture History Society may be able to give you better advice.

Thanks Alex.

What do you mean by 'scratchstock'?

That is a nice looking desk Brenton, the advice Alex gave you is good,the finish on the desk looks to be a nice faded polish job covered by a later coulor job,one thing good to try if you like the light colour, is steel wool and metho like Alex said ,but to the metho add linseed oil and turps in a bottle,roughly 60 % turps 20 % oil 20 % metho .

shake before every application, use the 0000 wool and have a dry rag in the other hand and buff dry when it looks right ,try to remove the top coulor job so the original one can be re shined with a thin rubber of shellac or a wax,done this way you can get a good look .

Test it out on a lower drawer first, and see if you like it

If it gets rubbed back to raw wood it will be a much harder polish job.if you rub through the original finish it will go blotchy, I work at Graeme Brown Antiques, and we revive jobs that look like that ,just that way, we re french polish very lightly then wax , original looking sells ,only because it looks so good. The difference between a revive job compared to a strip and re polish if done right , and if you have done it fifty times before is ,16 hours for the revive and 50 hours for the total strip re polish with shellac, not including woodwork and hardware.

cheers Rob Brown

Thanks Rob.

I will be into it next weekend or earlier if I get the time.

Where would I source different grades of steel wool?

Brenton

Where to get the steel wool? Alex may have to answer that one,:B
I did look in the UB section here and they dont seem to stock it,
I cant go in to what GBA sell.cheers Rob

Thanks for the tips, Rob. 0000 steel wool is available from GBA, p65 of their catalogue, or from specialist woodwork shops such as Carba-tec. If you google 'scratch stock' there are articles, pictures and videos on making and using.

Rob, I was in at GBA for the 1st time a couple of weeks ago while in Melbourne. Wow, Alladin's cave! Previously bought by mail.

Yep ,its a good collection of gear, I never worked in that part of it so much, but it's been great working close to it, I prefer working at the bench. I checked your website ,nice things , some of those boxes look tricky .Rob

Believe it or not Bunnies sell 0000 steel wool....or at least they do here in Maryborough.

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Originally Posted by ravna

Believe it or not Bunnies sell 0000 steel wool....or at least they do here in Maryborough.

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My local Bunnings even carries a range of grades.

It's in the paint section alongside the sandpaper.

I will go and check bunnings out then :)

I was going to swing by GBA but they are closed to the 17th :(

I went to bunnings and got the necessary supplies.

What a difference some steel wool and oil can make!

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Its not as cherry red in real life as the photo shows. More a dark maple colour.

I really couldn't see what I was doing that well as it was dark in the garage but I think it has come up pretty well. The top two drawers have had the treatment and the bottom one is as it was.

I think that the second colour that was put on the desk has actually protected the original colour quite well.

2 hours down, 14 (hopefully) to go :2tsup:

Looking good Brenton, are you going to shine it from there or leave it?
And did you use the Turps Oil Metho Mix ?

Rob

>> Looking good Brenton, are you going to shine it from there or leave it?

Thanks Rob.

I am not sure. It looks great as it is. Do you have pics of the difference between shined and not?

>> And did you use the Turps Oil Metho Mix ?

Yes. Using the mix and 0000 steel wool brought the second colour right off.

I think I will get the couple of drawers that are badly damaged professionally fixed as it is beyond my tool skillset.

I will tackle the replacement of the divider sections between the drawers though.

I dont have pics of shined vs not shined, or not that I can think of at the moment, all my work pics are at work, On holidays at the moment

A wax can get it half way there, and is easy .

The best way is a very light go over with a rubber and a thin polish, and dry , squeezed till you can't get another drop out, this is french polishing and is the finishing stage of a french polish job, If you have never french polished there would be a bit to learn,not a lot, jobs like this get wrecked from putting to much polish on and quickly end up with the toffee apple look

After the thin polish job , waxed

Rob

I have removed a lot of the second colour from the desk now. it is starting to look good but is still very dark in places.

I am not sure whether I should French polish and wax the desk or strip it back and recolour it to make it a bit more of an even colour.

Do you have any pictures of the dark parts ? is it the second colour still sitting on top ? or are the dark parts raw timber? Rob

I don't have any current pictures. I will try to get some.

The dark parts I think is the second colour sitting in the grain of the timber. I might bring a drawer in for you to have a look at this week and see what you think. The dark parts are definitely not raw timber as I can still see the original colour. There are some areas where I think that the original finish is not present any more.

Here are some pics.

The area that I think the original finish has come off is above the handle from right to

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Here are some other shots:
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You are right about the area above the handle , original finish gone, but crikey the over all look is good :2tsup: I can see the reflection of your floor in one of those shots, it will take very little to make it glow,

I would take the handles off for the re polish ,clean the gunk out of the screw heads with a screw driver that matches the size of the slot, before you do it get 120 grit or close ,sand paper, and true up the blade of the screw driver so the flats and the tip are square and fresh, rest the blade at the end of the slot and tap out the goo side ways with a small hammer then take out the screws.

looks to me that the handles are replacements but they look good,and match the period of the desk , for me I would not be buffing them up to new , but would lightly clean up with 0000 steel wool and metho if there is polish stuck to them, or a 30 / 70 mix of linseed oil and turps , keeping the patina but giving them a light shine. you could put the matching ones to the top ,and not matching to the bottom

I would like to see a drawer but I dont start back for the year till the 31 st ,I may be getting in this Wednesday or Thursday and working with the doors shut, but you would have to PM me a phone number and I could let you know exactly when I will be there,
I am still on hollidays and have been spending my time landscape gardening in my back yard, and have a few days to go. I would be happy to show you just how to shine it up.and post it here as well,if any one else wants to see it.

regards Rob :D

Thanks Rob.

I had the handles off while I was removing the second colour. I just put them back on to see what it looked like complete. All the screws came out easily.

I think that I will only have another 8 hours or so to go before I have it all back to original.

I also removed the felt and will sand that back ready for the tooled leather. I still have to source this though. I am thinking a black leather with gold embossing on the edges. I want to fill the gaps in the top somehow so that the lines do not show through the leather.

More work for another weekend.

I hope you guys are using pure turps in your polish reviver.restorer....and not mineral turps

just beware that if you take too much of the original polish off your going to lose the lovely Patina that has taken the desk 100 or so years to gather..eg,,your first pic of that draw suggests and looks like you have gone too far

a polish reviver/restorer is and should always be your first option on a non painted piece to allow one to assess the timber and its patina ...especially on a shellac or waxed piece

I've always used mineral turps in the reviver and it's been fine, the only difference between mineral and pure, that I know of , is that mineral can leave a white residue behind, this is why pure is used in mixing a wax and not mineral,

I make all my wax up with pure, once I did a small mix with mineral ,and it left white residue all over the place which was held in the wax.

With the reviver though ,it's all getting wiped off, to a dry finish,and then refinished after that, so if there is a little white left,its not a problem. I will give the pure a try in the reviver though and see if that is the only difference.