Carpentry and Woodworking - Oak hatch cover, finishing from original condition

I have an old oak hatch cover that is in its original condition (no finish and very slintered oak). I would like to clean it up, finish it in some way and make it into a desk. Not sure what the best method is for cleaning up the very rough wood and iron bands without sanding it to death.

I have seen these over the years at restaurants covered in about an inch of laquer which is not that appealing to me. Any suggestions?

Best method? A belt sander. How do do it without sanding? Wave a magic wand. :rolleyes:

If it is dirty, you can wash it with spic and span to remove the dirty and grime. For its general appearance, bleaching it with oxalic acid will brighten it and possibly remove some of the stain from the iron bands. Assuming the iron is not part of this any more.

The rough wood will have to be sanded or you can use a cabinet scraper on it. The cabinet scraper is a remarkable tool for smoothing wood. With practice, you can smooth wood to planer quality. It will cut end-grain and cross-grain without tearing the way that a plane will.

Once you have the wood smoothed, you may take a different tack on how to finish it. You can always apply a sanding sealer, then several coats of finish, sanding between each coat until you reach the smoothness that you desire.

Hope this helps.