Best Finish For Antique Oak Furniture

Step six waxing.

Best finish for antique oak furniture.

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. Spraying the finish over the glaze is best since this will minimize any removal of the glaze. If cleaning an unpainted piece hand cleaner containing pumice used with a toothbrush to get into crevices works well.

Determine if washing or stripping the finish is best. Trans tint honey amber dye to the bare wood and let it dry. Apply a paste wax to the furniture after the final coat is dry. Use a dark wax on the dark finishes and apply with 0000 steel wool.

Buff the wax as soon as it hazes over to leave a soft sheen. Seal with shellac and scuff sand when dry. Glue and clamps for repairing and reinforcing furniture. The glaze layer darkens the open pored earlywood and contrasts beautifully with the brownish gold latewood.

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. As far as maintenance is concerned wax finishes are best polished with a dry cloth or a little additional wax. This is a classic oak finish familiar to any antique lover. Decide whether the old finish should come off or if a thorough cleaning will do.

This finish looks best on red oak. For the other finishes that have a hard surface a little lemon oil preferably with beeswax will brighten and deepen the color. 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.