Best Finish For Antique Oak Furniture

Determine if washing or stripping the finish is best.

Best finish for antique oak furniture. Sometimes the wood doesn t need its existing finish stripped away. 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. Trans tint honey amber dye to the bare wood and let it dry.

Buff the wax as soon as it hazes over to leave a soft sheen. 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. This is a classic oak finish familiar to any antique lover. 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.

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. Glue and clamps for repairing and reinforcing furniture. As far as maintenance is concerned wax finishes are best polished with a dry cloth or a little additional wax.

For the other finishes that have a hard surface a little lemon oil preferably with beeswax will brighten and deepen the color. Decide whether the old finish should come off or if a thorough cleaning will do. Step six waxing. Deciding when to refinish antique furniture.

Spraying the finish over the glaze is best since this will minimize any removal of the glaze. This finish looks best on red oak. 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.