Solid Wood Maintenance

Caring for Solid Wood –

Proper care of your solid-wood furnishings is key to their long and beautiful life with you. Maintain your oiled, solid-wood furniture with a high-quality furniture oil for indoor use, like our Zinolin Teak Oil. Sold here for decades, our customers love the color and shine it gives their Teak, Walnut and Cherry woods. Another option is our Scand-Oil. This food-grade oil, like lotion, is perfect on Oak or any oiled-wood finish and leaves a beautiful satin glow.

Here in Wisconsin, we suggest oiling in Spring and Fall, but you may need to oil more or less frequently depending on your humidity and temperature conditions. Light scratches? No worries. Remove light scratches from your solid-wood pieces simply and quickly, using either fine sandpaper or #0000 steel wool. Give the furniture a light sanding, then simply re-oil with our Zinolin Teak Oil or Scand-Oil, and your furniture is as good as new! Sometimes it might be necessary to sand, steel wool the entire top for a uniform sheen, when in doubt contact a professional.

The Nature of Solid Wood

Solid wood is a living, breathing material. This means its structure is affected by the temperature and humidity of its surroundings. Wood absorbs and emits moisture mostly through the pores of cross-cut boards. So if your solid-wood piece is a tabletop, it has cross cut boards at the ends, for example. This means that changes in air humidity may cause a slight change in the size of the top, as the boards expand or contract with the temperature and humidity changes of the space. This results in minor openings at the edge or even in the middle of the table.

Wood adapts to the surroundings in which its been placed. When solid wood changes this way, you will be able to feel the joints between the different components. Tabletops of solid wood easily bend a little and get small, visible cracks between the grains. Small changes are inevitable and do not change or have any meaning as to the durability of the table. They are also not defects in your solid-wood piece, but simply prove that the item is made of a living material.

You should, however, be aware of the temperature and humidity conditions of the room in which your solid-wood furnishings will live. Avoid placing your furniture in rooms with high humidity or that are unheated. Also, as it does adapt to its surroundings, furniture constructed of solid wood must not be kept in rooms with major fluctuations in air humidity and temperature. If placed in a room with normal air humidity and temperature, the joints in your solid-wood furniture will be tight most of the year through.

The Making of Solid-Wood Furniture

Solid-wood furniture is made of wood boards that are glued together. Boards are carefully selected for use based on their structure, color, and the content of a particular wood’s characteristic markings, such as knots or pits. The selected solid-wood boards are then sorted and matched to create a tabletop that is as well-balanced in overall appearance as is possible with a product made by Mother Nature. Well-balanced pieces will still include boards of various color tones and natural markings. Once glued, the future tabletops are placed in a controlled environment for a few days to allow the pieces to dry. Finally, they are cut to size, sanded and finished with oil or lacquer.