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phobie_privett

protecting a table top

16 years ago

I have a fairly new formal dining room table. It hasn't seen a tremendous amount of use, however, I'm starting to notice after several meals this week, that there are lots of tiny superficial scratches on the top. You can literally see everything that someone slid across the top. I paid a ridiculous amount of money for this table and thought the finish would be better than it is. Is there anything I can do to protect it in the future and/or take care of the scratches? I was wondering about some sort of wax. FYI, it has grooves in the top, like planking, if that makes sense. TIA!!

Comments (3)

  • 16 years ago

    If you have a fine table with a high gloss finish, you need learn to take care of it. You don't slide something across it nor set down a glass or wine bottle nor mustard jar without a coaster underneath.
    As for the tiny scratches, I recommend a good coat of paste wax which contains carnauba wax. apply, let dry and polish with an old panty hose or an electric lambs wool buffer.
    Linda C

  • 16 years ago

    If I may interject. What you may have is a hand rubbed finish. When a finish is rubbed out they use abrasive powders. The classical way is to first rub it out with heavy grit pumice stone powder, then medium grit, then fine grit, finally rottenstone. This process will produce very fine swirl marks which will be visible in slanting light. These fine swirls are what gives the finish a soft glow rather than the harsh shine of an unrubbed finish. You can recognize a true hand rubbed finish by looking at it in indirect light. These very fine swirl marks will be visible. You should do as lindac suggests and protect your tables finish with coasters and for sure and use a table cloth. As suggested, you can clean and wax, but you should not use an electric buffer unless you have experience with one. If the table, in fact. has scratches caused by misuse and is a high quality table, you might wish to seek professional help rather than damage the finish further. Lindac's fix would be different than what you should attempt because she has years of experience with tools like electric buffers and knows when to stop.

  • 16 years ago

    I have a round dining table and my toddler is DE-straying the lovely wood. I don't want to cover it in glass because I'll lose the texture of the wood under the reflections, so I've been using place-mats