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Understanding How to Care for Wood Furniture
 Wood
takes little maintenance to continue looking like the day you bought
it. First, try not to place it too closely to a heater vent as the
dry heat could cause the wood to split or warp.
If you have a piece made from high quality plies of wood –
like a nicely veneered piece of furniture – you will not need
to worry about this as much. If you have furniture made from a solid
piece of wood, you should be especially careful about placement.
Dusting
Approximately 1/3 the cost of wood
furniture has to do with the finishing process used
to color and seal the piece. In order to protect that finish, make
sure to dust regularly. Even a small film of dust can actually create
small scratches in your finish, eventually exposing the wood, making
it vulnerable to further damage. Use a soft cloth, slightly dampened
to help trap the dust instead of sending it airborne – just
to land right back on your furniture. Avoid multi-purpose cleaners
– these weren't made for the finish on fine furniture, but
for more durable surfaces like plastic and enameling. Using the
new treated wipes to dust is a benefit since they're designed to
collect the dust and hair rather than pushing them off the wood
and back into the air again.
Polish
Oil or wax? If you're looking for quick and easy, there's not a
good answer. Sure, putting a little oil polish on a rag and giving
the furniture a quick once-over is fast, but you'll wind up needing
to dust twice as often. Oils attract dust rather than repelling
it, so while the furniture will sparkle and look wonderful right
after it's been polished, it will quickly look dusty again and some
of that dust will mix in with the oil, making the furniture increasingly
difficult to clean and easier to scratch. Why, then, do most museums
oil their furniture? The answer is both simple and complicated.
Oil does help the finish – not the wood – of your furniture.
Over time, finishes tend to lose moisture and "evaporate"
from the wood, causing cracks and crumbles in the finish. However,
this process happens over a long, long time and chances are that
normal day-to-day use of the furniture will wear more of the finish
off the piece than what will "evaporate" from the finish
drying out. Instead, you're better off using a wax to help protect
the wood itself and to help minimize dust rather than being overly
concerned with the moisture level in the finish.
Liquid waxes are somewhat better than oils – they do create
a surface coating on the wood that will help the dust slide off
the furniture instead of sticking to it, but the protection doesn't
last as long as paste wax.
The best protection for your wood furniture is a good paste wax,
one with less paraffin and more carnauba wax. These waxes are quite
hard – it's a good idea to scrape out a small amount (think
a ball the size of a quarter) put it in the cloth you're going to
use and then begin kneading it back and forth for a few minutes
until it's soft enough to work with. Begin waxing the furniture,
using small circular motions and really rub it into the surface
of the wood. And remember, the harder the wax is, the more it will
protect your furniture. Be sure to take breaks regularly if working
on a larger piece of furniture – waxing is hard work and in
order to do a good job, you want to make sure you're fresh while
you're doing it.
Once you've applied a good wax coat, it should last for about a
year to two years depending on how much use the piece sees. If,
after five to ten years, the finish appears cloudy or as if it might
be darker, rub the wood down with mineral oil to strip off all the
old applications of wax and then apply a fresh coat of wax –
some purists swear by mineral spirits instead of mineral oil. However,
mineral spirits can be very dangerous to use. Read the directions
and warnings carefully if you use mineral spirits.
If you use furniture oil instead of wax, you'll also see the finish
begin to darken in a few years. Unfortunately, the oil actually
rubs dirt and grime into the wood finish and there's no way to strip
that off the wood without completely stripping the finish off as
well.
If you're looking for a duller coat or an antique "glow"
on your wood, try beeswax instead of a carnauba wax.
Repairing Small Scratches
In veneered and solid wood furniture, the fix is pretty easy: just
find the wax stick at the local hardware store that most closely
matches the color of your wood. Simply "color" in the
scratch and you're done. The wax will help protect the wood from
the elements and the color should hide the scratch as well. Go ahead
and re-wax this area of the furniture again, but make sure that
the wax stick covered in the scratch and didn't just put a light
bit of color over the exposed wood. The trick is to make sure the
colored wax is applied heavily enough to match the depth of the
scratch and create a flat surface again. Now when you wax this area
of your furniture, the plain wax shouldn't be able to build up in
the scratch (and create a white mark). If you're looking for a perfect
cover-up, it may take some time and practice to be able to both
wax the area and cover the scratch.
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