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Furniture Care
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Furniture Polishing
Everything you need to know
about
selecting the right furniture polish
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With so many choices of furniture polish available on the
market today how do you know which one is right for you?
There are several factors to weigh up when deciding to use
Furniture Polish or Beeswax on furniture and other wooden
objects.
One critical factor is that the ingredients in commercial
polishes and cleaning products are rarely disclosed.
Moreover, these ingredients can be, and frequently are,
changed without warning or notification. These ingredients
may be harmless or harmful to the furniture (and to
you) and you have no way of knowing in advance.
The first thing to look for is a natural beeswax furniture
polish that only contains natural ingredients, always steer
clear of anything that contains silicon, gum turps or petro-chemical
by-products, these types of polishes are most commonly found
in supermarkets and
hardware stores and should be avoided at all costs.
Go to:
http://www.furniturecareproducts.com.au/productspolishing.htm
What are the problems with these ingredients? Let me go
through them one by one and you'll see why it's best to
avoid them.
Silicone
Silicone is put in furniture polish to make application
easy and buffing off easy but if you ever need to have the
piece of furniture you are polishing repaired or refinished
it creates all sorts of problems for the repairer.
The repairer is unable to remove the silicone residue or
film that's left on the surface which then causes the new
lacquer being applied to bubble and not adhere to the
surface as it is supposed to.
Long term use of silicone polishes on furniture can cause
the lacquer on the surface to crack, split and break down.
Gum Turps
Gum turps is a common ingredient found in many beeswax
polishes especially companies who produce old style
traditional waxes. This is an ingredient that is commonly
used to keep the beeswax polish soft while still in the can
and to make the wax dry when it's applied to the furniture's
surface. The main problems associated with gum turps are:
Toxicity, skin irritations and generally poor results. Gum
turps in wax makes it hard to apply and hard to remove and
will always leave an oily, smeary finish.
Petro-Chemicals and Tolulene
These ingredients are most commonly found in aerosol
furniture polishes and oils, and as with gum turps they can
create toxic fumes, skin irritations and give poor results.
Important Note:
Oil Based Furniture Polishes tend to attract dust rather
than repel it. If you've ever used these types of furniture
polish you might of noticed that after you have polished
your furniture it looks great only to find a couple of days
later that it looks as if you hadn't even done it. The
reason that happens is when the dust settles on the surface
again it impregnates itself into the oily residue that's
left behind after polishing. Always look for a Furniture
Polish or Beeswax Polish that leaves a fresh, smooth, smear
free finish.
Go to:
http://www.furniturecareproducts.com.au/productspolishing.htm
Carnauba Wax
Carnauba wax is sometimes found in beeswax polishes but only
use a polish that contains this ingredient if you are trying
to get a high gloss finish on raw wood and is not overly
useful on lacquered finishes as it can make a satin finish
very patchy with shiny spots all over it.
Most furniture restorers and repairers recommend using a
good quality beeswax furniture polish for the proper care of
wood furniture. Inca™ TimberWax Is a Premium Quality, High
Performance, Easy to Use Beeswax Furniture Polish that
Leaves No Streaks, Smears or
Fingermarks And Contains No Petro-Chemicals, Gum Turps,
Silicone or
Carnauba.
Go to:
http://www.furniturecareproducts.com.au/productspolishing.htm
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The
Complete Guide to Caring
for Wood Furniture
To download our printable Handbook
click here |
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