A neighbor asked me the other day about restoring two leaves of an antique oak
dining table that had apparently been stored outside in the weather for an
unknown amount of time. The rest of the table is fine, it’s just that two of the
six leaves (yeah, it’s a big table) are weathered gray/brown, with split ends,
yet remain pretty flat. My concern is that if I have to do substantial planing
to remove the weathering a significant difference in thickness with adjoining
un-weathered leaves will result. So is there a chemical way to do this, or would
I be better off just making new replacements from the best oak lumber I can
obtain? Your advice and suggestions are most welcome.