Antique furniture polish recommendations.

I clean antique furniture at a large National Trust house.  We use Harrell’s Wax (always use sparingly).  If the wood has bleached with the light we use Black Bison to bring the colour back and then a light coat of Harrell’s.  No problem with the lids on either of these.

But you should definitely use a bees wax polish.

Another tip for polishing good wood is to give it a brushing after the polishing, with a soft shoe brush or a soft horse brush - the big oval ones - if it’s a large area.

Yes it does clean, but I would recommend wiping the wood over with a slightly damp cloth first and allowing it to dry before polishing.  I’ve never found Harrell’s to dry out in the tin. The lid is like a paint tin lid.

The watch word with polish is to use ‘sparingly’ - little is more.

Spray polish has silicone in it which isn't good for antique furniture.

Perhaps it didn't contain silicone in those days.

Aunty, do you have any recommendations as to applying polish sparingly? In the past I've used a slightly textured piece of cloth then put my fingers inside it and wiped some wax out of the container. Trouble is, when I started applying it to the wood it's hard to spread it out evenly or there's some sort of stickiness (age-old dirt?). Like the idea of first cleaning the wood with a damp cloth then letting it dry. Do you wet the cloth (thinking a J-cloth) with just water or do you also add a dab of Fairy liquid?

Looked up Harrell's and found a place where I don't need to buy a pack of it. Wish I could remember what site it was - ha!