Oak Dining Tables

It happens to all of us.

You’re excited about buying new wood furniture, maybe a new oak dining table or coffee table, and when you get to the store the salespeople reinforce your excitement.  You honestly don’t have a clue about how to judge a piece of fine furniture for quality, but you know what looks good.

You base your purchase on that.  The salespeople tell you you’ve made an excellent choice, and you walk out of the store feeling pretty darn good.  But then it happens.

It usually takes a couple years or so, but when it does, it can be devastating.  Piece by piece your house furniture starts to fall apart.  When you take your wood dining table to be repaired, the repairman confirms your suspicions.

Your good-looking wood furniture is made of cheap material, and it’s a wonder it’s lasted even this long.  The table that the salespeople swore was oak merely had an oak veneer.  The rest was particle board.

How do you keep this from happening again?  Actually, it’s pretty easy.  Using your eyes, you can tell if a piece of wood furniture is worthy of your attention based on the kind of wood that’s used, what the finish looks like, and how it’s constructed.

What Kind Of Wood Is Used?

Manufacturers use three kinds of wood to make wood furniture, and this determines chiefly how long a piece of furniture will last.  Pieces can be constructed from hardwood, softwood, or engineered wood.

Of these three, which do you suppose makes the absolute best, highest quality fine furniture you can buy?  I’m sure you know.  Hardwoods like oak, maple, mahogany, and walnut are unmatched in their durability and beauty.  The wood is first air-dried, then dried again in a kiln to make sure all the moisture is gone.

Since the name of this site is Oak-Dining-Tables.com, you can guess which kind of wood furniture we prefer.

Yes, you can find average quality wood furniture made from pine and cedar, but they get scratched and dented much more than oak.  And then there’s the question of durability.  You seldom hear of pine dining tables being handed down through the generations.  With oak, it’s somewhat commonplace.

But be careful.  Walk into a furniture store and tell the salespeople you’re looking for an oak dining table, and you’re likely to walk away with a table constructed mostly of particle board or plywood with an oak veneer.  Unfortunately, manufacturers build most modern furniture with these engineered woods.

In fact, unless you specifically request solid wood furniture, chances are almost 100% your fine furniture is made from these filler woods.

There are some who say the engineered woods are better in many ways than solid wood furniture.  They say it provides strength and prevents splitting or warping.  Most woodworkers, however, say nothing tops solid oak.

How Is It Put Together?

A lot rests on how a particular piece of wood furniture is put together.  Examine the joints in the piece, and notice how sturdy or unstable it appears.

Sometimes the old ways of doing things blow away even the most modern technology.  This is certainly true with wood furniture construction.  Two of the strongest ways of putting wood furniture together (mortise and tenon, and dovetails), have been around a long time.  It’s acceptable for good joints to have screws or even dowels, but staples signify cheap, unreliable furniture, and if you find these you should run far away.

If a joint is glued, the glue should not show outside the joint.

Corner blocks make the piece stronger and more stable.  They bolt to the inside corners of a piece and are not visible from the outside.

Test the piece to see how stable it is.  Try to rock it back and forth.  If it squeaks, twists, or wobbles get away from it.  It should also be level with the floor.

The Finishing Touch

High quality finishing involves three steps, and if any of these steps are not performed properly, the piece’s quality will be diminished. The steps required include sanding, staining, and finishing.

Run your hand over the surface of the piece.  If you feel any rough spots at all, know that the piece lacks.

Also, look at the finish from lots of different angles, checking for scratches or blotches that result when the wood is not properly sanded.  This might be from sanding against the grain, and means that the wood cannot be evenly stained.  Look also for dark lines, which also results from poor sanding.

A high quality stain makes magic happen.  It can literally make one type of wood look like another, and always enhances the natural beauty and elegance of the wood.  If very well done, it give the wood additional color and character.

For a stain to be high quality, however, it must be even, without dark spots or uneven tones here and there.  The ends and sides should match.

Finishes can be super-glossy or matte, but should always be very smooth and have no rough spots or bubbles.  The finish should be rich and deep, due to several light coats of finish and sanding between each coat.  High quality finishing involves finishing the piece on the back and underneath also to keep it from expanding or contracting.

Here is a checklist of things to look for when evaluating a piece’s finish:

• Is the surface rough?
• Is the surface too glossy or cloudy, so that the wood grain is hidden?
• Does it have splintered edges?
• Are there visible scratches, dents, or dust specks?
• Do you see any dull spots?  This means an area was missed.
• Are there any teardrops around the edges?

There you have it.  Consider yourself an expert on shopping for wood furniture.  Follow the above tips and your next trip to the furniture store will be profitable indeed.

Above all, always insist on solid wood furniture, preferably oak.  All the experts agree that there is none better.

Don’t you just hate it?

You know what I mean.  The fine oak dining table you paid thousands for has a nick.  How did it get there?  Where did it come from?

The good news is that you can quickly repair most small, minor damage to your solid wood furniture yourself.  Of course, you need the right tools, can’t be afraid of a little work, and you’ve got to pay attention to detail. 

For bigger jobs, don’t even try.  It’s better to know your limitations and call a professional than to take on something you can’t handle and end up doing even more damage to your fine furniture.

Testing One, Two, Three

Before beginning the repair of small scratches or dings, be sure to test an unseen area of your solid wood furniture to make sure the solution you’re using won’t mess up the finish. 

The Finish Line

How you handle finishing repairs depends on the shade of the solid wood furniture you’re working with. 

1. Dark Wood or Stain

Find a shoe polish that is similar to the lightest shade of the surface, and fill the scratches with this.  You can also use a crayon or felt-tipped marker.  For a more natural remedy, rub a walnut or Brazil nut in the same direction of the scratch.

2. Cherry

Use a cordovan or red shoe polish that’s similar in color to the wood.  Alternatively, use darkened iodine and a cotton swab, or maybe even a thin artist’s brush.

3.  Light Wood or Stain

With light wood, use a tan or natural tone shoe polish.  Or, similar to Cherry, you can apply a darkened iodine solution, diluted to 50 percent, with denatured alcohol.

There are books on solid wood furniture repair that go into much more detail than what I’ve given you here.  If you care about your fine furniture, and your repair job is not too big, however, this is enough to get you started.

Solid oak furniture doesn’t sound like something that needs to be protected, does it?

I mean, just the term, “solid oak” means strength and stability.  In the movie “Tombstone,” Doc Holliday says to Wyatt Earpp, “You’re an oak,” meaning “You’re very strong.”

Solid oak furniture, however, does need protecting.  If you do it right, your grandkids and even great grandkids can enjoy the same fine furniture that’s in your house right now. 

Protecting Your Solid Oak Furniture Can Be As Simple As Just Following The Directions

Keep the paperwork from the manufacturer handy, and make sure that you read them carefully.  Each table can be different as far as specific care goes, so this is one time you definitely do not want to skip reading the directions.

When cleaning the surface, use a mild non-alkaline soap with water.  Make sure to test this, however, on a surface that can’t be seen, just to make sure you don’t damage the finish.  Dry the surface right away and buff lightly with a soft cloth while following the grain.

Your solid oak furniture needs to be waxed or polished every 6 to 12 months.  Why is this so important?  Because the wax or polish repels dust and dirt.  These can attract moisture, which can mean bad news to the surface of any piece of solid oak furniture.  If the surface absorbs enough moisture, it won’t be solid for long.

Before waxing or polishing, however, remove the old wax with a mild non-alkaline soap and water solution.  Also, do not wax furniture that’s been finished with urethane, as this will cause the surface to actually attract dust.

Following other common sense tips like using coasters, wiping up spills immediately, and not letting the kids play air hockey on your oak dining table may just mean that those kids have an awesome piece of fine furniture to hand down to their own kids and grandkids.