Rolltop Desk, part 1
April 18th, 2024
Contents
Rolltop Desks, an adventure
Over the past two years, I've gotten into tying my own flies. It's relaxing, it's therapeutic, it's...tedious. Lots of materials and techniques, depending on the fly you're tying.
If you're ever in Bee Cave on Tuesdays, check out Sportsmans Finest's Fly tying night. Love the gang over there. They've managed to make me a decent fly tyer.
As I've gotten more involved with tying flies, I've realized a few things:
- set up and tear down can take awhile.
- most of the materials scatter under a light gust of wind.
What are flies?
In the modern era, flies are defined as any kind of artificial lure that is absent scent or taste. They entice fish by sight or sound alone. Likewise, flies exist in two large categories:
- Dry flies - above the surface of the water.
- Wet flies - anything below the surface of the water.
The categories split further from there, but those are the main families of flies. Since I fish a lot in the Texas Hill Country, I tie a lot of wet flies in green and brown patterns. They look like bugs that fall off of trees, or minnows or leeches. Anything bass eat, really.
Needs
Accordingly, I need a station where I can store my materials when I'm not tying them, and further, I need it to be able to be hidden from a ceiling fan when not in use.
Cue: the rolltop desk.
After much hemming and hawwing, I decided to find one on Facebook Marketplace. Drove to San Antonio on a Sunday afternoon, and brought it back.
The project
When I purchased my rolltop desk, it was honey oak. Not a bad color, if you're a fan of the 80's and 90's interior decor trends, but I wanted something a bit more timeless.
I decided to change it out.
Here are the steps I'm taking:
- repair the damaged rolltop
- sand/strip the old finish
- restain with a red oak stain (oil based)
- refinish with an oil based poly
- update/upgrade hardware
Where we're at currently
I'm ass over elbows into sanding the thing. I didn't want to completely take the desk apart, so my reward is hand sanding all the nooks and crannies.
Thank God for podcasts and audiobooks and random orbit sanders.
Lots of little corners which require lots of attention. In short, I'm going to be sanding for awhile. Stay tuned for next week--staining!