Restoring Antique Desk

Here we have in for restoration a Slant Top Writing Desk.
German
ca. 1890
Veneer - Walnut
Ground wood - Pine

It is an unusually small desk of its type. You don't find them very often, even the big ones have become rare. They went out of fashion of course the moment people found a computer would not quite fit. Now with notebooks, I am a little lost as to why they haven't come back in. Such a desk is a practical piece of furniture for a small house or flat with all that storage space.

Outside:

- The finish is patchy and very dirty.
- Top has veneer missing and bubbles.
- Top too much exposure to the sun - finish cannot be revived.
- Sides - both have spits and loose veneer.
- One side someone has squirted glue into the bubbles and it has rundown.
Could be tricky....
- Turned molding on left side missing.
- Drawer fronts - mostly ok - few loose bits and a couple of bubbles.
- Escutcheons all there.
- Holes where someone has added an extra handle.
- Front Flap - mmmm.... Someone has had a go with a rather rough sanding machine and left ring marks. Luckily they left most of the veneer!
- Large crack goes right through.
- Other side of flap is rather different - has been taken to with an electric planer - all veneer taken off and deep plane marks left. Will have to be planed smooth and re-veneered.
- Feet missing

Inside:

- Two little drawers missing.
- Finish on small drawers has been irreversibly damaged by sunlight.
- Various ink stains and other stains.
- Paper Labels to be removed.
- Middle drawer runners have been removed.
- One small drawer half side missing.
- One small drawer needs re-gluing.
- 3 big drawers all need side runners renewed
- 1 Big drawer needs regluing.
- Runners inside just need stabilising.

Have taken all the fittings and locks off. Decided to start with the small drawers. Must be careful to make them the same as the others. Found some old wood in my stockpile the right width, cut to size and from then on its all by hand.

The front of one missing was there, so made sides back and bottom. The other is made and veneer put on. Decided to put another veneer on - was not happy with first choice.

Have re-glued bubbles in others and where needed sides re-glued.

Removed old polish with alcohol. Old polish was totally destroyed by sun. - Yellow and flakey. Sanded and stained a little to bring life back in to the veneer.

Then they can all be polished.

Have removed all locks and escutcheons.

The runners on the big drawers have become very uneven over the years, making the drawers very difficult to open and close. See photo above.

Rather than taking the drawers to pieces I run the router along the bottoms, taking off the bare minimum and then cut new strips to size and glue them on. I can plane them back to get a nice even fit.

The drawer fronts I have cleaned with alcohol - leaving most of the polish on them as we want to keep the patina. Depending on how the flap comes out I can tone the polish to get an even colour overall.

Veneer on top is very thin and fragile.

Must lift up quite a big chunck, so I can clean the ground wood and get the bubbles out. To do this I lay a damp cloth over and use an iron on lowest setting to melt the old animal glue. Using a knife to lift the veneer up, letting the air in so it doesn't re-glue itself.

This is slow going as the veneer in places is very fragile and will tear easily. Slow is also necessary as the veneer can also stretch which makes laying it back very tricky.

Can only reglue bit by bit so I can get it relatively flat. Have put two new slices of veneer in to replace what was missing. Luckily I had some old veneer from an old drawer there that I could use. Have put this in leaving the polish on - saves a lot of colouring work afterwards.

Must wait a few days for the animal glue to harden before I can clean the old polish off and sand down a bit. Here one must be careful as the friction causes heat, which in turn losens the animal glue and then the bubbles are back again.

So having removed old polish and sanded lightly I can stain and repolish. Has turned out well and the new pieces of veneer are barely noticable.

Picture is before polish.

The Flap:

First the crack. Again I have put the wood in horizontally using old thick veneer. Cut off the excess the next day.

Managed to get the back of the flap fairly flat - needed quite a bit of a plane and sand.

Found some new straight grained walnut veneer in my stock. Not very wide so used four pieces book matched. Cut to size and laid on one at a time using my veneer press. Animal glue is used for this as well. Have to work fast on such a big piece but works well and I can place the next piece slightly overlapped to allow for shrinkage.

Here again we must leave for some days for the glue to harden before we can sand. Meanwhile I can add veneer to the sides and replace missing pieces on the top side where the lock fits.

Sand the veneer very fine and then we start with the polishing process. First the grain has to be filled. Have painted on a couple of coats of fairly dark french polish, so the pores take on an old look. Sand off the excess polish and then start the process of filling the grain using powder. This is a long process but the more the pores are filled the better the end result. As we don't want a perfect mirror finish we can leave a little open grain. Then the proper polishing starts. Using a little oil I can put as many coats on as I like. I have put a bit of spirit colour in the polish to get a similar finish to the rest of the desk.

Now the flap must stay put for a week or so before I can turn it over and start on the outside.

In the meantime I have polished the drawer fronts and they are now ready for the little porcelain knobs to be put back on. Found we were missing one so must order. Luckily they are still available.

One side turning was missing. Found various old turnings from backs of chairs etc in my storage. Cut these through the middle and using parts of the original, now have two the same. Have glued together coloured and polished. They are now on the desk and look very much like the original.

The front side on the flap must be cleaned and sanded. The veneer in places was sanded through with whatever machine was used. If I put new pieces in, I shall have to cut away quite a lot of the veneer that is there - due to the thickness.

Have decided to leave as is and get my water colours out. I can mix the colours and paint on the grain where needed putting a coat of polish over. Have to do this in layers. Must make sure that the front of the desk is all the same colour. The moldings for the flap need cleaning and a bit of a polish before being put back on again.

I have put in a shelf for the middle drawer adding a freeze to the front as it would originally have had. This is now coloured in and polished.

Am still fiddling with the front of the flap, but its getting there. Drawers are all finished and just need the escutcheons putting on.

Ended up doing the middle piece of the flap three times before I was happy!!

All locks and escutcheons back on.

Had to put bigger hinges on the flap in the end as the old ones just were not stable enough. Added a strip at bottom of flap so it would lie flat when open and not pull the screws out with the weight. Its the bits like this that take so much time.

Re-aligned the side runners inside the desk so the drawers now run smoothly.

One can still see the sanding marks at the front where it was attacked with a heavy machine. The veneer was already very thin so I couldn't sand very much- where the veneer was gone I used water colour to paint in the grain. Anyway, all with pleasing results I think.

So there we have it - ready for delivery ....... and then its on to the next project!