It's a giant slab of wood -- 51" x 44" x 3" thick. It has been used as a coffee table with this lovely base:
It is in rough shape. There were some pieces of paper stuck to the top -- were they decoupaged? Glued? Who knows -- they were partially ripped off. Then there was a piece of green fuzzy paper, like you use for model train layouts, and another bit of fuzzier brown, and some gunk with a lot of dog hair stuck in it -- very scuzzy. I started wiping it with water & Murphy's Oil Soap, just to get the yuck off, and then tried to scrape the old paper off. The big clumpy bits of finish started coming off, too. You can see where some of that is left:
This is what the "plain" parts (no obvious additional materials stuck on) look like:
Is this just old varnish?
It's kind of stripey:
Can I use a heat gun to take it off? I had thought I would just clean it up a little and then we could use it as is until I had time to really work on it, but I don't think I can stop now, it's just too weird looking. And still kind of grody. But I think I've reached the limit of what Murphy's Oil Soap can do for me.
1 comment:
Have you considered sanding it? I would worry that whatever type of lacquer was used might be flammable if you use a heat gun. Also it could discolor the wood. Electric sanders are pretty quick, but you would definitely want to wear a good mask and some gloves since you don't know what the finish is.
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