Only A Few Bones... But Lots of Memories

This "once upon a time" little pedestal table came to the shop in pieces. The little decorative top's perimeter fence was made of cherry, but the table surface was gone; a memory. It had belonged to my customer's father. Somewhere along the timeline it was forgotten,  having been boxed up and placed in a shed or or garage for storage.

Now I had most of the decorative perimeter fence, although parts of this octagonal frame were badly deteriorated. And as I mentioned, the table top had become badly warped and so my customer had decided to toss it .  The pedestal was still intact,  but it's legs were variously damaged, and its decorative feet were broken or entirely missing. However, there were warm "what it used to be" memories. So, we moved forward!

Work began with the octagonal fence.

The fence looks generally OK, but as you can see, some of the pieces have deteriorated, no thanks to some water damage. I was able to minimize the deterioration's influence on my effort to pull and glue it together. So once it was prepped and glued up, it merely showed some "age cracks and dimples" and a few scars.

At the same time I acquired a great piece of veneer with some nicely placed knotty spots. I cut it to fit the prepped and glued up cherry fence. Then I was ready to do something with the pedestal and those sad legs and feet.

That effort began with the feet separated from the pedestal. I cut off the badly deteriorated spots on the foot ends and glued new wood into place.  Then I carved the swirls matching those swirls and grooves on the more intact feet. Then these were reattached to the pedestal.

Finally, when all the legs and feet were back in place, I prep-sanded the entire structure in anticipation of staining it. Yup, and I stained it with a cherry stain. After that the work was all happily "down hill."  I sprayed the coat of sealer and two coats of Mohawk Duracoat Satin Lacquer. So pretty!

I think it turned out really good. My customer was very happy. And that always makes my day. Yaaay.

OK,  that's WoodTalkin for today. Keep listenin. Why? Because your pieces really do have a lot of fun stories to tell.

THANK YOU!... Dick Brandow

PS: And for your information... I'm necessarily out of the shop this week supporting a family-related challenge. If you need to get through to me,  please leave me a text, or a voice mail, and I'll get back to you as your situation may require. Thanks again.