Furniture (Fine Wood) How-To Guide

Fine Wood Furniture

Overview
Maintenance
Questions/Answers
Articles

To maintain the appearance and useful life of your fine wood furniture, it is important that your home maintenance program include the proper maintenance for your fine wood furniture.

Wooden furniture is a major investment, and its appearance and useful life can be extended with proper care and maintenance. See also: Leather Furniture and Upholstered Furniture.

Shown in the "Maintenance" tab above are the recommended routine maintenance tasks for your fine wood furniture. The "Questions / Answers" tab above shows our answers to related questions. And the "Articles" tab above provides links to related informational articles and sources.

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		Maintenance Task: Wax fine wood furniture

		How do you wax fine wood furniture?
		The best maintenance for clear varnished wooden furniture is a coating of good paste wax. Paste wax is a very stable material that provides good protection from moisture and airborne pollutants. Good quality paste wax is available in most hardware stores. A thin coat should be applied in accordance with the directions on the can. If brass hardware on the wooden furniture needs polishing, it is recommended that it be first removed from the furniture, so that the brass polish does not come in contact with the wood. Between waxing, loose dust on the surface can be removed with a soft, lint-free cloth, gently rubbed over the surface. Dust is abrasive, and can scratch the surface, so care should be taken.

		Why is it important to wax fine wood furniture?
		A good coating of wax helps protect the surface of the wood furniture and to extend its appearance and useful life.

		How often should you wax fine wood furniture?
		Paste wax should be applied no more than once a year (March). Waxing too often can result in a built-up cloudy surface on wooden furniture.

		How does Home-Wizard rate the costs and benefits for this task?
		The cost of this task is relatively low. The time required will depend on the amount of fine wood furniture that you have and their ages.

		The benefits of this task is that it helps to extend the useful life of your fine wood furniture.

		Overall Home-Wizard benefit-versus-cost rating (one 'hat' = low and four 'hats' = high):

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS from "Ask-a-Wizard":

QUESTION from Linda on 10/4/2008
my wood kitchen table has developed white cloudy spots and I am not sure why. However, somewhere I remember hearing of a home solution to these. I think it involved making a paste to rub on it but I can't find anything about it. Can you help?

ANSWER FROM HOME-WIZARD.COM on 10/4/2008
Dear Linda:

If the white cloudy spots that you are seeing on your wooden kitchen table has been caused by hot items being placed on it, then here is a webpage that describes how to use a steam iron to removed these white spots:

http://tipnut.com/diy-how-to-remove-white-heat-stains-on-wood-table/

Please note, we have not actually tried this technique ourselves, so we can't verify that it truly works. My advice is to be very careful, and if possible, to test it on an area that you could potentially cover with a centerpiece, for example.

Hope this is helpful.
Home-Wizard.com
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