My wife has an old desk that an ancestor built. The writing surface lifts
up for access to storage below.

The writing surface is a mahogany frame with a floating pine panel held in
with dowels. It is pretty beat up. She is hiding it now with a blotter,
but would like to have wood there.

I have cut the dowels and tossed the pine. I intend to replace it with a
glued in piece of veneered plywood, but have two questions before I do it.

1) Is plywood sufficiently hard to write on? The desk is purely ornamental,
and I can't remember anyone actually using it, but if they do I would not
like furrows left.
2) Am I overlooking something obvious that would make this a bad idea? I
can put in a solid wood panel doweled like the original if it is necessary,
but I would like to make it more stable and solid. (okay, the old suface
lasted 150 years, it was reinforced by really ugly angle irons that would
not be necessary with glued in plywood.)

toller wrote:

My wife has an old desk that an ancestor built. The writing surface lifts
up for access to storage below.

The writing surface is a mahogany frame with a floating pine panel held in
with dowels. It is pretty beat up. She is hiding it now with a blotter,
but would like to have wood there.

....snip...

A 'writing' surface aught to be directionally homogenious
to writing instruments ... :-)

Drafting table 'covers' provide 'this' type surface.

== http://www.dickblick.com/ ...

== http://www.dickblick.com/zz228/30/ ... in =particular= ,

Offered in a 'few' colors, one of which may suite.

There is a 'fabric' spray-on( both sides ) adhesive that aught to
glue it 'down ... yet allow removal .
Visit your local fabric store.

Maybe 'bevel' the edge so that it resists "lifting" ...

'Boxwood' is about the only 'even' grained wood I can think of,
that ?mite? provide such a surface ... almost.

I'd druther "write' upon the above "cover" , myself.

Ed




I have cut the dowels and tossed the pine. I intend to replace it with a
glued in piece of veneered plywood, but have two questions before I do it.

1) Is plywood sufficiently hard to write on? The desk is purely ornamental,
and I can't remember anyone actually using it, but if they do I would not
like furrows left.
2) Am I overlooking something obvious that would make this a bad idea? I
can put in a solid wood panel doweled like the original if it is necessary,
but I would like to make it more stable and solid. (okay, the old suface
lasted 150 years, it was reinforced by really ugly angle irons that would
not be necessary with glued in plywood.)

--
_/) _/) _/) _/) _/) _/) _/) _/) ²ºº³ _/)

Email= ?subject=Sail_Boats_©¿ © "

Well, I'd try a glue up...maybe even try it a couple of times if necessary,
for something so old. I'd avoid glue too, so the frame can move. Maybe
some QS wood planed down to match the original.
Wilson
"toller" wrote in message
...
My wife has an old desk that an ancestor built. The writing surface lifts
up for access to storage below.

The writing surface is a mahogany frame with a floating pine panel held in
with dowels. It is pretty beat up. She is hiding it now with a blotter,
but would like to have wood there.

I have cut the dowels and tossed the pine. I intend to replace it with a
glued in piece of veneered plywood, but have two questions before I do it.

1) Is plywood sufficiently hard to write on? The desk is purely
ornamental, and I can't remember anyone actually using it, but if they do
I would not like furrows left.
2) Am I overlooking something obvious that would make this a bad idea? I
can put in a solid wood panel doweled like the original if it is
necessary, but I would like to make it more stable and solid. (okay, the
old suface lasted 150 years, it was reinforced by really ugly angle irons
that would not be necessary with glued in plywood.)

I would build the top from a piece of Baltic birch plywood, replacing the
pine with the plywood as best as can do, but the writing surface should be
resilient. Old desks frequently had leather inlays in the writing areas for
this purpose. This desk most likely had a leather cover over that pine that
you removed and someone has already removed it because it dried out and
cracked. You could try to find someone who could put in a leather inlay or
you could possibly do it yourself. There are also vinyl covers available for
drafting tables that would work as far as being resilient enough for
writing, but probably wouldn't look very good in a 150 year old desk. If you
decide to do it yourself you can probably find information on doing it via
Google or the local library.

--
Charley


"toller" wrote in message
...
My wife has an old desk that an ancestor built. The writing surface lifts
up for access to storage below.

The writing surface is a mahogany frame with a floating pine panel held in
with dowels. It is pretty beat up. She is hiding it now with a blotter,
but would like to have wood there.

I have cut the dowels and tossed the pine. I intend to replace it with a
glued in piece of veneered plywood, but have two questions before I do it.

1) Is plywood sufficiently hard to write on? The desk is purely
ornamental,
and I can't remember anyone actually using it, but if they do I would not
like furrows left.
2) Am I overlooking something obvious that would make this a bad idea? I
can put in a solid wood panel doweled like the original if it is
necessary,
but I would like to make it more stable and solid. (okay, the old suface
lasted 150 years, it was reinforced by really ugly angle irons that would
not be necessary with glued in plywood.)

On Sun, 01 May 2005 18:06:43 GMT, "toller" wrote:

My wife has an old desk that an ancestor built. The writing surface lifts
up for access to storage below.

The writing surface is a mahogany frame with a floating pine panel held in
with dowels. It is pretty beat up. She is hiding it now with a blotter,
but would like to have wood there.

I have cut the dowels and tossed the pine. I intend to replace it with a
glued in piece of veneered plywood, but have two questions before I do it.

First off, that's sort of a shame- it being a family heirloom and all,
but you've already started the project, so

1) Is plywood sufficiently hard to write on? The desk is purely ornamental,
and I can't remember anyone actually using it, but if they do I would not
like furrows left.

Pine generally isn't hard enough to write on, so it's not like the ply
is going to be much of a downgrade in quality.

2) Am I overlooking something obvious that would make this a bad idea? I
can put in a solid wood panel doweled like the original if it is necessary,
but I would like to make it more stable and solid. (okay, the old suface
lasted 150 years, it was reinforced by really ugly angle irons that would
not be necessary with glued in plywood.)

Get some good ply, and it would probably be ok. OTHO, you've already
got the frame, and it was obviously engineered to account for 150
years worth of expansion and contraction, so why not stick with solid
wood?


Aut inveniam viam aut faciam

toller says...

My wife has an old desk that an ancestor built. The writing surface lifts
up for access to storage below.

The writing surface is a mahogany frame with a floating pine panel held in
with dowels. It is pretty beat up. She is hiding it now with a blotter,
but would like to have wood there.

I have cut the dowels and tossed the pine. I intend to replace it with a
glued in piece of veneered plywood, but have two questions before I do it.

1) Is plywood sufficiently hard to write on? The desk is purely ornamental,
and I can't remember anyone actually using it, but if they do I would not
like furrows left.
2) Am I overlooking something obvious that would make this a bad idea? I
can put in a solid wood panel doweled like the original if it is necessary,
but I would like to make it more stable and solid. (okay, the old suface
lasted 150 years, it was reinforced by really ugly angle irons that would
not be necessary with glued in plywood.)

It would probably be OK if you used good plywood like Baltic Birch or
Appleply, but all bets are off if you use home center cardboard. Why
not flex your WW muscles and make your own panel with your own veneer
over a plywood core? You could choose whatever wood you wanted and you
could be sure it was good enough. You could choose an exotic like
cocobolo that doesn't need a finish. Just think how happy your wife
would be if you actually upgraded the quality of the desk.

Sounds like an heirloom I "fixed" several years ago, but I decided to
use Mahogany veneer over the original\l writing surface, a mistake in
retrospect. Should have bought solid wood replacement and milled it
properly as replacement. Still have some veneer residual.

On Sun, 01 May 2005 18:06:43 GMT, "toller" wrote:

My wife has an old desk that an ancestor built. The writing surface lifts
up for access to storage below.

The writing surface is a mahogany frame with a floating pine panel held in
with dowels. It is pretty beat up. She is hiding it now with a blotter,
but would like to have wood there.

I have cut the dowels and tossed the pine. I intend to replace it with a
glued in piece of veneered plywood, but have two questions before I do it.