Dry Air, French Polish, Musty Smell, Orange Oil, Neatsfoot Oil On Leather

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Test for dry air with a hygrometer

Kiln drying your furniture.

Wood is normally pretty active anyway absorbing and releasing moisture throughout the day with cooking and showers, even in well vented houses, but that's just at surface level. The drying of the air by electric heat is similar to kiln drying your furniture and draws the moisture from deep in the wood.

Hygrometer

A hygrometer is a good investment for both your furniture and yourself. It's an instrument similar in appearance to a thermometer, but it measures humidity instead of temperature. A hygrometer could not only help your furniture and your own comfort level, but could save you money in heating costs.

Your furniture's comfort

Use yourself as a test for your furniture's comfort. Do you feel uncomfortable and cold in the winter and you frequently turn up the thermostat to raise the room temperature? If so, when you first start feeling uncomfortable your furniture is too. When you start feeling warmer your furniture is about to hang it's tongue out in discomfort.

In the summer we release moisture as persperation as a cooling mechanism for our bodies to keep cooler. In the winter when we dry out the air in our houses with heat the dry air sucks moisture from our skin so it tends to cool us the same as the perspiring activity.

Turn on a humidifier

If you turn on a humidifier and leave the temperature where it is you'll start feeling warmer, because the air is happy to get it's moisture from the humidifier rather than from you.

A word of warning, don't over humidify. Humidity comfort is at 40% to 60% and you're better off at the lower end of the comfort level, especially if you have allergies or asthma keep it just where you feel comfortable. Too much humidity can cause the growth of mildew and mold and it can happen in the hidden nooks and crannies inside your furniture and underneath low sitting pieces where air circulation is poor. This is where a hygrometer comes in handy. Hygrometers aren't very expensive, I bought a little plastic case one for $2.98 to make a comparison with our $50.00 brass and wood one. They both worked the same which would indicate that they were both measuring the humidity equally well.

Orange oil

You can help your furniture feel better with treatments similar to what you give yourself, only instead of using moisturizers and lotions your furniture would enjoy a good massage with orange oil. Lemon oil used to be the oil to use, but orange has better properties, so has become the citrus oil of preference. It isn't a matter of smell good or 'in vogue', there's a large amount of d-Limonene in orange oil and that, as well as the oil, is the stuff that has a lot of benefit to your furniture, because of it's cleaning powers. There are a lot of cleaners and other products that use orange oil and d-Limonene. We'll cover d-limonene another time for those of you who are interested in knowing why things do as they do, rather than just knowing you should use them. Don't throw your lemon oil out, use it up first, then make the transfer to orange oil.

You can purchase Orange Oil here from a reliable supplier who has been in business since the mid 1950's, has secure ordering and are generally good, all around friendly people to deal with.

Orange oil will penetrate natural finishes like lacquer and shellac and put an amount of oil back in the wood. Although polyurethane and other plastic type finishes can't be penetrated by any oils, you can put an application of orange oil on the underneath side of tables and anywhere else there is raw wood, like inside drawer openings and the bare wood on drawers. It not only adds oil to the wood, it smells good for a long time.

It's a good idea to give your furniture a good all over oil treatment three or four times a year.

Quick tip

Plastic laminates

Plastic laminates are layers of paper which have been impregnated with resins. The top sheet of paper has the wood grain design that you see on your laminated table top or marble or other design on your kitchen counter tops. They're pressed with extremely high pressure and high heat to make a hard substance resistant to lots of liquids and minor bumps. Never use abrasive cleaners or pads to clean laminates, since it's easy to rub through the top layer. Although it's hard, it's still plastic and vulnerable to abrasives.

Musty Smell

Musty smelling dresser

email question.....

I got an old dresser from my Aunt. it is very musty smelling. it was in a basement for years. Is there a way to get the musty smell out. I have washed it with baking soda and water. I had it in my garage for several getting air. Then I put newspapers in the drawers.I had heard that the newspaper would absorb the oder. it still smells.

Any suggestions?

Thank you, myrna

Reply.....

Musty smell is probably mildew

The musty smell is probably mildew and it can be eliminated with laundry bleach.

Laundry bleach solution

Use a solution of 1 part laundry bleach and 9 parts of water. Be sure that everything in the surrounding area is protected, because the bleach solution will take the color out of carpeting and your clothes and can be rough on many other things. It's best if you can work outside.

Get in all the nooks and crannies

You can spray, brush or wipe the solution. The best way is with a pump spray bottle, like window cleaner and such things come in. With the spray you can get in all the nooks and crannies easier, where musty smells and mildew like to hide. Spray until the area you're spraying is damp, but not drippy wet. If you use a brush be sure to get into all the corners and crevices. The same with wiping with a cloth, get the out of the way places real good. You can squeeze the solution from the cloth to get into tight places. Let everything dry naturally.

Wear gloves and eye protection

You should wear protective gloves, because it's a pretty strong bleach solution and can cause problems with sensitive skin. Always wear eye protection when you're working with chemicals too. Some real strong protective gloves at a reasonable price, Nitrile gloves, are available here, as well as safety glasses and other safety equipment.

Be very careful to not get any bleach solution on the finish on the outside of the dresser.

Remove all the drawers and apply the bleach solution to all areas of raw wood inside the dresser.

Don't apply bleach solution ot the finish

Apply to the drawers, inside and out, except don't apply bleach solution to the finish. Case, total inside bare wood area. Mildew can occur on the finish too, but can get deeper into bare wood. If you have some sunshine peeking through in your area, put the case and drawers out in the sunshine for a few hours.

Sunshine odor eliminator

Sunshine is one of the best odor eliminators there is.

Good furniture cleaner and orange oil

Clean the finish on the outside with a good furniture cleaner and give the whole thing inside and out, including finish and bare wood, a good application of orange oil.

After the bleach treatment put the drawers back in and let the dresser sit for a day, then open a drawer and sniff. If the musty odor is still prevalent you'll need to repeat the bleach treatment before going on to the cleaning and orange oil.

Cedar drawer liners

Another good help is cedar drawer liners.

Neatsfoot oil

Restore brittle leather seats

Neatsfoot oil is good for restoring brittle leather seats in antique chairs, or any other leather that has gotten hard or brittle from loss of it's oils due to exposure to the air. 100% neatsfoot oil is an animal product and is best used to replace the oils in leather. There are neatsfoot oil compound products, some of which use petroleum products and some use vegetable oil additives, but pure is best. Make lots of applications and let as much soak in as you can, letting it sit overnight with heavy coats. It's a good idea to give newer leather an application every few months to keep its oils.

Neatsfoot oil will darken leather

Test in an out of the way place, because neatsfoot oil will darken leather.

Glass etch and decoration

Stained glass kit

T-Squares

Drafting paper

picture frame matting

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