Maintaining Wood Finishes With Wax and Oil
For ease of application and softness of sheen, wax and oil are hard to beat, but offer comparatively little surface protection. Both need constant maintenance, although both are easy to maintain. Many coats of wax, however, built up over the years, will yellow and obscure grain and colour, and will also collect grime. That definite but intangible glowing warmth of an old finish - patina - is the product of waxing, buffing and normal wear over the life of the piece, so if you do strip and rewax a surface, expect to take time to regain the patina.
These finishes are more attractive on hardwoods. Silicon waxes should be treated with caution, since they are incompatible with any other sort, and give much more of a 'household sparkle' than a warm finish. There are many good-quality traditional furniture wax blends on the market, which use carnauba, beeswax and other additives; use these. A word of warning - once wax is applied to a raw surface, you must give up the idea of using any other finish at all over it. You can strip it with white spirit (paint thinner), but some wax will certainly remain in the pores of the wood.
Use wax on pieces that get no hard wear, like carvings, decoration, marquetry, hall furniture and so on. It is also commonly applied inside drawers and cabinets, where its fragrance mixes with the wood's natural aroma, and on drawer sides to facilitate running.
Oil finishes give durable, deep-wood protection against heat and moisture, have a distinctive flat, dull sheen, and are the only treatments through which you can feel the grain texture. Application is easy, but demands a lot of time and work. Linseed is traditionally used, either raw, which takes a long time to dry, or boiled, which sets more quickly but becomes gummy during application. It soaks deep into the grain and hardens by oxidation, allowing the wood to shrink or expand freely. Oil forms no barrier to surface knocks or bruises, but is untouched by heat and liquids and can be easily touched up, which is why it is a good choice for table-tops. Teak, tung and Danish oils (penetrating wood sealers) carry added resins which leave a harder surface film; they do, however, require much more careful application than linseed.
