Partners Desk

[Tommy Emmons]

This is a partners desk that I made for a friend of my son. He told me he wanted a Chippendale style desk with leather inserts on the top. It is made of African Mahogany and Mahogany. The legs were hand carved. The finish is Tung oil and French Polished shellac. The size is 72 inches by 44 inches, close to the golden ratio. The inserts are 33 1/2 by 16 1/2 inches.

Oh by the way the hand carved legs was bs. I bought them from Adam Wood in Tenn.

[Jim Kountz]

Nice looking desk, the legs look very straight to me but then again Im no expert on cabriole legs. I think you did a great job on the project!!

[John Keeton]

Tommy, neat desk. Were the leather inserts any trouble to install?

On other question, on the third pic, the drawer appears to have a top cover??? Is that an optical illusion or am I just looking at it wrong?

[Mark Versprille]

Same question as John, and about the Tung oil and French Polish finish. I thought tung oil finish couldn't be mixed with any other type. It is a stunning piece of work, well done dude.

[Tommy Emmons]

The leather inserts are leather glued to a birch plywood substrate. I used Tandy white leather glue. You need to make sure you use a roller to get an even coat of glue on the substrate and then roll the leather with a roller to get any air bubbles out to the edges. I then trimmed the leather along the edges with a sharp utility knife. I used biscuit joinery to attach the plywood to the surronding wood and to make sure the top of the leather is flush with the wood that surrounds it.

The drawer has a sliding shelf that is shown extended to the front of the drawer. If you slide the letter writing shelf to the back of the drawer, you have access to the storage portion of the drawer. You could also remove the shelf if you did not like that feature. I can post a picture of the drawer with the shelf slid to the rear to expose the storage are if you would like to see that.

[Tommy Emmons]

I did not mix the Tung oil and shellac. I applied the Tung oil and let it cure. I then applied the shellac over the oil. As far as mixing Tung oil, David Marks on Wood Works always seems to use a mixture of Tung oil and varnish on his projects, so I don't see why you could not mix the oil and varnish and apply as one coat like he does.

[mike holden]

the desk is really handsome!
Mike

[David Keller NC]

"Same question as John, and about the Tung oil and French Polish finish. I thought tung oil finish couldn't be mixed with any other type."

As an aside, a true french polish finish uses BLO as a lubricant for the "building" stage where a thickness is built up and before the polishing and rubbing out phase (where any excess linseed oil is "spirited off" with alcohol). I've never tried it, but I don't see why any drying oil would not work in place of the linseed oil - I think BLO was used in the early 19th century when the technique was developed because it was cheap, not necessarily because another oil wouldn't work.

Nice desk, Tommy

[John Keeton]

The drawer has a sliding shelf that is shown extended to the front of the drawer. If you slide the letter writing shelf to the back of the drawer, you have access to the storage portion of the drawer. You could also remove the shelf if you did not like that feature. I can post a picture of the drawer with the shelf slid to the rear to expose the storage are if you would like to see that.

Yep, I would like to see that a little better - sounds like a neat idea!

[Jerry Olexa]

Very nice work. Agree the legs would be a challenge...

[John Thompson]

Nice work and very attractive...

Sarge..

[Tommy Emmons]

David

The Tung oil was applied to the wood and allowed to dry overnight. I then put down a base coat of shellac and let it dry. I then rubbed the surface with a cotton pad soaked in alcohol and a small amount of 4F pumice to smooth the surface. I then went to using the rubbing pad of a wool sock covered with a soft cotton face. The rubber pad was lubricated with olive oil. That is the recommended oil from which I got the instructions on french polishing. After each rub out with shellac, I would take a clean cotton cloth and add alcohol and "spirit off" the olive oil. That was my process. I did not mix tung oil and shellac at any time. Sorry for my poor original description the led to the misconception. Tommy

[David Keller NC]

"The rubber pad was lubricated with olive oil. That is the recommended oil from which I got the instructions on french polishing. After each rub out with shellac, I would take a clean cotton cloth and add alcohol and "spirit off" the olive oil. That was my process. I did not mix tung oil and shellac at any time. Sorry for my poor original description the led to the misconception."

Tommy - your method suggests even more that tung oil, walnut oil, mineral oil, or just about any low-viscosity oil would work in a French Polishing mode.

By the way - the period sources that I've read mention that the wood to be french polished was always heavily treated with BLO (usually dyed red with alkanet root in the case of mahogany) before beginning the pore-filling process, the building stage and the spiriting off of the the excess oil.

[Jason Tuinstra]

Very impressive! It looks very elegant.

[Tommy Emmons]

David

All I know is that this is my first French polish attempt and I tried to follow the instructions in the article that I read. I do not prtend to be any sort of expert on this technique. I was just sharing what I did, not recommending that others follow my path.