Best Finish For Antique Oak Furniture

As far as maintenance is concerned wax finishes are best polished with a dry cloth or a little additional wax.

Best finish for antique oak furniture.

Determine if washing or stripping the finish is best. There are few structural issues you can t repair and few cosmetic ones you can t address with wood filler stain and a fresh coat of finish. Buff the wax as soon as it hazes over to leave a soft sheen. The glaze layer darkens the open pored earlywood and contrasts beautifully with the brownish gold latewood.

Use a dark wax on the dark finishes and apply with 0000 steel wool. Trans tint honey amber dye to the bare wood and let it dry. Sometimes the wood doesn t need its existing finish stripped away. Spraying the finish over the glaze is best since this will minimize any removal of the glaze.

Like fine wine oak becomes more nuanced and attractive with age and restoring an old piece of oak furniture is almost always preferable to throwing it away. Before diving into stripping the finish off your wood dresser table or chairs you ll first need to decide whether it should be stripped at all. Perhaps a rejuvenating coat of varnish will bring it back to its original luster. If cleaning an unpainted piece hand cleaner containing pumice used with a toothbrush to get into crevices works well.

Step six waxing. This finish looks best on red oak. Decide whether the old finish should come off or if a thorough cleaning will do. Seal with shellac and scuff sand when dry.

This is a classic oak finish familiar to any antique lover. For the other finishes that have a hard surface a little lemon oil preferably with beeswax will brighten and deepen the color. Glue and clamps for repairing and reinforcing furniture.