Finishing Question - Will Wood Bleach Work?

It is not centered in the piece right? At first I thought of a spool but your first post it looked off center. You could sell as a hobbit door, but I think a hatch is more likely.

Perfectly centered

All examples of hatches are square and the handle is near the edge/corner. And who would design a heavy hatch with the handle in the middle?

Yes. It is coincidental that the name plate fit the slot and or as you said, the fabricator cut the slot with a router.

The only thing that looks similar to other hatch designs is the metal name plate. There are many pieces of furniture that are made to look nautical. Not all spools have or need an axle support plate. I do not recall actually seeing a support plate on most of these type spools.

Notice here no support plate but rather a bushing, like the piece appears to have had in your first picture.

I'm not sure that you understood my point when I agreed that the name plate was added on later. My point was that the bar below the plate and the recess exactly match what is shown on other hatches.

I'm not sure what you see that appears to have been a bushing. There is certainly no evidence of a bushing ever existing on the piece I have.

What I notice on every spool shown is that there are bolts where the center core is attached to the round ends. There is nothing like that on my piece.

FWIW, I spoke to the owner. I asked where she got the table from. She said it was years ago and what she remembers is that the guy she got it from said the top came from a ship. I know that's not much, but that's what was said. Could have been passed around multiple times and the true story lost to the ages. Who knows.

Except that the hole and handle is in the middle of a large round piece vs. the edge/corner like in all of the samples you provided. One thing on this object resembles a hatch. Everything else looks like the side of a spool.

One last observation, you mentioned that this is heavy. Do you think the 2 little screws on each end would be enough to hold the name plate in place while lifting the hatch over the life of the hatch?

The sholdered hole. Similar to a hole in a disk rotor that accepts the race.

Yeah Who knows! FWIW ships had spools for cable to be laid at the sea bottom. And as cargo.

What? Where did that come from? It appears that you did not understand what my images meant nor the words that I used to describe them.

I'll try one last time.

Later, when you are turning the hatch cover into a table, drill 2 small holes in the handle and screw the name plate *to the bolted in handle*:

Could have been a forward bulk head hatch, I could see a prank being played on the Third officer, "there is your cabin sir".

I let this lay. I think both of us don't think either of us understand what the other is saying. My only point is that I truly believe that his was never a hatch and was simply the side of a spool. I Googled round hatches and never found a picture other than square hatches. Googling spools comes up with countless varieties of picture like the one you posted.

No hard feelings on my side.

Do you know why manholes are round?

So that they will not fall into the hole.

Do you know why the lift area is at the perimeter instead of in the middle?

Same here.

Thanks for the finishing advice.

You bet! Any time sir!