What a find!

[MetalEd]

I haven't been on here or posting pictures (or woodworking) in a while, I have been very ill, but have been getting better thanks to a diagnosis and going through some heavy metal detox. So I just started getting back into my shop. Yesterday I was at a local park with my son and I noticed an apartment building had tossed out a bunch of old furniture from what I assume is an evicted tenant. I occasionally grab the drawers from dressers and desks to use the plywood (exceptional Grade 1/8th to 1/4 for scrolling) from the drawer bottoms and usually the 3/8 to 1/2 pine from the sides to make jigs and such.
Anyhow, these drawers were from a desk, 8 side drawers and 1 wide center drawer. Didn't look to great of condition, very old, banged up and the entire thing had been spray painted white, a real crappy job of it too. I let them sit all day in the truck, then last night I got around to taking them to my shop, the first thing I noticed was the construction. They had HAND CUT dovetails in the front AND rear, they were hand planed on the sides to be fitted in the drawer slots, everything appears to be hide glue, no metal nails or screws (except for recent repairs in cracked slides... Nails???). No two pieces on any of the drawers are even close to being the same as any other piece. All of the tool marks look to be hand cut, planed etc.!! Then I started cleaning them up, the paint came off easily with sandpaper, then I sanded a little more to try and get past what I suspected was a mahogany stain or veneer over pine or something. The color never changed and the texture just stayed the same.
To make my story a little shorter, I ended up going back and getting the main piece from the desk. I haven't cleaned up everything, but it is not what I expected at all. The drawer bottoms are not plywood at all, they are thin cut solid wood (less than 1/8 thick). The texture, grain and color all look as though it is MAHOGANY! Not mahogany veneer over some other woods (can tell from the dents and chunks missing, can see the entire original end grain on quite a few pieces). Not just the facing surfaces, the drawers sides, bottoms, slides, inner support pieces, everything on this piece is made of solid wood and it all looks like it is mahogany. Hand made, well over 100 years ago and it look like it was made with hand tools only.
It is really banged up, dents and chunks missing on the tops and sides. Has had a lot of modern repairs made with nails, so I don't think it can be restored (not to mention all of the white paint sprayed all over it!) I expected to get a few pieces of good scrolling plywood and some thin, dry pine. I haven't decided what to do with it yet, I might end up with a bunch of 1/8, 1/4 and 1/2 inch Mahogany to use in scrolling, but I really don't know if I can bring myself to take it all apart. The more I look at the construction and the labor that was involved to hand make a piece like this, it just hurts to think about taking it apart. Just seeing the plane marks, misaligned dovetails or saw's teeth marks on the wood makes you think back to when it was originally made. But I don't think it could be restored with the dents and chunks missing as I mentioned. My wife sees a piece of junk furniture and that the wood could be salvaged, but I see the carpenter working with hand tools on an old-growth piece of wood to make furniture that has lasted at least a couple generations. I really would like to date it (find out more) before I decide anything.
Anyhow, I wanted to share my find with you guys, Boy is it nice to have wood back in the blood! Keep your health guys! You don't know what you have till you almost lose it!
Ed

[DWSudekum]

Sounds like you have quite a find my friend. It is not unheard of for a pass me down to have been something quite extrodinary to begin with. Good luck on the restoration if you attempt that. If not it is still a great source of aged wood with character.


DW