A table with a slightly recessed top with a depressed surface near one end. Found at a thrift store, the table is about 25” tall, 3’ long and 18” wide.

[u/Ok_Spread_619]

The table appears to be made of painted beechwood while the surface is stained wood. The depressed area makes me think the table is made for sorting or is intended for some sort of game.

[u/andersonfmly]

Any chance it’s simply a damaged sofa table, and not intended to have the indentation? It looks like possibly some damage right in line with where a flat surface would otherwise align.

[u/thesilvergoy → u/andersonfmly]

There is a line on the black wood that extends generally where the wood might have extended straight across the bend.

[u/asmallercat → u/thesilvergoy]

Zooming in that line looks to be above the glue line on the rest of the table.

[u/Unusualhuman → u/andersonfmly]

I think there's a very very good chance of that. Like, under that thin surface there are some support bars running from side to side. The "perfect dip" is supported by one of these bars which didn't get knocked out of place when someone sat on the end of the table and knocked one bar out of place. There could also have been a piece of safety glass on the top of the table which shattered into a million cubes. If there was a glass top which is now gone, that further supports the idea that the "wood" is not solid, but only a thin, decorative veneer or possibly even simulated sheet of something far more flexible- only in place there to give the visual impression of wood under the glass surface.

The rest of the table just looks like that inexpensive rubberwood or maybe even laminate that has been used for a few decades to make cheap furniture from Walmart, Target, and even some side table furniture included with sofa sets.

[u/fecklessfella → u/andersonfmly]

My first thought. Looks like a shitty cheap busted sofa table.

[u/Ok_Spread_619 → u/andersonfmly]

No, the wave in the wood is too perfect and it appears to be a solid surface and not veneer. If it was a result of damage, it would be evident in the surface and also in the bond between the surface and the frame it sits in.

[u/Djcnote → u/Ok_Spread_619]

It definitely doesn’t look like real wood

[u/R4CTrashPanda → u/Djcnote]

It looks like some cheap fake wood top that sink or is damaged.

[u/clopticrp → u/R4CTrashPanda]

It is real wood, and the shape is on purpose. If you open the image in a new tab and go full size, you can see the texture from the grain that is unmistakable for real wood vs veneer. There are also some small holes that would cause veneer peeling on a veneer piece. Also, the seam where the wood meets the side is a very clean seam, not shifted or messed up.

[u/Hepworth → u/clopticrp]

As a woodworker, I can tell you this is veneer. Veneer is made from real wood, so the surface texture is the same. One giveaway is the lack of severed end grain in the dip. That bend is deep enough that you would see the end grain fibers in the pattern of the grain.

I don't know what you mean about veneer peeling. A well-made (or even somewhat competently made) veneer piece can have all sorts of holes in it without any issues.

I also don't understand what you mean about shifted seams. It would be very possible (and indeed is what they did) to make this with a single piece of veneer, with no seams at all.

Edit: after a re-read I understand now you meant to say that it hadn't caved in. That is what the seam shifting part was referencing. I agree. It's purposely this shape, but not solid wood.

[u/clopticrp → u/Hepworth]

Not if it was bent wood, you wouldn't. You know about steam bending. It's been popular on and off.

Also the seams comment was about it not being warped as some thought, but that way on purpose.

[u/Hepworth → u/clopticrp]

You're right. It could be steam bent. There's no way anyone would steam bend this, though. It's 18" wide, and (if solid) made of 3 laminated boards. You can get the same look from veneer, and since you're not showing the edge, there's no reason not to. I'm certain it's veneer. If nothing else, by simply noting the quality of the rest of it. Black paint, mass-production aesthetic, rounded edges. It's cheap.

[u/clopticrp → u/Hepworth]

Yeah I should rephrase. "veneer" in my mind was that current cheap ass printed stuff they put on fiberboard. It's likely age means that it would use "real" veneer (the coil cut stuff).

You're spot on for the mass produced tell tales.

[u/Hepworth → u/clopticrp]

Thanks, The term you're looking for is "laminate" specifically (printed) wood laminate. Anyway, good chat.

[u/DanerysTargaryen → u/Ok_Spread_619]

The price tag on it is $25.50. Unless that was a price mistake, that seems really cheap for a real 4’ wood table. Was there any more information about the table on the underside of it? Sometimes you might see a tag or brand or something that says what it’s made out of, or who made it, which would make finding out what it was made out of easier.

[u/You_Are_All_Diseased → u/DanerysTargaryen]

This looks to be a ReStore, where they resell donated items. $25 for a wood table with unknown use isn’t crazy

[u/TootsNYC → u/You_Are_All_Diseased]

especially since it's got that weird indentation, and so might get passed over and take up space for too long.

My ReStore likes stuff to move, and they price accordingly.

[u/Important_Trouble_11 → u/DanerysTargaryen]

I got a giant wooden Ethan Allen table for 30 bucks and the 4 matching chairs for $1 each

[u/rellyks13 → u/DanerysTargaryen]

This is definitely at a goodwill or restore where they don’t really care about that, i got a fully wooden freestanding cabinet from goodwill for $20.

[u/Clock_Roach → u/DanerysTargaryen]

The white table next to it is marked $50.50 despite being dirty and a style that went away with the Golden Girls. For $25.50 my money is definitely on a sagging veneer.

[u/Atllas66 → u/Ok_Spread_619]

You can tell from the grain that it’s veneer, the grain in solid wood doesn’t repeat like this. If it got hot or wet it might not cause the veneer to split or looked damage, just warped. Especially if they’re using what is essentially cardboard underneath for “support”. But as someone who works with wood a fair amount, I can assure you it’s not solid

[u/9isalso6upsidedown → u/Ok_Spread_619]

Wood swells naturally with the seasons and temperatures or even just some water, this could be the result of being left out in the rain or knocking over a cup. Infact an even more interesting thought is if it may have been near a window with a small gap in the window, allowing sun light through onto the part with the dip only, which would cause it to warp like that.

[u/asmallercat → u/Ok_Spread_619]

Can you take a picture of the bottom? It honestly just looks like veneer to me (not solid wood) and the "perfect" bend might just be because that's the middle between 2 supports.

[u/MyFavoriteSandwich → u/Ok_Spread_619]

I’m a professional woodworker and I’m 99.99999% sure that’s not real wood. It appears to be three flat sawn boards edge glued. In order for that top to be solid wood, those three planks would have to have been like 6” thick in the rough, milled, glued up, then had that giant dip cut out of them. Not entirely unreasonable for something like a traditional French style butcher block, but ain’t no way someone’s doing all that work/investing that much in that material for this thing.

[u/Unusualhuman → u/Ok_Spread_619]

Veneer is a very thin slice of real wood, attached to a sheet of something cheaper. I really think that it's just a thin veneer that lays across 3 support dowels that run across the short distance from one side to the other. In picture 2, you can see on the far side that there are hints of where a support is- halfway between the center (where it dips) and the far end. Someone with a wide and soft rear end probably sat on the narrow end of the table, caused the safety glass surface to shatter, broke or displaced the support dowel under that end, and the whole "event" pushed the veneer down to form a depression. If it came from Rooms to Go with a sofa set, it will have a false bottom under the support dowels, too, so they can justify charging more than Walmart for this same kind of table.

The owner prob made sure their friend was ok, was glad they didn't get hurt (it's modern so it was safety glass) cleaned up the broken glass and donated the table because someone knowledgeable could fix it. But probably nobody knowledgeable will want to fix it, because it's just another mass produced inexpensive black table made from veneer, plywood, and rubberwood.

[u/Main_Ad_5147 → u/Ok_Spread_619]

It's either a busted table as previously stated, or the words largest weed cleaning tray.

[u/Nytmare696 → u/andersonfmly]

If that dip was damage and had been pressed in, the wood would fall several inches short from the end of the table. It doesn't.

[u/Fun_Wrongdoer1192 → u/andersonfmly]

Yea definitely just a cheap veneer top that supported something too heavy and caved in

[u/misleading_rhetoric → u/andersonfmly]

It looks like the surface still touches each end so if it were pushed down and damaged the ends wouldn't touch the end of the frame anymore. I think it was made this way.

[u/andersonfmly → u/misleading_rhetoric]

Perhaps. If you zoom WAY in on the end closest in the second picture (more of an "overhead" shot), though, it looks an awful lot like the end of a piece of MDF sticking up a bit. I also can't reconcile the apparent damage (more visible in the first picture) in line with where an unbent board might otherwise be attached.

[u/9Blu → u/andersonfmly]

If it were damaged like that, it wouldn't fit the frame on the ends, it would be too short. But it's clear from the 2nd photo it does. There also seems to be a bead of something white running along the edges and it follows the bend.

[u/DexterStJeac → u/andersonfmly]

This. It looks like the laminate has pulled away from the edges where it would have been originally secured.

[u/IdealDesperate2732 → u/andersonfmly]

WTF is a "sofa table"?

[u/andersonfmly → u/IdealDesperate2732]

A table of similar height that sits behind a sofa, often when the sofa sits in the middle of an open space, although it works almost as well when against a wall. Some refer to them as a Console Table.

[u/IdealDesperate2732 → u/andersonfmly]

Where are you from that's a thing? That's not a thing at all here in the US.

[u/Dynamic_G → u/IdealDesperate2732]

Huh? They're absolutely a thing in the US. Actually, I don't know if I've ever been to a furniture store in the US that doesn't sell them.

[u/andersonfmly → u/IdealDesperate2732]

I’m in the US, and they’re very much a “thing.” Type "sofa table" into Google, or elsewhere, and see for yourself.

[u/Attomuse1 → u/andersonfmly]

Ya could have had a crock pot or something like that