Strange, Beautiful table. What should I do?
#1
07-05-10, 09:02 AM
Strange, Beautiful table. What should I do?
This table was at a thrift store for $20.00. Someone sprayed it with green paint so amalgamation was out of the question. They used a natural color stain and I can see why. This thing was like painting on gold when I refinished it. Stunning to say the least. I never knew maple wood could look like this. Like polished jewelry. I guess it must be old to get this kind of patina. I wouldn't know though. It has a tag that says it was made by the Northwest Chair Co., who went out of business in the 50's. It's too bad about the original finish. The top coat was like an avocado green it was so old and oxidized. Yeah, , , old. But when I don't know.
Anyway, in the first photo there's a cig burn on the top about 1/4" deep.
Round Table pictures by whatsyurprob - Photobucket
Should I color putty it? It's the value, if any, I'm worried about. I scraped out all the char with a butter knife. Stayed inside the concave of it never touching the top. I put a natural stain on it and that's it. Don't want to lacquer it until I get this cig burn fixed, , , or should I leave it?
One more thing. What would anyone use a table like this for? I'm stumped. Sure is Beautiful, but I can't figure that one out.
Thanx.
Anyway, in the first photo there's a cig burn on the top about 1/4" deep.
Round Table pictures by whatsyurprob - Photobucket
Should I color putty it? It's the value, if any, I'm worried about. I scraped out all the char with a butter knife. Stayed inside the concave of it never touching the top. I put a natural stain on it and that's it. Don't want to lacquer it until I get this cig burn fixed, , , or should I leave it?
One more thing. What would anyone use a table like this for? I'm stumped. Sure is Beautiful, but I can't figure that one out.
Thanx.
#2
08-28-10, 10:13 PM
Strange Beautiful Table, What should I do?
Lovejoy, this is my first visit to this site and I haven't gotten oriented here as yet, cannot tell if you have answers for your question yet or not.
I'm not an expert wood crafter though I sure wish I was, but as a bad wannabe, I have collected odd bits of info from here and there.
Recently and for ten years, I loved across the street from a furniture building shop. They work with Cedar and Mesquite and leave it as raw as possible - western style.
When the wood has holes, or crevasses, sometimes the holes are clear through, usually from knotholes that popped out, but sometimes because it isn't "professionally milled" so there may be large gaps that just go with that slab of wood they intend to use for a table top, or cabinet top or something.
They fill it with "Liquid Glass" a sort of epoxy formula that must be fresh mixed, leaving about 30 minutes for application and getting the bubbles out, etc. One guy told me it is best done by someone with a really steady hand because of the tiny bubbles that need to be carefully removed, after application. So, no hand trembles, please.
But it is clear as it can be, and on some surfaces, about invisible, too. And impervious. Almost impossible to scratch, dent or crack.
They fill the holes AND glaze the entire top of the furniture with it, so it becomes waterproof and heatproof, and safe for hot pots of food, or drippy iced drink glasses and most spills, I don't remember for sure but I think even fingernail polish???
Now, I never got to watch or work with it myself - so you need an expert, but most places including some Wal-Marts that sell a large collection of paint products and all that goes with that, also sell "Liquid Glass", as they do small patch kits of fiberglass.
Unlike Lacquer, "Liquid Glass" also never yellows or stains or crazes.
Fabulous to have on dresser tops, table tops and counter tops, etc. Lets all the beauty of the wood show through, and keeps it perfectly safe.
Now as for what the table is useful for, I don't know. I saw some like that as a small child, but don't remember any particular functionality. Strikes me as a neat small side table where a large number of people eat in one room, some dish or drinks on top, and serving plates or glasses in the under-shelves, if placed where it can be freely walked around, or reached by stretching while sitting at a nearby dining table, if so located as to not encourage being bumped and things knocked off - not a common or easy way to do it, I suppose, so no, outside of records or something stacked on edge, "in the round" titles out, on the bottom and a player, or projector, on the top...
Good luck, a very interesting piece!
- Rose
I'm not an expert wood crafter though I sure wish I was, but as a bad wannabe, I have collected odd bits of info from here and there.
Recently and for ten years, I loved across the street from a furniture building shop. They work with Cedar and Mesquite and leave it as raw as possible - western style.
When the wood has holes, or crevasses, sometimes the holes are clear through, usually from knotholes that popped out, but sometimes because it isn't "professionally milled" so there may be large gaps that just go with that slab of wood they intend to use for a table top, or cabinet top or something.
They fill it with "Liquid Glass" a sort of epoxy formula that must be fresh mixed, leaving about 30 minutes for application and getting the bubbles out, etc. One guy told me it is best done by someone with a really steady hand because of the tiny bubbles that need to be carefully removed, after application. So, no hand trembles, please.
But it is clear as it can be, and on some surfaces, about invisible, too. And impervious. Almost impossible to scratch, dent or crack.
They fill the holes AND glaze the entire top of the furniture with it, so it becomes waterproof and heatproof, and safe for hot pots of food, or drippy iced drink glasses and most spills, I don't remember for sure but I think even fingernail polish???
Now, I never got to watch or work with it myself - so you need an expert, but most places including some Wal-Marts that sell a large collection of paint products and all that goes with that, also sell "Liquid Glass", as they do small patch kits of fiberglass.
Unlike Lacquer, "Liquid Glass" also never yellows or stains or crazes.
Fabulous to have on dresser tops, table tops and counter tops, etc. Lets all the beauty of the wood show through, and keeps it perfectly safe.
Now as for what the table is useful for, I don't know. I saw some like that as a small child, but don't remember any particular functionality. Strikes me as a neat small side table where a large number of people eat in one room, some dish or drinks on top, and serving plates or glasses in the under-shelves, if placed where it can be freely walked around, or reached by stretching while sitting at a nearby dining table, if so located as to not encourage being bumped and things knocked off - not a common or easy way to do it, I suppose, so no, outside of records or something stacked on edge, "in the round" titles out, on the bottom and a player, or projector, on the top...
Good luck, a very interesting piece!
- Rose
#3
08-28-10, 10:42 PM
Another thought about that Strange Beautiful Table's possible uses
Just remembered a lovely elderly couple I knew, who went for a pair of recliners as their TV chairs, instead of one recliner and the pair fighting between the recliner and the sofa. And they both kept their own small basket of "necessities" by their chairs, since they stayed in them quite a lot. Those baskets would fit nicely in the 'back" two cubby shelves, while a lamp or drink glasses or whatever were on top along with remote controls and phones.
Their little baskets usually had such things as nail clippers and files, a few bandaids and some small tube of antibiotic ointment, some hand lotion, a tummy calmer like Tums or such, just little things they didn't want to run to the back of the house for as they sat and watched their favorite shows - TV Guides, the latest paper or a letter or card from family, the latest packets of photographs, magnifying glasses and a small sewing kit for the odd loose button, or such...for the pair I knew, they wanted that basket "tucked away" a bit out of sight, in case of visitors, but handy, usually meant it was on the floor and a bit hard to reach. But something with a draw in front, since there were the pair of them, just wasn't going to work either, since reaching that way was very hard for them those days.
That would be a fabulous table for use of that kind, to sit between a pair such as those two! Even that it is rounded as that would make it all the easier to reach the basket.
Their little baskets usually had such things as nail clippers and files, a few bandaids and some small tube of antibiotic ointment, some hand lotion, a tummy calmer like Tums or such, just little things they didn't want to run to the back of the house for as they sat and watched their favorite shows - TV Guides, the latest paper or a letter or card from family, the latest packets of photographs, magnifying glasses and a small sewing kit for the odd loose button, or such...for the pair I knew, they wanted that basket "tucked away" a bit out of sight, in case of visitors, but handy, usually meant it was on the floor and a bit hard to reach. But something with a draw in front, since there were the pair of them, just wasn't going to work either, since reaching that way was very hard for them those days.
That would be a fabulous table for use of that kind, to sit between a pair such as those two! Even that it is rounded as that would make it all the easier to reach the basket.
