Finishing oak bannister etc

[Lee Nowell]

Hi all

A good few years ago we had an oak and glass staircase fitted. Essentially oak handrail, base rail and newels with glass between. We couldn't decide on what to finish it with so left it. We are now getting around to sorting it out and wondered what the best approach would be.

We like the oak so whatever we do we don't want to change the colour or make it glossy. We could I guess leave it untreated as is but have noticed that the grease from hands on the hand rails is darkening the wood. Is they a way of cleaning this up?

Would appreciate your thoughts.

Many thanks

Lee.

[Andy Burns]

For my oak (butcher block) desk, I used this polyvine wax finish in satin, they also do a dead flat version, from a few years of hands touching it for mouse/keyboard use it hasn't darkened or gone shiny ...

[nothanks]

If you're certain that the oak is unfinished then use an oil finish, it will enhance the grain and protect the wood. You'll probably need to lightly sand the greased areas, and may need a solvent.

I generally use Osmo poly-x but recently used Fiddes for an Oak parquet floor and it looks the dog's danglies. I'll link a couple of good articles (they discuss oiling floors but the info is still useful for other applications):

[The Natural Philosopher]

I used Danish Oil very thinly applied, as many times as is needed - the more times the more glossy. And the darker the colour

soap and water and a ciureing pad wiped down and left to dry