Help with restoration

[Clarity]

Thank you Steliz! Just settling myself in for a few hours viewing!

 

[mrpercysnodgrass]

Hi Clarity.
The dark finish is failing completely and flaking off, it has not been sanded! I think there is no point in trying to salvage it. As others have said you have an oak sideboard made somwhere between 1920 and 1940ish. They carried on making this style of sideboard right up into the 90's!! It might be worth looking for a Utility stamp on the underside of the drawer base or on a back panal. It will look something like this.

If it were mine I would strip the finish off with Paramose and a nylon abrasive pad then wash over with meths to clean up. You will then have a nice creamy oak sideboard to finish with shellac, oil or varnish, its up to you. You will not damage or devalue the piece whatever you choose to do. If you like the lighter oak you could apply a light stain then finish or if you like it dark as you said, you might want to go for a tudor oak stain.
I doubt very much you will be able to find a drop to match the one missing from the right hand side, but you may be able to find one similar. They are usually riveted on and fairly easy to do. you could also look on ebay and find a pair to replace them with. you are also missing two escutcheons!
Good luck, i'm sure you will do a good job.

 

[Sgian Dubh]

I agree. I used to do a lot of restoration work and came across this type of finish. Whatever was under the polish in items I repaired could have been left its natural colour to start with, or alternatively the bare wood could have received either/or/or both dye and stain followed by clear and/or tinted polish.

Here, I suspect you think along similar lines to me in that its probable or possible the only thing that's been applied is a tinted or toned polish over bare wood, and it's now flaking off; somebody may have had a bit of a go at adding some more polish to cover the bare wood, but that's hard to say. It looks to be a decent but not spectacular piece of furniture, probably from the period you indicate, and not especially valuable. Still, it could be made to look decent along the lines you suggest with stripping and refinishing: refinishing from bare wood would be an opportunity to do a variety of things, e.g., colour up or not, and apply a finish of choice e.g., shellac, varnish, lacquer, or even something like one of the Osmo products, etc. Hardware, something reasonably matching, or even a really good match could probably be scrounged up inexpensively from somewhere - ebay, salvage yards, auctions, junk shops, etc. And if a whole piece of furniture has to be bought just to get three or four bits of hardware, well, maybe that could also a be a source for some salvageable and usable material too, ha, ha. Slainte.

 

[Eric The Viking]

It occurs to me, too, that there may be signs of wear, damage, etc. to the top surface. That's a good opportunity to try out your newly-learned skills.

I was amazed the first time I tried removing dents from wood with a wet teatowel and an iron - it worked really well. I later discovered the value of cabinet scrapers when I managed to remove ink from the top of one of my loudspeakers (they are ex-BBC, where someone literally knocked a bottle of ink over on top!). But patching the "repair", well, rather more skill needed from me than I had!

Have fun!

E.

 

[Graham Orm]

Thank you for all the replies, I really am very grateful!
More than anything, I was wondering if the drawer front is repairable. It looks like someone has sanded it too much. Is there a way to repair that? I can put up with the other knocks, just the drawer looks so obviously damaged.
As in, the hinges are at the very top and very bottom??

You'll like this guy. He may even give you advice.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCd8v3S ... uSOr_xk_eA