Sanding down

Started this afternoon on the cabinet brought home and noticed at reference 1, getting on for a couple of weeks ago now.

That is to say started to sand the top and sides, then took the doors off as the hinges were getting in the way - and then sanded some more. Fitting of the hinges a bit odd; perhaps some in-flight change.

Whatever had been used to stain and polish the wood must have been pretty old-speak. Partly because the sand paper is taking it off fairly quickly and partly because the stuff stinks. And leaves an unpleasant taste in the mouth. Maybe a sort of French polish rather than a varnish? Probably the sort of job one ought to wear a mask for if one made a habit of it.

The wood underneath has a straight, fine grain and is pale brown-pink in colour. Not very English looking. For some reason I thought of a wood I had come across as a child, raulí, which I now know to be a large tree grown in Chile, the timber from which is indeed used for furniture. So plausible as far as that goes, but not convinced by the pictures at reference 2 or the others turned up by Google. Bit more cleaning needed.

Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/12/found-furniture.html.

Reference 2: https://www.chileanpro.com/?page_id=36.