[Steve Neul]

The wood looks like a hunduras mahogany with the panels being crotch cut veneer. As far as maintaining it I would just wax it with a heavy wax like johnson paste wax annually. Then to keep clean any furniture polish or lemon oil. Most of the antique dealers I worked with used a 50/50 mixture of lemon oil and old english scratch cover for dark wood. It made the furniture look really good and the scratch cover darkened any scuff marks.

 

[Steve Neul]

Thanks for the responses. I wasn't sure about wax. I guess if you ever do decided to do something with a finish then you have to get the wax off, but if not it's OK to have it on there?

On the lemon oil is there any kind that's recommended? Does it need to be pure lemon oil? I'm guessing a lot of stuff might be like the "tung oil" finishes, don't really contain what it says it contains.

Thanks!

Teri

The brand of lemon oil doesn't really matter. I normally use Old English since it is usually sold with the scratch cover. All it really does is provide something for dust to stick to.

I'm sure as old as the piece of furniture is it already has wax on it anyway. It's just part of the job if you refinish or touch up the finish to remove as much of any substance that might be on the finish. There is a wide range of wax and grease removers that would work fine for this purpose. I normally use Dupont Prepsol Solvent which is a automotive paint product. There is really no product made for furniture that would present more than a trivial problem touching up and refinishing. The biggest problem would be silicone which is in aerosol polishes but even that is a trivial problem. A finish like anything else when it gets old dries out and gets brittle and flakes or oxidizes. A wax moisturizes the finish and extends the duty life of the finish so it is good to use.