Polishing old wooden furniture

[Tim S]

Hi all,

I've just bought two rather nice wooden items from the YMCA Furniture Warehouse in Tunbridge Wells - a small bedside cupboard and a bookshelf with cupboards at the bottom.

I am pretty ignorant when it comes to wood...

Although both items are in a similar style, dark with carved features, the bedside is predominantly ply and the bookshelf is mostly solid wood.

AFAICS the bedside is varnished - feels hard and smooth, no real "stickiness" if running a finger over it.

The bookshelf has a different feel - a sort of slight sticky/squeaky feeling if running a finger over it. Could this mean that it's original finish was wax or wax on oil?

Anyway, onto the real question:

I thought I'd give the bookshelf a buff up before putting it upstairs, so I bought some carnauba/beeswax and tried some out on top. Shined up nicely by hand, except for one area, where there seems to be a surface deposit of something hard that looks like bloom. I can scratch this off with my nail.

So I think I should clean it up with something before attempting to polish. Not much wrong with the item, no deep scratches or stains - so I don't really want to strip it completely.

What would be best - warm soapy water, a wipe with white spirit or something else?

Ta muchly,

Tim

[Phil Anthropist]

That something else could be a weak solution of vinegar diluted in water.

[Tim S]

I didn't think of that - I will give it a try and report back...

Cheers

Tim

[Tim S]

SWMBO reckons it's soot - I think she might be right... Vinegar didn't touch it so I'm off the carefully experiment with white spirit on an inconspicuous bit...

Cheers

Tim

[Mike Halmarack]

If ordinary soap and water doesn't work, why not try sugar soap? It'll take the shine off for sure but that may not be a bad thing if you intend to re-wax the piece. Sugar soap, depending on the strength of the solution, might tend to remove any desirable patina (dirt) too. Another alternative is a very light rub over the area of unwanted bloom with extra-fine wire wool dipped in oil to lubricate the process. This will have more of a tendency to produce a distinct patch than sugar soap would.

[Tim S]

Hi

Thanks for the tip - I have some results now...

Sorry - I didn't see your post until I'd come back from B&Q (spit - 3 quid for a pair of M6 expanding bolts - plan ahead next time and use Screwfix...)

I tried a little white spirit (premium less pongy version - not sure if that makes any difference). With a little rubbing I was able to shift the deposit, so I then went over the whole top gently with a rag and more spirit.

It dried matt, which is what I was expecting - certainly didn't take vast amounts of the finish off, just a little along with some dirt - which is exactly what I was aiming for.

10 minutes later, after it had dried off, I polished it up with the beeswax by hand and it came up a treat.

So I'll follow that process for the rest of it. Not sure if this would be the best idea on an antique but that's not a problem here.

Cheers

Tim