02/08/2024
Antique restoration work is not my gig. I know just enough about it to understand that I am niether skilled enough, nor knowledgeable enough to do it well. Refinishing, I can do. But actual restoration, I do not. So when a person contacted me about refinishing an old table, I referred him to the only person left locally that I know of who does very good work. That person, however, was contemplating retirement and was not willing to add any more jobs to his waiting list. Since, after communicating a bunch with this customer, I'd decided I liked him and would do the job, but, it would be 9 months before I could get to it. He and his wife had looked at my website and decided that they would wait for me. So that time is here, now.
The table...part of the reason I accepted this job was the table itself. They had purchased it at an auction, and it had come from the old Columbia Gorge Hotel, up by Hood River. This hotel was a historic site on the national register, and I knew it had closed down some years back. What I did not know was that it had been subsequently purchased, renovated, updated, and reopened. That would explain why the table had been sold.
The hotel had been built in 1921, and I had once partaken of their brunch, of which they were well known for. So it is entirely possible that the table was as old as that. I've no way to tell. However, the customers were not concerned with retaining its value as an antique, but with giving it new life as a usable dining room table. I was good with that. But I had to see it. Because this table is round, 66" in diameter, and opens to accept 12 leaves, making it a whopping 16' long with all the leaves! And yes, their dining room will accommodate it. AND...it is all solid mahogany, except for the slide mechanism, which is also solid wood, but I don't know the species. But it is impressive.
Anyway, that is what I have been working on. The table top and edges, along with the top and ends of the leaves, were stripped of finish and are down to raw wood. The entire base including pedestal, apron, and hand carved claw foot legs, were not stripped, but lightly sanded so that the new finish will bond to it. It wasn't as difficult as I anticipated it might be. The 4 claw feet only took me 5 hours to sand, on my back or belly, laying on the concrete floor of my shop. I did have the wood stove blazing all day for that, though. Brrrr!
Here are a few photos of it, awaiting a new finish.
