Help with inherited desk

Hello all, here looking for some help. Selling my aunts house after she passed away and ran into an old desk. She was into antiques and such so have no clue if there is any value to it, or just garbage. Live on an island so kinda hard to take it anywhere, or have someone come by. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

I think its probably a 1900 or so oak desk. I like the lines on it,and it looks like a very useful size,but furniture like this isnt doing so well on the market these days. Shame really because it will outlast us all.

 

Welcome to the Forum, Bayoucaptain!

 

Appreciate the reply, seems like something I may want to keep. Is something like this better in its natural state? Or is it something that I could slowly work on fixing up?

 

Agree, 1900 or maybe just a tad later.... would think certainly Pre-WWI. It looks like it could use some sprucing but probably not worth totally refinishing. Fixing the split and working on the water rings would not currently be worth doing unless you can do it yourself and it is a labor of love. Think still too good for paint so sprucing it up to use would be a prudent choice.

 

Appears to be oak with a dark stain.
There is a product called Howard Restor-a-Finish. It will help hide the scratches and cover the water stains. Easily found here in California as it is made here. Not sure about other states. You can do it with the 8oz can. 16oz would be too much.

Just checked you can get it on line. I'd look at the Dark Oak.
https://www.google.com/search?q=how...rome.2.0l6.20939j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

 

Water rings: Get whole walnuts in the shell, crack on in half. Rub the open surface of the nut on the ring. It works really well removing them.

 

Hi,
My favorite treatment for water rings/stains is just rubbing with mayonnaise and a little finger pressure. I used to use mayo and cigar ashes but alas no cigar smokers around any more. I wonder if cigarette ashes would work?
greg

 

Greg, my ma used ciggie ash, it does work. You don't need the mayo.

 

Wow, this is great. What a wealth of knowledge here. All these answers and ideas are greatly appreciated. My daughter loves the desk, so looks like I will be keeping it and doing some minor touch ups. Will be great for her to do her school work on. And here I was going to put it out front for the garbage guys lol. Probably won’t start for a month or so but looking forward to it. Thanks again y’all.

 

I love before and after photos. Please update.