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Caring for Your Furniture
© 2004 Jim Dugas * Furnituremaker
We are often asked how to care for new or refinished furniture – to maintain
the sheen of the finish and protect the wood. It’s easier than you may think.
Below we review a few basics of furniture finishing, dispel some myths and
misconceptions about furniture care, and give you our recommendations about
Caring for Your Furniture.
Basics
Wooden furniture is coated with a thin, clear film called a “finish”. The
purpose of the finish is to seal the wood and thus protect it from its hostile
environment (your home or office) and enhance the appearance of the natural wood
characteristics.
Finishes enhance the appearance of wood by altering coloration and by focusing
(gloss) or diffusing (satin) light rays as they are reflected from the surface
of the wood to your eyes.
Finishes protect the wood by forming a barrier between the wood and the nasty
things it may encounter. A wide variety of finishing material has been used over
the years – each offering a different profile of strengths and drawbacks. Among
the most common, in increasing order of durability, are resinous oils, shellac,
lacquer, varnishes, catalyzed materials and opaque (paint).
Important Point #1: Clear finishes will protect the wood from occasional
meetings with mild insults such as water, food and alcohol, but none can
withstand attacks by blunt and sharp objects, heat, abrasive materials or
ultraviolet light.
Important Point #2: You can avoid some problems by keeping furniture out of
direct sun light, not letting moisture stand for prolonged periods (such as
under & around plants) and not using your furniture as work benches.
Important point #3: A good finish does not need to be protected; it does the
protecting, at least from normal insults. The finish provides a hard clear film
that keeps moisture, food and beverage spills, and dirt from getting to and
staining or damaging the wood.
Myths and Misconceptions
Although many products are commercially available and heavily advertised for
furniture care, most are unnecessary. Remember, wooden objects and furniture are
coated with a clear protective film. No product will penetrate the finish to “feed”, “replenish the natural oils”, or “moisturize”
the underlying wood. These claims
are simply untrue and the products are expensive. Once cured, wood finishes are
essentially inert. They do not need to be “revitalized” or “moisturized”. All
they really need is to be treated nicely (like a valued member of the family),
kept dry, and cleaned from time to time.
Most of the cleaning and dusting products you will find contain one or more of
the following ingredients: water (solvent), petroleum distillates such as
mineral spirits (solvent), an aromatic oil (perfume), and silicone oil
(an oily lubricant that never, ever evaporates).
While these products may make dusting a little easier because they are kind of
sticky, they also leave an oily residue on your furniture. That’s what gives it
that shiny, wet look...for a while. But sticky means sticky. That oily residue
causes airborne dust, smoke and grease to stick to it and become dull and
streaky. So you embark on a cycle of continually replacing previous applications
of oils (that have captured dust and dirt) with new oil.
Our Recommendations: Clean & Dry
Properly finished furniture needs only to be cleaned from time to time.
Furniture whose finish is cracked, warn, or chipped cannot be restored with any
of the products noted above. Most likely, once the clear barrier has been
compromised some sort of refinishing or restoration process will be required.
For routine cleaning, we recommend dusting with a feather duster or dry, soft
100% cotton cloth (like an old towel or tee shirt). No petroleum
distillates, silicone oils, waxes, or alcohols. That’s it! Clean & Dry.
For tables: Wash with soapy water on a towel. Rinse with clear water on a towel.
Dry immediately with a towel.
As finishes wear, they can become a bit dull. To improve the sheen, we recommend
that 2 or 3 times a year you clean and polish the surface. You want a polish
that contains no oils and that leaves no residue. We polish all of the furniture
we make with a product called OZ
http://www.mohawk-finishing.com right before it leaves our studio.
First you dust, wash and dry the surface as usual. Then, you rub on a small
amount of polish with a clean, soft cloth then vigorously buff the surface with
a soft 100% cotton cloth or towel.
So, furniture care is really very simple: Clean & Dry
Antiques
Antiques require a bit more care for two reasons. First, the finish on antique
furniture is typically shellac. Although it yields a beautiful finish that
develops a great warm patina with age, shellac is brittle, easily scratched and
provides very little water resistance. Second, with age, the finish is often
worn thin and is more easily damaged.
Therefore, all of what we have said above applies to antiques, only more so. Clean and Dry.
A paste wax that contains primarily bees wax and carnauba wax will decrease
friction and increase water resistance to minimize the risk of damage.
Paste waxes require vigorous buffing to fill the tiny pores in the finish and
remove all excess, but the results are worth it. Liquid waxes, although easier
to apply, are considerably less effective protectants.
We hope that this information will be of some help to you. If you have further questions or wish to discuss topics not
addressed here, please call us.
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