red cedar hall table - WIP

[ARealBoy]

Hello,

a few weekends ago I bought this table from a junk shop for $65. What caught my eye was the lovely turning on the legs. It was terribly ugly otherwise... a masonite top and the whole thing was slathered with dark stained, drippy estapol. Underneath the estapol was a coat of white paint and underneath that was a coat of buttercup yellow paint.

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Anyway I climbed underneath it in the shop and a little scrape showed some lovely red cedar so I bought it. I've started stripping it <you can see in the photos> and after the gunk comes off it looks very nice.

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The real job will be to make a new top for it.

Luckily my local timber yard has plenty of red cedar.

Here is the timber yard. My aunty's old house. It's on my brother's place.

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Anyway, 5 minutes work and I've got a bit of already milled cedar.

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Looks alright, about 50mm thick, I could get a bookmatched top out of this I think?

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The other way to go is to get a bit of cedar in one piece for the table top. My brother has a couple of cedar logs in the shed, about 1m in diameter and about 3 metres long. I could just knock out a slab with the chainsaw but really I'll probably mill one of the logs. They were felled about 40 years ago and buried in a bog on my place. I pulled a couple of bits out a year or two back and they have been drying in the shed for about 2 years now.

Couple of questions for the experts please.

I was planning on polishing it with ubeaut shellac and wax. Is this the right way to go?

Also.. should I mill a single piece for the top or have a go with some cedar from the door? It's not a big drama to mill the timber btw .. a mate nearby has a great mill, two blades and a VW motor punching it and it's only really an afternoons work to get the log down there and cut up.

Thanks in anticipation of some good answers.

Up in the mountains,

Mick.

[Thumbthumper]

Hi Mick,

This has definitely got potential.

If it were me, I'd try and find an old cedar table top (one piece) to use. Just so it has some character.
I don't really like the brand new look

But they're getting harder to find, so use a milled cedar slab.
Hand planed and hand thumb nailed would be best if you have access to the tools.

Go one piece.
If it was originally a hall table, they were never jointed or book matched.

And definitely use shellac and wax.

[Horsecroft88]

Hi Mick, nice table and it will for sure come up just fine. And absolutely quite correct, shellac and bees wax polish is 100% correct finish for such a table.

Now, a query why do you think you need a new table top for this table.? I ask, since from the pictures, there doesn't appear to be anything wrong with the one that is on it. If it had major splits or was warped I could understand your thinking but otherwise I fail to see why you would wish to go down that road.

Re the cedar door you showed a picture of, please don't actually cut this door up. They are relatively rare, highly valuable and when polished would make a fantastic addition to any old home in need of such a door. Seriously 4 or 6 panel cedar doors sell at auction (and not even restored) for anywhere between $200-400 and restored in antique shops for more likely around $800. I am not kidding for I have seen over the years this happening down here in Tassie. I am lucky as my 1826 country house (which I am restoring) has all its original cedar 6 and 4 panel doors and architraves, door reveals etc in place. They are fabulous once restored.

I agree totally with Thumbthumper that making a new top out of cedar will never have the same appeal of using an old table top if you really need to replace it.

I for one would love to have access to the cedar you have. I have searched high and low for every bit of scrap cedar I can find down here.

All the best with your project and please post more pics of the table as you progress on its restoration.

[burraboy]

I'm with HC on not cutting up the door, but it's your call in the end. As an alternative, what about a marble top on the table?