John is handed a poison chalice… 

> On 8 Dec 2019, at 17:15, John Leyden  wrote:
> 
> 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.
> -

Here some advice and suggestion that’s well worth what you paid. 

First - understand the value.
You say ‘antique’ - to me that might be 400 years, but out in the colonies you
seem to think anything older than 60 years is antique.   I restored a ‘valued’
table recently, which was maybe from the 1930’s with a damaged top surface.  I
also made the single drawer work much better, but the brief was to repair the
damaged centre leaf.  It’s a ’tea table’ so much smaller than you’re looking at.

Nevertheless, the start point is to say ‘if this is antique, and has intrinsic
value, then I should avoid sanding and planing, if at all possible.  If I have
to damage the surface, then I’ll have to re-create a surface in keeping with the
age and appearance of the rest of the item, and reproduce the wear and damage to
make it look coherent.  That is not an easy thing to do.

My imagination can see all levels of weather beaten surface, and all levels of
age and style.  Is the splitting terminal?  Would leaving it add character, or
be inappropriate?  What does the client want?  Did Great Graet Great uncle
Bosworth eat his last meal on that table top before being thrown in the Tower
before his beheading? (Sorry - That would be an Old English tradition)

You speak of re-planing the surface.   Is it solid?  How is it constructed?  Are
your splits end splits from a plain end, or surface splits from weather?  If you
bleach back the top, will they fill?  What finish will you use? - ’natural such
as oil or shellac and wax, or new and acid-cat?  The soft sheen of an obviously
old and well used table will be completely different to an as new cut back and
lacquered surface.  What would you have to do to the rest of the underframe to
make it all match?

So having considered all of that, you could try a simple wash down to begin
with.  I assume their is no vestige of a finish left, so, though you could look
at some bleach, it sounds as if abrasive would be your first choice.  An
abrasive, by hand, can follow the surface.  Antiques raraely have flat surfaces
- they have slight hollows and twists.  Planes deliver dead flat surfaces that
look out of place, and need you to apply some hand work with fine set
travishers, spokeshaves, and abrasive, to destroy the flat surface you just
made.
Once you have the surface back, then colourful work with stains, dyes, shellac
seal coats, pumice fillers, and the range of tricks we have to get the top to
look like the underframe.  You probably need to reapply wear and damage to the
corners and arrises.

My little table?  I tried all manner of ‘cures’ for the damage and water marks,
then had to resort to abrasive over the damaged panel.  The grain was very
unhelpful, in that one corner of the veneer had tricky grain presenting rings of
end grain.  So I started with a couple of light coats of stain to bring back
some level of colour, then applied a seal coat of shellac, hand padded around
the bad grain with a couple more applications of stain, using a pad and dabbing
onto the areas I needed.  Sealed that in, and repeated until the panel had a
uniform colour and was a couple of shades lighter than the other two, then
applied the overall finish.  I can’t recall, sitting here if it was a
shellac/varnish mix or just a thinned varnish, but it added the last couple of
shades darker (I could have recoated until the colour was right)  Cut back the
gloss lightly, then waxed with a coloured wax that would sit in the hinge
corners and add a bit of old age.

Client was delighted.  Couldn’t tell it had been messed with.   I had originally
said that I would be avoiding ’sanding it down’  so I didn’t let on.


But this is your mission, should you choose to accept it.   We’d like to know
how you get on.  If you go the route of remaking, and matching in the leaves to
the existing ones, then I hope you have solid timber to work with,  some of the
above is appropriate for matching new to old.  I think my overall message is
‘what does the customer want at the end of it?’


Richard Wilson
Yorkshireman Galoot - in Northumbria