I have a lovely old kiddies desk, a double seater, and I want to tidy it up I thought I would sand it back to tidy it and then apply some sort of coating. Not sure what to use though. Should it be some sort of oil? Shellac? I want it to be how it would have been done back 60 or more years ago.
hammer23,
Feb 16, 2:34am
I got an old as single school desk at a garage sale. I took it home and sanded it back without taking away the "aged" look and gave it a coat of polyurthene. I then carved my initials on the top which every desk seems to have and gave it to my daughter . It blew her away and that desk still plays a part of her house hold show furniture,so my advise is DO IT.
devine-spark,
Feb 16, 3:18am
Ha. yes I remember carving mine in a desk too. long time ago. Fortunately a chap in my class had the same initials and he got blamed.
majoba,
Feb 16, 2:50pm
They were varnished in the old days. I remember that for some reason only the boys were allowed to redo the tops of their desks. They would sand and sand for days and then varnish them. That would be polyurethane now. Definitely not oiled.
brightlights60,
Feb 16, 3:04pm
Yup, sand and sand and sand and varnish here too. You will be pleased with the results. Mrs B did an old mahogony dining table bought off here for $50, sanded it back and used a varnish that has the stain colour in it. Came up like glass and looks fantastic.
devine-spark,
Feb 16, 9:09pm
Thank you. I have some sikkens left over from an outdoor table, would that be ok?
whitehead.,
Feb 17, 1:13pm
mine was oiled but it was quite a few years ago 1950 to put you all right polished desks came in with my children
annies3,
Feb 17, 7:45pm
As I recall that was because they were guilty of carving their initials on them and the sanding was punishment ! lol
donnabeth,
Jun 11, 1:26am
We all had to bring a bottle of red furniture polish oil to school, and once a week we polished our desks-until a girl took a sip from her bottle- then we had to take our bottles home and come back with Neopol cream. I think that was about standard 4.
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