Alte Dorfstr. 35 65207 Wiesbaden – Breckenheim Tel: 06122-704971 FAX: 06122-704975
www.golden-gallery.com email: golden-gallery@t-online.de
open Mo – Fr. 1 pm - 6.30 pm, Sat. 10 am – 4 pm
Maintenance and Treatment Advice for massive wood furniture
Congratulations on your new acquisition! To make sure, your new find keeps or even increases its value we would like to give you some useful advice.
1. Wood is a natural product that does “move” in relation to the humidity of the environment.
This process is true for newly manufactured massive wood products as well as antiques.
To avoid damage caused by dryness to your furniture we advise you to control the humidity of your living rooms regularly as wooden furniture needs to be protected from any damage by modern heating. The recommended humidity of your rooms should be around 60 – 70 % so that the wood keeps its own “rest humidity” of 12 - 15 %. There are a number of special measurement systems for that. We would also advise you to install as much humidifiers as necessary and possible to your heaters!!! If you stick to those recommendations there shouldn’t be any changes to your furniture like cracks or distortions. If you wouldn’t reach the recommended humidity levels, you may think of buying an electronic humidifier. A room of about 25 square meters may need about 10 l water a day!!!
2. Be aware that when you put up the furniture everything needs to be “levelled”, all furniture legs need to stand straight. This is to guarantee a good functioning of doors and locks. Make sure that the furniture doors (after being opened for use) are properly shut at all times. As already mentioned above wood is always “moving” and unlocked doors could distort.
3. We also advise you to open and close drawers always with both hands as they could get jammed. To keep drawers easily moving you could rub some soap or candle wax on top of the track. You could equally treat unfoldable tables or similar mechanisms – in these cases liquid soap is even a more appropriate means. Please don´t use any kind of antique wax for this purpose as it would just cause the opposite.
4. All our softwood furniture (like pine wood etc.) and some of our oakwood furniture are treated with quality bees wax products or colourless linseed oil varnish. Those furniture that is treated with bees wax needs to be protected from water spillage, as water might cause white stains. But don’t worry - there are two possibilities to get rid of those stains. One is to treat the surface gently with some fine steel wool, then cover with some standard colourless antique wax and polish as described. The other is to treat the surface with a hot air fan. The hot air melts the wax and the surface is able to soak up the oily consistence again. To finish rub some fresh antique wax into the surface. This process guarantees an even colour of the treated surface. To make furniture – especially surfaces of tables - more resistant against water you might as well try a varnish with linseed oil.
5. To treat wood worms on a biological basis we recommend to use a vinegar essence (80 %) or a special vinegar for treating wood worms. In some cases it’s possible that antique furniture, esp. softwood furniture which has a more porous surface, does have a “musty smell”. This is not unusual considering the former use of this furniture in kitchens, drugstores e.g. It is possible to neutralize those “musty smells” (deriving from milk, bread, flour, medicine, cleaning agents e.g.) by for instance placing some fresh ground coffee powder openly into kitchen cupboards or lavender in wardrobes and chests of drawers.