Wax On, Wax Off

What do you do when you find an antique piece that you want to clean up without it losing its charm? Sure, some pieces lend themselves to repainting or even completely stripping and refinishing. But what about those antique store finds or family heirlooms that you'd rather restore? My suggestion would be to use a wax. Exhibit one:

Before and after using Briwax

These chairs were for a customer who purchased them from an antique store. They belong to an English pub table set, and somewhere around 80 years old. They were in pretty good shape, they just needed to be cleaned up. In the picture above, you can see that the chair on the right has a nice layer of "film" from years of being cleaned with bleach water. It's also hard to distinguish the grain pattern; it's just kinda brown. The one on the left was cleaned and polished with Briwax - it's one of my favorite things.

The process was simple - get a piece of #0000 steel wool, grab a dab of the wax and rub it into the grain of the wood in a circular pattern. A little goes a long way, by the way. Then, let it dry...it only takes a few minutes and leaves a dull haze. Then, use an old t-shirt and buff the wax to a nice shine. Then repeat the process to add a soft luster to the wood. The pictures below show a before and after one coat of Briwax. The cool thing is that Briwax comes in several colors - the colorant is suspended in the wax itself, so it doesn't have to be stirred around or anything. As you can see below, it helps blend in the discolored and worn areas. The other cool thing about Briwax is that it cleans the piece, too. There's a solvent that evaporates as the wax dries, leaving a thin layer of wax that protects the wood from oils and fingerprints and stuff.

Before

After one coat of dark brown wax

So that's it...it can be pretty labor intensive but is definitely worth the effort. This process can be used on pieces that are losing their color or luster, too; chair arms are a great example. Just pick a color (there's Clear, too) and wax away.

Have fun, young grasshopper. 

-JP