Maintaining Antique Furniture

 

QUESTION: I recently inherited a number of pieces of antique furniture from my grandmother. They range from just under 100 years old to around 200. She loved nice things and was always on the lookout for interesting pieces. Unfortunately, as she got older, she was unable to care for them as well as she had in the past. I’m new to antiques and have no idea what to do to care for these pieces. Can you help me?

ANSWER: You’re very lucky that she thought that much of you to leave you her prized pieces. Over time, antique furniture accumulates dirt and grime. Even if she dusted it often, doing so grinds the dirt in, believe it or not. So the first thing you need to do is clean your pieces.

Cleaning is a simple process but you must be careful not to hurt the finishes. One of the best products to use to clean antique furniture is Murphy’s Oil Soap which comes in a concentrated liquid and also in a spray bottle. The best material to use for cleaning is an old washcloth with a bit of nap left on it. If you’re using the concentrate, mix with water following the directions on the bottle. Dip the washcloth in the mixture and get it nice and soaked, then wring it out as much as you can. If you’re using the spray, apply some onto a wet, wrung out washcloth. Clean a small section of a piece at a time, drying immediately with an old towel. You’ll have to rinse the washcloth often as it will pick up a lot of dirt. When you’ve washed the entire piece, let it dry for at least 24 hours. You’ll notice that your pieces are beginning to look a lot better already.

But cleaning is only the beginning. After a piece is thoroughly dry, you’ll need to apply a protective coating. 

The most common finishes found on antique furniture are waxes, oils, shellacs, and varnishes. Not only do these finishes bring out the beauty of the wood's grain and color, but they also protect the wood from moisture and heat changes that can cause shrinking, swelling, crazing, and cracking. Finishes seal the wood pores against dirt and grime, too.

But in order for a finish to protect the wood, the finish itself must be protected. This can be done by polishing the finish with either a wax or an oil.

You can find waxes in liquid, aerosol spray, and paste forms in hardware and home supply stores. Look for products that contain carnauba wax, a natural substance from a palm tree native to Brazil, that’s especially durable and produces a glossy shine when rubbed vigorously. Minwax is one of the best on the market. 

Another reliable and popular polish is beeswax, which has been available for many years. You’ll find a variety of paste and liquid polishes containing beeswax in hardware and home supply stores. 

Apply either type of wax with an old athletic sock. Rub it in thoroughly and wait at least 30 minutes before buffing it with #0000 steel wool. Don’t worry, this grade is as soft as fabric. Wait 24 hours and apply a second coat. But this time, buff it with an old towel.

Oils such as tung, linseed, and lemon oil have been used for centuries to preserve and polish furniture finishes. They're often mixed with absorption promoters, so they actually sink into the wood pores rather than remaining on top as waxes do. Oils leave a lustrous shine that’s softer than a glossy wax shine, and they provide good protection against moisture. However, they tend to darken the wood slightly over time. And as with applying wax, use a piece of old athletic sock to apply the oil. Since you'll need to give your furniture a second coat of oil in most cases, place the cloth you used in a plastic bag and then in the freezer. When you're ready to apply an additional coat, take it out 30 minutes before you plan to begin so that it can thaw.

Regardless of whether you choose to use a wax or oil, always use the same type that has been used previously on a piece of furniture. Finish surfaces that are accustomed to one type of polish won't accept another type. For example, an oil applied to a finish that had been previously waxed will remain on the wood surface and won't soak in.

If you don't know what type of polisher has been used on a piece—apply a small amount of an wax or oil to an inconspicuous spot on the piece. The wood should accept one of them and that is the one you should use.

How often you need to clean and polish your antique furniture will depend on the kind of heating and cooling system in your home, its geographical location, how you use your antique pieces, and the type of cleaner/polisher you're using.

Avoid using spray oils or dusting helpers like Pledge on your antique furniture. The oil in them will only build up on the piece, attracting more dust and grime. Generally, you’ll need to reapply a wax or oil every six months or at least once a year. A light dusting in between applications will keep your pieces looking good.

Besides regular dusting and waxing or oiling, you also need to provide the proper environment, paying close attention to heat, humidity, and light. 

It’s important not to keep your rooms too warm. Extreme fluctuations can harm antique furniture, loosening joints and veneers. During the colder months, depending on your geographical location, keep pieces away from radiators, warm air vents, and fireplaces. Too much heat can rob the wood of vital moisture.

Keeping a relative humidity level at around 55 percent at 65 degrees F. is also important. Purchase one or more inexpensive digital barometers and place them in rooms with your antique furniture. 

Lastly, avoid placing antique furniture, especially older more valuable pieces in direct sunlight or artificial light, especially with today’s LED lightbulbs. Over-exposure to either is harmful.  

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about "folk art" in the 2023 Winter Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.

Preservation vs. Conservation

QUESTION: I have several pieces of antique furniture that need some tender loving care, but I’m not sure how to go about it. Can you explain the difference between preservation and conservation? And can you give me some tips on how I can take care of my pieces?


ANSWER: Preservation involves keeping an object from destruction and seeing to it that it’s not irreversibly altered or changed. In conservation, on the other had, the goal is to preserve the maximum amount of the original material, in as unaltered a condition as possible.

Furniture conservation and restoration can be divided into two general areas—structure and finish. Structure generally relates to wood---solid, joined, and veneered. The finish of furniture can be painted or varnished.



Antiques restoration can be an arduous process if the goal is complete authenticity. This is particularly true for museum conservators. For them, authentic material is the actual original material of the object. For example, a chair with its original upholstery, even if it is faded and shredded, is authentic for the conservator and possesses historic value even though it may not be exhibitable. The same chair can be "restored" and looking as it did when new, with replacement fabric copied from the original weave and colors, and upholstered according to the known design of that particular piece of furniture.

Some pieces of furniture, especially those constructed of harder woods, such as walnut, mahogany, maple, oak, or cherry, may only need to have their surface finish preserved. In the case of furniture made of these woods, there may be enough of the original finish left to restore the piece rather than refinish it.

Before doing anything, study your piece. Is the finish pretty much intact? Does the piece have a nice patina? Is the piece more than 100 years old? If you answered yes to even one of these questions, then you should do your best to preserve the original finish of your piece.

The first step in preservation is cleaning. Furniture gets dirty, even grimy over time. Before you can apply a new finish, you need to get rid of all the accumulated dirt and grease that often make it difficult to tell what kind of wood the piece of furniture is made of. Grime can also hide the fine lines of inlay and marquetry. Believe it or not, using lemon oil, a popular furniture polish, can do more harm than good. Since its made of a light petroleum oil and some paraffin wax, the wood doesn’t absorb it. Instead, it acts as a surface dust catcher.

One of the best products for cleaning wood, especially furniture, is Murphy’s Oil Soap. Today, it’s also in a spray bottle, but in case you can’t find it that way, you can make your own cleaning solution by mixing a capful of Murphy’s in a spray bottle of water. For this, you can use any empty spray cleaner bottle, as long as you wash it out thoroughly first. Since water will loosen any glued joint, and also tends to raise the grain of the wood, you don’t’ want to use very much. An old washcloth will do quite well for cleaning.

Spray the Murphy’s on a damp washcloth and then rub it on the surface of the furniture. Rinse the cloth when it gets to dirty. Have a second wet, but wrung out, washcloth ready to wipe off the Murphy’s Oil solution, wringing the cloth nearly dry after every few wipes. You can also use a green scruby cloth, sold in Dollar Stores, if there’s hard to remove grime. A stiff-bristle brush will allow you to get the dirt out of carved and turned areas. The secret is to clean only a small area at a time–one leg of a chair, one part of a chest, and so on. After you clean an area, wipe it dry with an old face towel. Be sure to wash out all your cloths or use others as you progress, especially on a large piece of furniture. After you have finished cleaning your piece of furniture, give it a final wipe with a clean cotton rag and set it aside to dry for 24 hours.

All this cleaning may cause joints to loosen, so be sure to check the structural integrity of your piece before applying a new finish. If joints need to be tightened or reglued, do so before applying a new finish.

Now you’re ready to apply a new finish. You can either use plain tung oil or a product like Minwax® Water-Based WoodSheen® which is a water-soluble mixture of furniture finish and stain that comes in six colors. For a piece that’s got lots of scratches or marks, it’s best to choose a stain color that complements the wood’s original finish.

The final step is polishing the entire piece using a prepared wax like Minwax, which comes in light and dark varieties. Obviously, use the light for woods like oak or cherry and the dark for woods like walnut or mahogany. Apply the wax with a piece of soft cotton cloth like an old athletic sock and after 30 minutes, polish the surface with an old face towel. One coat should do it, but for tabletops, apply two coats of wax.

Rub off the first coat with 0000 steel wool, then apply the second and polish with the towel. The more coats of wax you apply, the more water resistant the top will become. A light polishing once or twice a year will keep your piece in great condition.

There are no short cuts or time savers to this entire process. The work can be slow and at times tedious, but the results are worth it.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Article section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the other 24,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about antique clocks in the Fall 2019 Edition, "It's That Time Again," online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques & More Collection on Facebook.

Giving New Life Through Restoration

QUESTION: For years I also collected antiquities. Now I have a particular passion of writing boxes or old English boxes. I enjoy to restore by myself. I beg to ask for an opinion. I attach here two photos. On the lid, at the corners, something is missing! Do you think the angles were made of brass? Or in wood ... or mother of pearl? I doubt it because the thickness is a lot (about 3 mm.) Then I had never seen the brass corners that did not go vertically.

ANSWER: The corners on your box would have been brass, so if you can find someone to make these for you, they should be easy to replace. Be sure to glue them with a strong glue. Box makers usually used brass on the corners of better boxes to protect them while traveling. Victorians took writing and other types of boxes along on long trips so that they could communicate to their friends and family back home. It’s not unusual to find boxes from this time period in poor condition. Restoring them is not as difficult as doing furniture but can be challenging.

Antique boxes acted as portable storage workhorses for past generations. They served a variety of purposes from document boxes in which to keep valuable papers to writing boxes for correspondence to dressing boxes for grooming while traveling to tea caddies for storing precious tea. Victorians, in particular, loved boxes and people from all classes used them.

Unfortunately, people handled boxes a lot, so most antique ones aren’t in the greatest shape. Some boxes may have sat on a table in front of a window in the sunlight and became faded over time while others suffered from neglect.

A good example is an Indian sadeli mosaic-covered writing box that outlived its usefulness. Someone decided that instead of tossing it out, they would give it to their children to play with. The children drew all over the beautiful mosaic with crayons and someone did a bad job of pasting a piece of chartreuse felt over the writing surface on the inside. Needless to say, this restoration wasn’t a walk in the park.

Unlike antique furniture made before 1830, many antique boxes will benefit greatly with even modest restoration. And since they’re not large, it doesn’t take a lot of materials or time to restore them.

Antique boxes are valuable because they’re antique and looking old isn’t bad. And while restoring a box may make it look better, it may reduce its historical value. Boxes from the 18th century should only be restored by a professional restoration expert. In most cases, they need to be conserved, that is the deterioration of the box should be halted. Restoration is a more radical solution and often includes refinishing the wood and replacing metal parts. So the question to be asked is whether the box is in bad enough shape to render it less valuable than its being restored?












While restoration usually begins with reviving the wood of the box’s body, it also takes in exterior decorations made of ivory, tortoiseshell, and mother-of-pearl. These materials are all fragile and should be checked for cracks, abrasions, and chips. Metal ornamentation may be missing, dented or creased, or it may just need polishing. Veneers and inlay are much more difficult to repair and may require professional assistance.

Antique boxes also contain small and sometimes specialized hinges and locks that must also be examined for repair, restoration, or replacement. Finding replacements can be a real challenge since many of these may have been made for a particular box.

But minor conservation can do wonders for an antique box. First, tighten any loose screws and gently tap in any loose nails. Repair loose joints with wood glue. Finally, clean the box with a soft lint-free cloth dampened with Murphy’s Oil Soap solution. Do a small area at a time and use another lint-free cloth to dry it. After letting the box dry thoroughly for 24 hours, give it two coats of Minwax past wax to protect the exterior. Follow the directions on the can.




Dust the interior of the box with a soft shaving brush. If the wood is bare, as with some inner areas of the box, switch to a solvent-based cleaner. Use a toothbrush or toothpick to clean out any crevices. If this has markedly improved the box’s appearance then it may be a good time to stop.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the other 18,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about the Victorians in the Winter 2018 Edition, "All Things Victorian," online now. 

Whistle While You Wax

QUESTION: I have quite a few old pieces of furniture, some of which are antiques. I’m never sure what to use to clean and polish them. Can you offer any advice?

ANSWER: You’re not alone. Many people don’t know what type of cleaners and polishers are appropriate for antiques and end up using the wrong thing.

Before you can figure out what type of cleaner and polisher to use on your furniture, you first have to know what sort of finish the maker used on it. The most common finishes found on antique furniture are waxes, oils, shellacs, and varnishes. Not only do these finishes bring out the beauty of the wood's grain and color, but they also protect the wood from moisture and heat changes that can cause shrinking, swelling, crazing, and cracking. Finishes seal the wood pores against dirt and grime, too.

But over the years, wooden furniture dries out and shrinks or expands or warps from too much moisture. Older antiques sat in rooms heated only by a fireplace. If they sat too close to the fire, they dried out—too far away from it, they tended to warp.

In order for a finish to protect the wood, you have to protect the finish. This can be done by cleaning and polishing the finish with either a wax or an oil.

Cleaning furniture is a simple process. Using a solution of Murphy’s Oil Soap or the spray version of it, apply some to a well-wrung-out old washcloth. Rub a small area of the piece at a time and immediately dry it with either paper towels or an old towel. If the piece is particularly grimy, you may have to wash it several times. Be sure not to get the wood too wet and dry each area immediately. After you finish cleaning, let the piece dry thoroughly for 24 hours. For a really bad piece, you can also use one of those green scrubby squares. But don’t rub too hard because you may rub off the finish.

Once your piece is dry, it’s time to apply a new protective coating. The preferred method of protection is a wax since they’re easy to apply and leave a brilliant shine. The best waxes to use are those in paste form. Stay away from Pledge or other so-called spray cleaners and waxes. They apply a film to the surface of furniture which attracts dust like a magnet. Instead, look for products that contain Carnuba wax, a natural substance from a palm tree native to Brazil that’s durable and produces a glossy shine when rubbed vigorously.

Another reliable polish is beeswax, which has been around for many years. A variety of paste and liquid polishes containing beeswax are available.

Minwax Paste Wax, made from petroleum products, is a third alternative. It produces a durable hard shine that lasts up to a year. The more coats you apply, the more waterproof the surface becomes.

Oils such as Tung and linseed have been used for centuries to preserve and polish furniture finishes. They're often mixed with absorption promoters, so they actually sink into the wood pores rather than remaining on top as waxes do. Oils leave a lustrous shine that's softer than a glossy wax shine, and they provide good protection against moisture. However, they do tend to darken the wood slightly over time.

Regardless of which cleaner/polisher you choose—wax, oil, or feeder—always use the same type on a particular piece of furniture. Finish surfaces that are accustomed to one type of cleaner/polisher won't accept another type. For example, an oil applied to a finish that was previously waxed will remain on the wood surface and won't soak in.

How often you need to clean and polish your antiques will depend on a number of variables, such as the type of heating and cooling system in your home, the geographical location, how you use your antiques, and the type of cleaner/polisher you're using.

Generally, you’ll need to apply a paste wax every month or so. To tell if your piece needs another layer of paste wax, buff the old finish with a soft cloth. If this polishing fails to restore shine and smoothness to the finish, it's time for a new coat of wax.

For more specific details on cleaning, check out my previous blog from August 15, 2011.

Preserving Antique Furniture

Some pieces of furniture, especially those constructed of harder woods, such as walnut, mahogany, maple, oak, or cherry, may only need to have their surface finish preserved. In the case of furniture made of these woods, there may be enough of the original finish left to restore the piece rather than refinish it.

Before doing anything, study your piece. Is the finish pretty much intact? Does the piece have a nice patina? Is the piece more than 100 years old? If you answered yes to even one of these questions, then you should do your best to preserve the finish of your piece.

The first step to preservation is cleaning. Furniture gets dirty, even grimy over time. Before you can apply a new finish, you need to get rid of all the accumulated dirt and grease that often make it difficult to tell what kind of wood the piece of furniture is made of. Grime can also hide the fine lines of inlay and marquetry. Believe it or not, using lemon oil, a popular furniture polish, can do more harm than good. Since its made of a light petroleum oil and some paraffin wax, the wood doesn’t absorb it. Instead, it acts as a surface dust catcher.

One of the best products for cleaning wood, especially furniture, is Murphy’s Oil Soap. Today, it’s also in a spray bottle, but in case you can’t find it that way, you can make your own cleaning solution by mixing a capful of Murphy’s in a spray bottle of water. For this, you can use any empty spray cleaner bottle, as long as you wash it out thoroughly first. Since water will loosen any glued joint, and also tends to raise the grain of the wood, you don’t’ want to use very much. An old washcloth will do quite well for cleaning.

Spray the Murphy’s on a damp washcloth and then rub it on the surface of the furniture. Rinse the cloth when it gets to dirty. Have a second wet, but wrung out, washcloth ready to wipe off the Murphy’s Oil solution, wringing the cloth nearly dry after every few wipes. You can also use a green scruby cloth, sold in Dollar Stores, if there’s hard to remove grime. A stiff-bristle brush will allow you to get the dirt out of carved and turned areas. The secret is to clean only a small area at a time–one leg of a chair, one part of a chest, and so on. After you clean an area, wipe it dry with an old face towel. Be sure to wash out all your cloths or use others as you progress, especially on a large piece of furniture. After you have finished cleaning your piece of furniture, give it a final wipe with a clean cotton rag and set it aside to dry for 24 hours.

Now you’re ready to apply a new finish. You can either use plain tung oil (see last week’s blog) or a product like Minwax® Water-Based WoodSheen® which is a water-soluble mixture of furniture finish and stain that comes in six colors. For a piece that’s got lots of scratches or marks, it’s best to choose a stain color that complements the wood’s original finish.

The final step is polishing the entire piece using a prepared wax like Minwax, which comes in light and dark varieties. Obviously, use the light for woods like oak or cherry and the dark for woods like walnut or mahogany. Apply the wax with a piece of soft cotton cloth like an old athletic sock and after 30 minutes, polish the surface with an old face towel. One coat should do it, but for tabletops, apply two coats of wax.

Rub off the first coat with 0000 steel wool, then apply the second and polish with the towel. The more coats of wax you apply, the more water resistant the top will become. A light polishing once or twice a year will keep your piece in great condition.

There are no short cuts or time savers to this entire process. The work can be slow and at times tedious, but the results are worth it.