Looking After Your Furniture
Handmade furniture is an investment that can easily last a lifetime and beyond. It is surprisingly easy to look after and just a small amount of the right care will extend your furniture’s life considerably. Your choice of finish influences both the look of your furniture and the kind of care that it will require.
Choice of Finishes
Here are the most popular finishes and why:
Hard Wax Oil
Provides a natural wood finish based on vegetable oils and natural waxes. It is the most popular finish as it nicely highlights the grain of any wood species and offers robust heat and water resistance. Regular application creates a long-lasting, protective seal which when maintained will keep your furniture looking the way it did when you first bought it.
Varnish
Gives a rich colour and leaves the wood feeling smooth, glossing over the grain of the wood. It gives great protection against knocks, scuffs and scratches. Varnish requires little or no maintenance when it comes to keeping your furniture looking like new.
Raw Finish
Leaving the wood raw means that no finish is applied. Regular care over time will achieve a wonderful bleached look that is associated with a traditional much-loved kitchen table. Amazingly after a few years, the surface of the wood becomes incredibly resilient.
Wonderful Organic Material
Wood is a wonderful organic material and almost half the weight of freshly sawn wood is water. All the timbers that Steve sources undergo meticulous drying to carefully reduce the moisture content. The process of air drying the timber depends on its thickness. For each inch of thickness the timber is dried for one year, plus one additional year. It is then kiln dried to reduce the moisture content to at least 12%. Wood is influenced by the changing humidity of your home so where possible take care not to place your furniture next to radiators or anywhere subject to excessive changes in temperature or moisture content.