Antique Bench

[LazKat]

My wife found this in my project pile of stuff I rescued from Mom's house after she passed. It just seemed too nice to abandon there and I'm guessing it to be at least 100 years old. I planned on doing it later this summer but since happy wife = happy life, it's getting attention now. I cut the rusty bolts to remove the slats, and separated the support pieces underneath. The end pieces are what caught my attention with this. They're cast iron and beautifully detailed. Power washed them today and tomorrow they're going to a local shop for blasting to remove the residual paint and rust followed by powder coating. I'm thinking of new slats from white oak treated with linseed oil and marine varnish as this will be kept outdoors. Does anyone have thoughts on a better choice of wood for this?

 

[loganb]

White oak as you are thinking is a common choice for durable outdoor furniture. 5/4 cedar is another common north american domestic outdoor option.

Widening the search to the international options, teak and sapele mahogany would also be good if you wanted a darker look...kinda depends on the look you're going for.

 

[Sweetcorn]

I like teak for outdoor wood furniture. It holds up very well in my climate.

What color will you go with on the castings?

 

[LazKat]

I found cypress to use for this project. It was suggested to avoid the finishes available at the big box stores and use Waterlox instead. The recommended application is to thin it 50/50 with mineral spirits and apply multiple coats.

The castings are at the shop being media blasted. The finish will be an exterior grade powdercoat. In the pic, I really wanted to use the left color but realized it would actually be the same as throwing a camouflage net across all the details in the piece, visually breaking all the lines and hiding the beauty. I chose the second color, which is a much finer version of the black and silver blend so as to not obfuscate those details. I'm hoping it will still end up kind of iron-ish looking. The supports underneath will be black. All the fasteners will be SS blackened via the process outlined in another thread here. (Thanks to the posters in that thread!)

 

[shoot summ]

I have a set of bench, 2 chairs and a small table on my front porch. CI is blasted and powder coated, I used Walnut for the slats.

 

[Ketuo]

I’m restoring a similar pair of benches, we’ve lovingly dubbed this the “Duck Lion” bench, due to the funky lookin’ fella in the middle. Unless it’s supposed to be a griffin???

We’re using mahogany decking for the slats, since we’ve found it to be the cheapest option, and after ripping the board, only 2 edges need to be rounded.

I’ve made a round support bar across the bottom instead of the angled supports that usually came on these.

I’ve had several conversations with folks about the age of these, and found them mentioning they bought it from anywhere between the 1940’s through the 70’s. The details on the legs seem to be art deco inspired, which is in line with the 1940’s, yet the rest isn’t. I’ll check when I get home, but the edges and points on yours look sharper, where I think mine are rounder, yours also looks to have higher relief. This does make me think yours is on the earlier side.

Again, I’ll check mine when I get home and post pics.
Sorry for the novel.

 

[BigMike782]

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