Caring for solid wood furniture: stains, scratches, oil

First thing to know: you are not caring for "wood", you are caring for its finishFinish (finition in French): the protective layer applied to raw wood: oil, wax or varnish (sold as vitrificateur for floors in France). It is the finish that takes the daily knocks, and the finish you maintain. Each has its own rules.. Two simple tests, on a hidden spot, will tell you which one you have. The wet finger first: if the wood darkens slightly, it is oiled or waxed; if nothing happens, it is probably varnished. And to settle it, the sandpaper test: one very light pass with a fine grit. A fine, dry, white dust means varnish. Paper that clogs with a slightly greasy paste means oil or wax. Everything else follows from that: I cover the three families in varnish, oil or wax, and it holds for furniture as much as for wood floors.

Everyday care: less is more

• Day to day: a soft cloth, dry or barely damp. For a kitchen worktop, a drop of diluted savon noir, the French black soap. That's all.
• Ban number 1: silicone dusting sprays. They shine for a moment and lay down a film that nothing really removes. The day the piece needs re-oiling or re-varnishing, the finish no longer grips: it is the nightmare of every workshop.
• Ban number 2: the household artillery. Bleach, limescale remover, ammonia, scouring sponges. On wood, each one leaves a permanent mark.
• Standing water is the only real enemy: wipe up anything left lying, never leave a soaked tea towel on an edge, use trivets. Washing oiled wood with plenty of water strips it little by little.
• And the dry air of winter: close to a stove running hard, solid wood pulls and can split. Move furniture a metre or two away from the direct source: the why is in why wood moves.

The move that changes everything: re-oiling

On oiled wood, the water drop test acts as your calendar: if the drop beads, all is well; if it spreads and darkens the wood, the protection needs renewing. The move itself is simple and very satisfying: clean, dry wood, a thin coat of worktop oil or hardwax oil with a lint-free cloth, along the grain; let it soak in for 15 to 20 minutes; wipe off all the excess (that is the secret: oil left sitting on the surface goes sticky); let it dry overnight. A hard-working worktop gets re-oiled 2 to 4 times a year around the sink, a table 1 to 2 times a year. Careful, one genuine safety point: cloths soaked in linseed oil can self-ignite as they dry crumpled up: dry them flat outside or soak them in water before binning them.

Repairs: stains and scratches

The white mark (cold glass, hot dish) on oiled or waxed wood is moisture trapped in the finish: a barely damp cloth and a warm iron in brief touches, or massage in a little oil. It almost always goes. The scratch on oiled wood is treated locally: very fine sanding (240 grit) along the grain, dust off, oil. Invisible, or close to it. The dent (crushed wood, fibres not cut): a few drops of water on the impact, a damp cloth, a hot iron on top: the steam swells the fibres back up. This little miracle only works on solid wood: on veneerVeneer (placage in French): a thin sheet of real wood glued onto a panel. Thickness: a few tenths of a millimetre. You do not sand it like solid wood: you would go straight through. or melamine, no sanding, no steaming: you disguise or you replace.

My honest opinion: try these moves, they are well within your reach and you risk very little by starting gentle and discreet. It is even one of the arguments that make me defend solid wood against all the "maintenance-free" materials: maintenance-free, in reality, means repair-free. A scratched kitchen varnish can be redone completely; scratched melamine stays scratched. And for the heavy cases (a top that needs a full re-sand, a deep burn, a family piece that deserves a proper restoration), that is workshop work I do regularly: talk to me about it. To see what well-treated solid wood gives over time, have a look at this burr walnut piece, made to last through the generations.