How can I refinish this set of bedroom desk and drawers?

[eddomak]

Hi,

I don't know if this is the right subforum, but hopefully it is.

I have been asked by a friend how he might be able to re-finish the top surface of this set of solid Tasmanian Oak furniture, which he picked up for a bargain - $AUD200 for the lot, and it had been custom made 10 years ago.

On one hand if it is just sanding down the top, and resurfacing I would think this would be "easy" work (good excuse to buy that Rotex I have been eyeing), but might be hard to match the colour and feel of the original. I was thinking of trying to look for something like the back of the drawer to sand down and try our some different finishes to see what matches.

On the other hand to do the whole lot would be a lot of work for the detail involved.

He said he is not really concerned much with the look, just sort of wants scratches/gouges and marks out of the top surface (which apparently is worse than in the photos), but I am still looking for options and suggestions for how to do this in order to do justice to the wood and original workmanship. In the end I don't think he could do even the basic sand/refinish, so I might do it for him but have very little experience in finishing (so it looked like Osmo's coatings would be nice).

Any suggestions or advice?

Thanks!

 

[Larso]

If it was custom made by a cabinet maker in Australia it  most likely has a sprayed lacquer finish,test a hidden section with thinners (eg back of drawer boxes) and if it comes off easily its nc lacquer,if so it can be sanded down and a similar finish applied over the top of the existing finish or sprayed on to bare timber,You should be able to selectively spray different areas with more or less coats depending on whats required and get an acceptable finish.The final coating should be an all over one.
Mirotone and wattly are the most used nc lacquer in AUS.
No matter what you decide to do the first thing is to determine what is on there now as this will larely determine the products and steps required to get a good result.

 

[leakyroof]

Unless there are close-up pictures that really show some awful dents and gouges, I'd live with the minor stuff as 'aged' character that many used pieces of furniture are going to have. Esp. the tops. 
Larso covered it all with starting the process to figure out what film finish was used originally.
Just my 2 cents

 

[eddomak]

Thanks so much for the help! Will see how it goes and update here if it all goes ahead.

 

[waho6o9]

A card scraper and or plane scraper comes to mind.

Then spray the entire unit as mentioned above.

Beautiful furniture BTW.

[smile]