Restoring a Desk

Piece by Piece, a Beautiful Renewal
​Amazing, the valuable information you find when you're not looking. After visiting countless schoolhouses over the years, I find the most eye-catching artifacts in the classroom surely include the pot bellied stove and the well-worn manufactured desks with the cast iron legs. The designs are numerous and beautiful. Original matching desks are a treasure if your museum owns and displays them. Many of us covet them. That's why it's not unusual to find CSAA members bending and twisting to get the perfect photograph of these genuine works of art. 

If a schoolhouse museum has undertaken a restoration of their desks, they have undoubtably  faced a labor of love and a lot of elbow grease. If you are thinking of repairing, restoring, or just freshening up your desks, I stumbled upon a gentleman on YouTube who has provided us with a three-part video series that runs viewers through the process. The initial deconstruction of the desk is an amazing thing to watch and gives us an idea of just how much work is involved in a single set, desk and seat.

Country school enthusiasts have always been impressed by the quality and workmanship in this type of desk, but wait until you witness the ingenious method of connecting the wood to the iron and why everything operates so smoothly. Even if you aren't looking for this information, the videos are helpful in learning how to repair and restore 19th century manufactured desks, and a big help to those who are considering it. Thank you to Underwood Industries!
                       Restoring an Antique Desk from the Early 1900's
​                                           "Underwood Industries" on YouTube

PART 1 - CLEANING & DISASSEMBLY

PART 2- SANDING, STAINING, & PRIMING

PART 3 - FINAL TOUCHES & FULL REVEAL