Caring for wood furniture

8 years ago

I have a lot of wood furniture. In particular a mid century teak table that has no urethane finish. I assume it's tung oiled.

reading about how to care for it I get conflicting information. For cleaning I see not to use murphy's, use murphy's, use Howard's orange oil, never use orange oil, wax, don't wax.

At at the end of the day, what is best for maintenance cleaning? Should I put a paste wax on it? Murphy's bad or good? What does this Howard's orange oil do exactly? And what is furniture cream? Do I need that?

ive called rockier and even they give conflicting information.

Also have same set of questions for general wood furniture care. If there's a reliable link that'd be great too.

It it seems for every site that says do X,y,z another site says X,y,z will ruin it.

Thanks in advance!

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Comments (3)

User
8 years ago
If you have a midcentury TEAK table, you use "teak oil" on it. Teak is a naturally oily wood that doesn't hold finishes well. Just keep oiling it.

I used to clean and oil my mom's furniture once or twice a year, first cleaning it gently with fine steel wool and mineral spirits to get off the hand grime, then wiping on and rubbing off a few layers of "teak oil". We bought the oil from the local Scandinavian furniture store, and the bottle lasted for years because you don't need much.

http://www.wikihow.com/Oil-Teak-Furniture

http://fromtimespast.com/2012/12/07/how-to-take-care-of-teak-indoor-furniture/
bobismyuncle
8 years ago
Well, a couple of clarifications. Often teak is finished with a flat finish like lacquer and not "oiled." It's a thin finish so people call it "oiled."

Second, "Teak Oil" is often just a thinned varnish or (linseed)oil-varnish blend. It is not a natural extract of teak wood (which does have a bit of natural oil in it.) http://www.popularwoodworking.com/techniques/finishing/oil-finishes-their-history-and-use

A few years ago, I refinished a bunch of teak furniture that the owner had religiously "teak oiled" annually. The result, which would be typical of linseed oil applications done wrong, was a soft, sticky mess. It was full of lint and dust and soft enough you could leave a fingerprint. I stripped it all off, put on a dead flat finish and it looked great. She asked how often she should "teak oil" it and I told her never again.

As far as normal maintenance, there are lots of different approaches and opinions. Can vary from nothing, to annual waxing, to regular furniture polish. Personally, I think it's your choice, but I would avoid Pledge as it contaminates the surface with silicone oil. "Orange oil" and related "lemon oil" are simply a light mineral oil with added scent and perhaps color..
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My grandfather was a carpenter. He was born in the 1880s. I don't know if that had anything to do with his taste or if it was the fact that he was a carpenter, but he did like nice wood finishes. He was of the school of thought that baseboards, door frames, and crown molding should be walnut or mahogany. When I was a little bitty girl, he made me a dresser, using a small washstand as a guide. My dresser had two wide drawers and a mirror. Papa made it out of scraps. The body of the dresser was an old Philco mahogany TV cabinet, the drawer fronts were really nice Walnut, the side pieces were some kind of veneer that eventually bubbled and buckled, and the supports for the mirror were probably fir. I got so excited when I saw it that I threw a fit and I *had* to take it home right away. The mirror frame was not yet finished, it was raw wood. The drawer fronts and side pieces were finished walnut, and the top was mahogany. Papa made my father promise to finish it. When I was 16 years old, it still was in its original condition...except for the small Beatles sticker in the corner of the mirror. I painted the dresser white. My mother shook her head and said, 'I'm glad Papa it's not here to see you painting that bewwwtiful wood." I still have that dresser. It is still white.
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bobismyuncle
8 years ago
Oh, I remembered another interesting article on "teak oil" http://www.popularwoodworking.com/articleindex/teak-oil-oil-doesnt-exist

There was another recent article (which I can't find at the moment) that analyzed 15 different "teak oils" by brand and there were about 8 different product types.

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Caring for wood furniture

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