Help! Antique Oak table in need of urgent assistance!

[Kazmatt]

Hi All!

We are newbies that picked up a neglected English Oak table circa 1890 at an auction recently with the intention of restoring it, or at least hoping to make it live again. It has ornately carved legs and came to us pretty weatherbeaten. (Hopefully I've managed to get the pic attached for you to see.)

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The top is made of wide quarter sawn pieces of timber which we sanded back readily enough. We removed the table top pieces to clean underneath and found that our 1.3m x 1.6m table has an extension mechanism (with a plaque that reads "Patentee Joseph Fitter, Birmingham" that dates from the 1870's I think) allowing it to extend beyond 3m in length!!

So basically, our mission is to:

1) source quarter sawn European Oak - enough to fill the additional 1.3m x 1.3m space, possibly greater; and

2) strip back the ornately carved legs for refinishing. Hand sanding is not an option as we have found it is ruining the carving detail, plus we just can't get in there enough. Using test pieces from the same table we've actually found that deck cleaner (10% oxalic acid) has given us the best outcome, cleaning out the darker harder to get to carved sections. Srcubbing with metho has been much less effective.

Can anyone tell us if this will damage the wood? We are struggling to find any other way to clean out the carvings. Obviously we are complete newbies but want use this as a learning experience. Any help would be most welcome.

Also, is anyone aware of where we can source European Oak, quarter sawn?

We keenly await your advice.

Please help us save our table before we destroy it with love!

Will try uploading more pics at a later stage. many thanks, Karolina.

[Xanthorrhoeas]

Hi Karolina,

The great things about antiques is that they were made well and that they are old. The value of an antique is dramatically reduced if all signs of age are removed. Patina - the dark finish in the grooves and the uneven surfaces - are all part of the age and value of the piece. If you remove all signs of age you may as well have a new piece of furniture!

As such, the value is greater if you don't remove all that dark stuff in the grooves and don't sand the surface.

OK, not everyone likes the same things, and its your table to do as you want with, but I wanted to raise these ideas for your consideration. It obviously also means a lot less work if you don't strip it back to bare wood.

Unless it is loose/wobbly in the joints or falling apart the only thing really needed and the way to get an old oak table to look its best is, in my opinion, to wax it thoroughly with a good furniture wax with a high carnuba wax content and buff it well. If the finish is dark then using a wax with a dark stain in it is best as the light coloured waxes leave light marks in the grooves and scratches. The wax gives it a soft lustrous and mellow look.

[Kazmatt]

Thanks so much for your response Xanthorrhoeas. It made us consider that the piece should be respected in every sense. So we found a recipe for a cleaning/restoring mixture that was used in the Victorian era, at the time the table was made, which uses a combination of Linseed Oil, Mineral Turps and Vinegar. You use this to scrub the item with steel wool ( I may have used a rougher grade, but the weathering was quite severe) and the wood just soaks it up. I've read somewhere that restorers now use Howard's restoration products in place of this old school method but this mixture wasn't difficult to make and the result has been impressive. We used this on the legs and will finish off with some wax, as suggested. For the table top, we would like to french polish it. I've googled these tables and it seems the table top finish always appears glossy.

Still amazed at how difficult it is to locate any type of English Oak in Brisbane. Niche market anyone??

Will try posting photos of the effect of the linseed oil mixture on our table legs at a later date.

Thanks again!!

[Xanthorrhoeas]

Hi Kazmatt,
Happy to be of help. Sorry I've missed your reply. If you really do want to French polish the top then some of the UBeaut finishes may make it easier.
IMHO such a table looks best if you just seal the top with a shellac or shellac based finish and then wax it to a soft lustre.
The oil, vinegar, turps mix was originally made with natural/wood turpentine and was called Bristol Museum mix when I learned of it 40 years ago. It is a great cleaner BUT the lustre the oil leaves fades and it attracts dust and dirt. After cleaning wipe over with natural/wood/pure turps (in a very well ventilated area as turps affects the nervous system and memory) and then finish with a high carnuba wax.
My observation is that mahogany and cedar tables were usually French polished but old-style oak tables were usually wax finished.
Good luck


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[jimbur]

An open grained wood like oak is best when it's not given a gloss finish. The ones you see with a glossy finish usually come from centuries of housemaids with RSI in the arms.
ps there is no hard and fast rule of course because many oak pieces were french polished when it became fashionable.

[Xanthorrhoeas]

Hi Kazmatt,
Happy to be of help. Sorry I've missed your reply. If you really do want to French polish the top then some of the UBeaut finishes may make it easier.
IMHO such a table looks best if you just seal the top with a shellac or shellac based finish and then wax it to a soft lustre.

Sorry, I forgot to mention that I do not mean the orange flake shellac that you often get. I think the colour of that would not agree with old oak (or anything else IMHO!). I either use some ready made hard shellac UBeaut that I bought long ago (lasts well and very handy for odd jobs) or if I am doing a big polish (which I try to avoid as much as possible since I often work with antiques and therefore I prefer old finishes to new ones) I buy the old-fashioned shellac "buttons" and break them up before dissolving in metho. I think the buttons would be too fussy for you to bother with and would recommend one of the easier products. However, if you want to try the buttons let me know and I will give my supplier's details.