Restoring a Regency Drum Table - Thomas Johnson Antique Furniture Restoration

This is a really nice antique Regency drum table and it's got, it's not in terrible shape, it's got a few problems. It's got some veneer missing, actually I think I have that piece a couple other spots where it's cracked. This piece has a just a single drawer. We have some of the pieces of veneer and then more importantly the top is going to need to be refinished. It's in really bad shape. The finish has been scraped off somehow in four places and I think it's best just to refinish the top. The first thing I'm going to do is strip the top even before I do these veneer repairs. When I started the veneer repairs I discovered that the base was loose. It's loose in this joint here, this disc is loose and some of the legs are loose. I'm going to see if I can re-glue these this joint to make it tight in there. I may have to just use some pieces of veneer. Now I'm going to turn my attention to the top. I'm hoping I can just sand this with some 220. First I'm going to fill, there's a few little cracks, seams from the veneer stuff. I'm going to fill with a little bit of wood putty. Now I've sanded this with 220 really well. It's important to use fine sandpaper like 220 because it's figured veneer. I'm sanding across the grain because of the pie-shaped pattern and you don't want any scratches in this top. Now it's ready for a coat of shellac. Now I'm going to sand it with 320 and then do my touch-ups. Just wiping off my sanding residue with some naphtha so that I can see where my wood putty is so I can touch it up. Now for my first coat of varnish. I've been sanding with a block. There's lots of little grainy areas. This top is not flat. I never wanted it to be flat. I really gave it a minimal sanding. Now I'm going to sand it by hand to help get into those low spots. I want this varnish finish to be as thin as possible. I don't want this top to be dead flat and perfect. Now the second coat of varnish is dried and I'm going to sand it with some 800 wet or dry paper. I'm using water as the lubricant. Okay now I've sanded with 800 and I'm going to go over just with dry 4-0 steel wool. Okay, if you remember I re-glued the base. I did a lot of small veneer repairs on the sides and edges and I refinished the top. It looks pretty good.