What is this desktop made of?

We purchased this large library/school desk at a garage sale a few years ago and use it in our kitchen. I was thinking about refinishing it, but it has a strange top that I’m not sure what it’s made of. I looked up all over the internet and I can find several similar style desks (arts and crafts style around 1915?) but all have solid wood tops. Ours has a wood edge but the mail part of the desk has this dark black/green almost chalkboard like top on it. It will get water stains on it but they can be removed with rubbing alcohol very easily. Anyone know what the desktop material is?

Desktop Closeup by Apearlb posted Jul 5, 2019 at 11:09 AM

Desk by Apearlb posted Jul 5, 2019 at 11:09 AM

 

Oh good - pictures !

 

cannot see it but i am guessing soapstone or actual slate like a chalk board.

 

The problem with the pictures is that the Gallery Album in which they have been stored is set to Private (or the individual images are set {Private) so no one except apertlb can see them. Change to Public and they will automatically appear in the first post.

 

I changed the gallery settings to Public. Hopefully that works.

 

It worked!

 

My very first thought was Slate ... Joy.

 

As to the age of the desk, there are no labels on it but there is a stamp inside (almost like a library stamp) with the date Feb 27, ~1928 (we think its a 2 in the 1928 but of course it had to be smudged some....it looks similar in shape to the 2 in the 27). My husband says the top reminds him of some of the tabletops he had in science lab. I’m pretty sure the person we bought this from got it from an auction sale at our local university. We only paid $10 for it but it’s so well made, heavy duty and perfectly sized for our kitchen island. Our kitchen is very traditional and we have no modern cupboards and a very large pantry with shelves and counters. That said, I saw a similar desk with a wood top sell on eBay for $1200. Ours could very well be a reproduction style of that one that was apparently a 1915 arts and crafts desk. I don’t want to mess up the desk by refinishing it with something that might destroy it, especially as the top is a mystery material. Someone suggested soapstone or slate.....I don’t know much about soapstone but it seems too soft to be slate. I have a few things made of slate and they are much darker and harder, and layered. Or can slate be slightly soft? It’s almost a composite type surface maybe.....manmade? Did they have that sort of stuff in the 20’s?

 

It appears to be all one piece? Definitely not soapstone.

Could be slate, I guess.

 

Lab use is what I was thinking too.

 

i think its soapstone. common thing for sinks and counter tops etc etc. nowadays they use more figured stone. back in the day it was plain. might feel greasy if you find a fresh spot to scratch.

 

Hmmm. Those gouges argue against slate.

 

Yes, if the product isn't hard it isn't slate, all I could envision was our blackboard at school in the 1950's .. remember the chalk screeching across the blackboard when the teacher got too enthusiastic ?? That sound always drove me nuts ... Joy.

 

It does seem to be one piece, and it’s a big desk (34”x60”). And it’s fairly uniform. It does have some scratches and slight marks but overall it doesn’t feel like a natural product or at least none I have ever encountered. I can’t believe I can’t find anything that looks like it online. This can’t be that rare. I’m sure they had hundreds of these desks at the university back in the day.

 

Looks like linoleum to me. I like the look in the kitchen - have you considered putting it on a platform with some big industrial wheels instead of the bed-risers?

~Cheryl

 

Have you looked at any of the undersides of the drawers? I have a similar, but I suspect not quite as old, table/desk that came out of a US military armory when it was finally being decommissioned in the 90's. Other than the scratched-in US on one of the legs, the only other "marking" is several lines of stenciled information that has faded quite a bit (and a few random penciled numbers) that are on the bottom of the center drawer (there are no stacked drawers on it.) One of the bits I can still read is "FURN, IND. INC." Makers name I suspect.

 

1922 advertisements:







~Cheryl

 

I just put it recently on cheap bed risers as it is too low for me as a counter. I wanted to try it out at that height before creating a more permanent solution for raising it up and have been looking at old industrial wheels to purchase. It’s very heavy so I had to make sure whatever I put it on can handle a good deal of weight.