Best Finish For Antique Oak Furniture

Finishes on antique wood furniture.

Best finish for antique oak furniture.

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. Glue and clamps for repairing and reinforcing furniture. This is a classic oak finish familiar to any antique lover. Trans tint honey amber dye to the bare wood and let it dry.

Deciding when to refinish antique furniture. Step six waxing. Seal with shellac and scuff sand when dry. Spraying the finish over the glaze is best since this will minimize any removal of the glaze.

Sometimes the wood doesn t need its existing finish stripped away. 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. 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. Apply a paste wax to the furniture after the final coat is dry.

As far as maintenance is concerned wax finishes are best polished with a dry cloth or a little additional wax. If cleaning an unpainted piece hand cleaner containing pumice used with a toothbrush to get into crevices works well. 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.

Buff the wax as soon as it hazes over to leave a soft sheen. Determine if washing or stripping the finish is best. Perhaps a rejuvenating coat of varnish will bring it back to its original luster.