Uh-Oh! - Thomas Johnson Antique Furniture Restoration

I'm Tom Johnson, Thomas Johnson Antique Furniture Restoration in Gorm, Maine. This is a nice center table. By that I mean it's used in the center of a hall or the center of a foyer. It's a nice table. It's a tilt-top table. It's got figured walnut veneered top with inlay, vases and leaves and stuff. It's got a nice base, five columns it's supported on, these nice carved legs. At first I thought maybe these feet were cut off, but they're all carved nicely, the same kind of carving. I've not seen anything like that before. But anyway, it's got a loose molding on the top, but more importantly the entire base is loose. We've got some re-gluing to do. First thing we're going to do is take the top off. I really don't understand what's going on here. These are too loose. There's too much movement. It doesn't seem like there could be a dowel or a tenon or anything. This part is really loose, and I think there must be bolts going through here. You see there's a hollow panel here. I need to take this panel out. And I bet I'll find a nut or the head of a screw or something in there. Note the modern wire nails. Ah, there it is. That's the top of a bolt. I think we'll find a nut on the other end. You know, these aren't even supposed to be glued. I kind of thought that. They were too loose. They were spinning around too easily. You know, I'm going to mark these, even though I believe they're interchangeable. So just one of these legs is loose. This one. Through dovetails on these pedestal tables are really cool, but they all suffer from the same problem. Right there, it creates a weak place here. This table's not bad. It's only broken in one place. Just a skosh. Yeah, I noticed this little chip here along the way. I've got to glue that back. So now we can turn our attention to this loose molding on the top. Okay, we'll let that dry overnight. Alright, I think I'm going to start with the top here. Good, it seems nice and level. I just need to take a damp cloth and get this glue off of here. First I'll plug in my knives because I'm going to use... I'm going to melt wax into the cracks. That looks like it could be a good color, but I don't know if you can see, but it's on the reddish side. I think I'll stick with this one that's browner. I'll give it a try anyway. Okay, now we can turn our attention back to the base. That little veneer chip. I can see that getting all four of these in is going to be fun. Okay, that wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. Assuming that it's going to tighten up. I'd love to get a lock washer in there. This could work well. The question is, is there enough room for it? I think I'll tighten it up and sort of see what it looks like. I noticed when I took it off that the domed side was down like that. And of course that fit the concave washer there. So this is tightening up really well. Two of these columns have a little bit of movement. I don't know that that matters. At least everything looks nice and straight. So I'll crank it down some more. Everything looks nice and straight. This plate was just loose when it came in here, but it's got nail holes in it. I'll nail it back down. Oh, I noticed right away that my disc on the bottom here is not centered. This time I'll clamp it into position before I nail it. So now I'll look it over for any touch-ups. I know I have one right here. There's still a crushed corner here. And I have some glue here, and I'll look it over for anything else. I'll put a piece of wet rag on there, see if I can't bring it up. I'll leave it there for a while. And a wet rag to get this glue off of here. So while I'm waiting to see if that little dent swells up a bit, I'm going to start polishing the top. It just occurred to me, I'm going to tape off half this top and polish this half. And then hopefully I can get a shot of the difference. It can be difficult to get that on video, but I'm going to try. So I'm just trying to make this as even as possible. I've got the steel wool gliding across the top, and I'm looking for any streaks or anything that... I'm just trying to very, very lightly even it out. All right, I'm going to let it dry for 20 or 30 minutes. Guild Boys recommends the soft open-weave cloth. In fact, they sell this. And everything I'm doing today is exactly to the directions that they show on their website. All right, let's see how it compares. I think you can see right away there's a difference. So this side doesn't look bad until you compare it to this side. It has more sheen, of course, a really nice sheen. But mostly what you see is a lot more clarity. I mean, this table didn't look bad when it came in here, but this is definitely better. So now I'll do this side. Okay, now we can get back to this gouge. The water I put on it for so long really didn't do much, but it's always worth a try. I'm going to fill it with epoxy putty. That way I won't have to sand. All right, this has dried for a few hours. I'm just going to touch it real lightly with some 220, stain it, and then seal it with shellac. My touch-up's a little on the dark side, and then I have a light spot right there. I'm going to go over the whole thing with a Scotch-Brite pad lightly, touch up the light spot with a marker, and then go over the whole front of this foot with my rag with some stain on it. So yesterday evening off-camera, I sprayed a couple more coats of shellac on it with the aerosol. Now I'm going to go over it very, very lightly with this Scotch-Brite pad, and then I'm going to begin waxing the entire pedestal. I've let the wax dry, and now I'm just going to buff it out with a soft cloth. So I think I can install the top here without having to turn it over. I'm going to give it a try. Actually works the way it's supposed to. So there we have it, a very nice center table. It really is not a big transformation here. It looked good when it came in. Thank goodness it still looks good now, but I re-glued the edge molding, but most importantly, re-glued the base. This thing was making a lot of noise when you moved it or even touched it, and now it's nice and quiet. Squeaked a lot when you'd open it. Not that it ever got open. I think it looks pretty good.