I’m planning on getting a hardwood plywood board to attach to an antique(ish) teachers desk so I will have a larger desk. The teachers desk is only ~2.5x4.5’ and I’m looking at creating a 3x6’ desktop.
My question is, with what should I finish the hardwood plywood? I want to keep/see the wood grain, and would like a finish that will be reasonably durable from day to day wear.
Thanks.
It’s not the most durable, but when I think hardwood and antique I think shellac.
In the interest of invoking Cunningham’s law, I’ll nominate “natural” danish oil for depth with a couple coats of polyurethane on top for durability.
Hard wax oil could be an option, which should make the surface more wear resistant.
Are you planning to just put the plywood on top, or will the original desk top still be visible so you want to match the finishes?
Just putting it on top. Should there be anything put between the original desk and this top?
The plan is to use some cutoffs to create a ‘frame’ so it cannot move (3 hidden sides) and also to then create essentially a clamp under there as well so it is reasonably stable.
This is not meant to be furniture quality, just nice and large enough for me to enjoy in my basement office and to support multiple computer monitors.
I just put 3 coats of polyurethane on my workbench plywood and it’s doing fine after a year or so. I’ll probably switch to water based poly when my can of oil based runs out since I hear it’s just as durable indoors and easier to clean up after.
This is the way. Waxes, oils, and even shellac are not durable finishes that will hold up under the kind of wear a desk top will be subjected to.
In the first class I took we used a danish, poly, and mineral spirits blend, which is still going strong ten years later. I’ve been curious about trying this finish though.
Thanks to all for replying to my original request. Decided on using the finish from the above link (ENCurtis - youtube).
Not as many choices of woods around here as in large cities, I went with a cherry plywood, and the edges are a simple D shaped pine trim. After starting and making mistakes along the way, needing to sand it back down to bare wood and restarting, I got the top done. The trim pieces were a challenge as I 1) have never done any woodworking, so 2) have no tools, materials, or experience. Went through 6 different test pieces to get them finished. Since the trim is made of pine, the grain was very different than the cherry, so any finish that brought out the grain just made it look disjointed. Ended up finding Polyshades and that was what worked for me.
Next summer, will try to make a keyboard tray for this desk… Wish me luck!