woody not boaty: can we strip and scrub an Elm table?

[shmoo]

We have a massive dining room table we had made from fallen Elm back in Dutch Elm time. It's now about 30 years old and the varnish is wearing off. Could we have it run through a planer and then leave it untreated and just scrub it clean? The top must be 40mm thick so no probs getting down to fresh wood.

 

[Peterduck]

Of course you can, but a thicknesser/planer seems a savage way of removing varnish. A craftsman would use cabinet scrapers and elbow grease, which leave a much smoother finish, in keeping with decent furniture. The principal purpose of varnishing is to protect the timber, with the enhancement of its beauty being a secondary objective. Now if you don't need either of them, perhaps yopu should sell the elm table to someone who will appreciate the timber's texture and build another out of cheap pine which you can leave bare. The origin of the bare wood table was in the kitchens of large houses, where the table was a utilitarian piece of furniture subject to much abuse and knocking around. A varnish or French Polish finish would not have survived very long anyway.
Peter.

 

[lesweeks]

Elm is without doubt my favorite, non-boaty, wood. You can of course get rid of the old varnish and leave it bare. A planer would certainly do the job easily, and well, but unless you know someone with a good sized panel planer/thicknesser you'll only get about 375mm through at a time on a standard machine. As suggested by Peter above, you can do it by hand either with a scraper or with a good, sharp, plane and then sand it off afterwards. Left bare you can scrub it with a firm scrubbing brush and detergent to keep it clean but Elm is a fairly open grain timber and so you can expect it to stain pretty quickly. My choice has always been to oil it. A regular oiling brings out the warmth of the colour, resists spills and stains and is dead easy to maintain. You can use any linseed based oil, but this tends to smell a bit, so I use to use ordinary sunflower oil. Cheap as chips if you get my meaning.

 

[Captain Coochie]

You might get it through in one if you can find a workshop with a panel sander .

 

[andrewbodenham]

Sounds like you want a fairly 'rustic' effect rather than fine furniture. In that case I'd take off the original finish with a belt sander, back to fresh wood. Finish to 120 grit with the belt sander, then use a random orbit sander to finish to 240 grit or better.
An untreated table top is not really practical. On my furniture commissions I use either Osmo Wood-wax finish which give a pleasingly waxy finish which is easily re-coated when required, or Osmo Top Oil, which is an extremely durable finish designed for woodedn worktops. Both give excellent protection, and unlike varnish they will never flake or chip.

 

[monkey_trousers]

we built something similar from a huge chunk of ash a few years ago. when it needs a bit of tlc, I attack with a belt sander to get the top layer off, then work down to a fine 800grit wet and dry (used dry).

we use Behandler oil on ours, the stuff IKEA sell for treating solid wood kitchen work tops. its pretty tough stuff, gives a good finish, and is very hard wearing and stain resistant,

inbetween times if it needs sprucing up a bit, we clean it first adn then give it a rub over with wire wool to improve the key a little, then slsh some more behandler oil on

 

[shmoo]

Thanks for all the advice folks. Now I just have to persuade the admiral to let me attack it with a sander. I don't have a very good reputation as a handyperson....