Need some thoughts from the finishing braintrust

[doobes]

Hai der!

I promised my Daughter I would clean up a school house bench she bought at an antique store.

This is what it looked like before I started:









Pretty gruesome, right? It looks like it had been in a fire, and then some miscreant "repaired" it by shoving shavings into the cracks caused by expansion and then "refinishing".

So I got it all apart and started sanding it. The top is Poplar as can be seen from the nice green tint:



It's also interesting as it had been slitted to deal with expansion, but unfortunately as we saw, that failed miserably.



So talking to my daughter, I ripped through the slits with my bandsaw, and then ripped through the splits, cleaned up all the edges and glued the top back together,



This took about 2" out of the width. I've sanded about as much as I'm going to as the top is not particularly thick and sanding isn't helping that.



All the screw hole had been wallow out over the years, so I got a piece of poplar and drilled the holes and plugged them with plugs in the correct grain orientation.



This is what the legs look like:






They were split as well, and burned, and rotted from sitting in water.

The cleats for the underside, I shortened to suite the narrower top and slotted all the holes to allow movement after they are installed:




Now to the gist of the question, what finish to put on it. I asked my daughter and she said "oh just put some tongue oil on it"...

I've never finished Poplar as furniture before.

I'd love to even out the color, and downplay the green tint and then put a topcoat that will protect the soft Poplar.

Please weigh in with your thoughts. I've got a gazillion hours cleaning this thing up and don't want to bugger it up with the wrong finish.

cheers,

[doobes]

Sigh,

Sorry the photos don't appear inline.

I've put them all on a webpage: Meghan's Bench

Thanks!

[fredhargis]

???? I see the photos just fine. I guess paint is out of the question? I think that's what I would do.

[FrankAtl]

It looks like the original was stained with a Cherry or Mahogany colored stain. I'd probably stick with that since she liked the original look enough to but it in the first place.

[jteneyck]

It looks like the original was stained with a Cherry or Mahogany colored stain. I'd probably stick with that since she liked the original look enough to but it in the first place.

This looks like a good approach to me.  

You could have built a really nice NEW one for all the hours you've put into that thing.  Not a criticism, far from it, you've invested a lot of time bringing that thing back from the firewood pile, just what I would have done.  

John

[doobes]

Thanks.

Weird. I could see the pictures before I logged in, but not after I logged in.

I offered to make her a new one, but she wants this one....

So, I thought I would do it up. I've got the hardware at the powder coater, so then should look good. I need to find a plethora of old school steel slotted screws. A bunch had been replaced with cheap plated Phillips which looked terrible.

I'll test the stiffeners with some stain colors.

What should I topcoat this with?

Cheers

[jteneyck]

Thanks.

Weird. I could see the pictures before I logged in, but not after I logged in.

I offered to make her a new one, but she wants this one....

So, I thought I would do it up. I've got the hardware at the powder coater, so then should look good. I need to find a plethora of old school steel slotted screws. A bunch had been replaced with cheap plated Phillips which looked terrible.

I'll test the stiffeners with some stain colors.

What should I topcoat this with?

Cheers

Danish Oil or Tung oil might be a good choice.  Something that seals it but doesn't build a thick film, so it looks similar to the original.  

John

[gboot]

Sigh,

Sorry the photos don't appear inline.

I've put them all on a webpage: Meghan's Bench

Thanks!

Screams Milk Paint to me.