I bought a teak dining table (with a veneered top) and chairs from a second-hand shop. They're Danish, about 50 or 60 years old.
What would you recommend for wood care?
I have at my disposal right now boiled linseed oil and white spirit, and I expect a thinned solution of the linseed oil will be OK - but would something marketed as Danish oil or teak oil do better?
Daniele
I am interested in this too. I have some fairly new furniture and Danish Oil is recommended. The instructions for the Danish Oil (Rustin's) state that the surface should be sanded first, but this is clearly wrong for expensive furniture. The hardware store man says it should be cleaned with white spirit.
Danish oil is a sort of thin varnish used on new work or when re-finishing. The rustins instructions are correct.
It, and teak oil are not for use in day to day care of indoor furniture.
Back in the 60's when teak veneered furniture was all the rage many people used to slap teak oil on thinking it was doing some good the fact that most of the furniture was finished in polyurethane varnish on which teak oil ma kes no difference.
Before you start slapping oils on your furniture check what it already is f inished with as you may just be wasting your time. If it has been finished with a varnish I would think twice before you attempt to remove it to get b ack to bare wood due to surface impregnation you may find yourself sanding right through the veneer.
Richard
Oils generally are best used on unfinished wood - say if you were stripping right back. Teak oil is usually a mixture Tung oil and linseed oil plus driers and UV filters etc. Its good for more "difficult" oily woods like teak.
For already finished stuff, then much depends on the state its in. Wax and a polish might be enough. Or if it needs deep cleaning then 0000 wire wool, and white spirit will do it. For a lighter clean and finish, just apply the was with the wire wool, then buff it out.
Teak is an oily wood and varnish doesn't stick too well. Hence the teak oil. Sometimes the oil is removed by pre-treatment with a solvent.
If there's no scratches the original finish can be chemically removed or with a solvent. Fine wire wool is useful.
If there are scratches it will have to be sanded. However veneers can be very thin and the risk is breaking through to the cheap wood core.
If it's cheap and nasty shit furniture (and lots is/was) it will be very thin. Usually you can't see the thickness as the edges are covered with a bit of solid wood.
Teak isn't a particularly decorative timber, just stripes. So teak veneer is usually used on cheaper timber, pine, beech etc. or composites ply, MDF, or chip to give the appearance of teak
If the table is already solid teak, the legs frame etc. then its difficult to see why they would want or need to stick teak veneer on the top.
The top wouldn't be solid in any case but made up of separate boards to allow for movement; so these could be selected so as hide any flaws in the grain. Not that teak has many, coming from rather large tall trees.
So maybe what you're looking for is a way of treating teak veneer which has been glued on top of another timber. Which may be a lot different to the well known methods of treating solid teak furniture.
As its secondhand, there's no telling what sort of finishes have already been applied in any case.
michael adams
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I'm glad I joined this discussion. The furniture came from House of Fraser, so it was quite expensive. The instructions suggested applying Danish Oil about every six months (which I have not done). I thought this was to stop the wood from drying out.
There is no surface damage and no major cleaning required. I wonder what I should be doing. I know some instructions say not to use silicone.
Could they by half right in that a cloth dampened with Danish Oil could be suitable?
Maybe I should look for the instructions :-)
The reason for not using silicone on anything is that it can be impossible to remove without physically removing the top surface. This is a problem as it can react badly with any other finishes which may be applied subsequently causing faults such as blooming etc. etc.
Basically once silicone has been used on anything its necessary to carry on using it for the life of the item. Which itself can cause problems as silicone is being phased out of cheaper polishes and so may be harder to source.
michael adams
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