[Irish]

Before anyone ELSE asks ...

YES - I did it inside the studio because I don't want to have to pick off the stuck down gnats and flys off of it after it dries.

YES - I had every window and door open in the studio for full air ventilation and there is a strong NW breeze today.

YES - I wore my dust mask and cleaned all the surfaces off by wiping with a clean cloth.

YES - I made sure everything was unplugged or off except for my two working lamps before I began to reduce the chances of a spark.

YES - I poured a small amount of Tung Oil in a pan so that I didn't contaminate the entire can ... that was after four trips to the shop to find something to pry that stupid child proof (and old woman proof) plastic lid off!

YES - I wiped the mouth of the can off with a clean cloth after each refill of the pan.

YES - I wore my heavy rubber gloves while I applied the oil.

YES - I rubbed it in real well so that there are no thick sticky spots later.

YES - I cleaned the brush and pan in mineral spirits and set them OUTSIDE to dry.

YES - I have all three rags - the dusting rag, the oiling rag and the wiping rag - soaking in a deep can of very soapy water and that can is out in the middle of the driveway away from all of the buildings.

YES - The rubber gloves have been washed in that soapy water and are on the clothes line drying.

AND YES!!!! I AM going back down to the studio later this evening to give my antique walnut groaning board table that I have worked all week on to refinish a SECOND COAT!!!!

Sigh! It's sad when you have been with someone you love very much so long you can hear his voice in your head hours before he even gets out of bed ....

Susan

(I'll post pictures tomorrow because it turned out this beautiful deep black red walnut color that only very old wood gets. That is if I haven't set the studio on fire from spontaneous combustion.)

[AlArchie]

DID YOU MAKE SURE THE TOILET STOPPED RUNNING BEFORE YOU LEFT? HUH?

Al

[Ashbys]

LOL ,

Welcome back Susan...

YES .... I want to see it !

YES .... We were wondering if you were Ok

YES ... I did just order your classic carving book

YES ... Your right !

Ash

[Ron Davidson]

Why yes I can't wait to see it.

Yes I did get the book I ordered from you.

Yes very good book trying to decide which project though.

[Paul_Guraedy]

Susan, at the risk of joining the third degree.....did you, are you, going over the table with fine steel wool between coats? I have been refinishing furniture with this method for years and that will smooth it down to a glass like finish.

No - I have no idea what a groaning table is????

Yes - I can relate to most of this having spent this week putting tung oil on re-sawn pine boards to be used as ceiling in the house we are building.

However, I did use a roller instead of a rag, did do it outside under a very hot sun (tung oil seems to sink in better under these conditions), and did not use mask and rubber gloves (would have suffocated in a mask and boards had to dry prior to handling).

[Irish]

NOOOOO AL! I didn't check the toilet ... but I didn remember to leave a full fresh pot of coffee for him before I headed down to the studio. (Dumb Woman Here Dumb, dumb, dumb!!!!!)

Ash and Ron ... glad you got your books.

The groaning board table is a piece that came from Mike's grandmother's home. And it had been setting in Mike's parent's home for at least 30 years, in pieces, unfinished.

Grandmom Irish and her husband Rial lost everything in the Great Depression including several farms out where they lived in Illinois. Over night they went from being fairly well off to ... well ... dirt poor tenant farmers. It took a long time for Rial to get back on his feet.

The table appears to me to be a home made 'married' piece. The leg bottoms are about 1" wider than the foot piece where they join, so I don't think they originally came from the same piece of furniture. The joint between the table top and the legs have been wedged with a different wood than walnut to take up the slack in the joint hole so I don't think the legs originally came with the table top.

The long foot rest/ bracing board originally was the back splash from the top of the table. Since the legs are married to the table they rocked a touch so Rial took the back splash and made it into a brace ... he used huge rugged steel screws to secure the back splash into it's new place ... and of course the screws show ..... whick of course I painted with dark brown enamel paint to hide them.

Even the edge trim on the top seems to come from something else as they don't match the period look of the rest of the table.

Now ... Antiques Road Show would laugh at me if I showed them this jury-rigged, make shift, married from who knows what lineage piece. But clearly Mike's grandfather was trying to make his wife a nice table at a time when they had nothing but each other to hold on to ... That make it worth every hour of the last week I have spent putting it back together. That table represents an awful lot of love!

The drop leave is from their home also. It's a walnut veneer plywood top on a popular base with a maple drawer. I will propably stain the draw this evening to match the popular legs. Mike doesn't know it yet but all that wonderful walnut is headed towards the living room.

Susan

[Irish]

Paul, no, not yet. I put the first coat of tung oil on this morning starting around 6 AM.
I am going to wait for the steel wool step until:
1. Mike gets a chance to Oh-Ah-Oh over the piece.
2. Until everything has had at least 10 hours drying time.
3. Until Mike it there to 'supervise' - which he will want to do .... and isthere to help me get the table out into the yard I don't want steel wool filings on the floor where I am working on my hands and knees!

A groaning board was a narrow table that sat against the dining room wall. During large family dinners the plates full of food where put on the groaning board before and after they were passed around the table. That way the main dining room table had open space - room during dinner.

I don't know if the term groaning comes from the sound of the table under the weight of all that good food or from the sound the family made seeing all that good food ....

Susan

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

uh.............did you put the lid back on the can?

[whitecree]

I think the 'groaning' came from the board sitting in pieces for so many years.