Does anyone know the best way to clean finished wood arts and crafts stairways and to restore the finish? I believe the finish on ours is shellac. Thanks!

Good Morning Friend,
Please don't take offense to what I am about to say. I have had folks get really upset when I explain that a lot of the problem with a piece of furniture or a stairway is surface dirt that will invariably settle on an area and not get cleaned as the years go by but, instead covered up with a fresh coat of polish or finish.

The best thing to do it to use some Murphy's soap and mix it with warm water and create some suds and use these suds only to clean small areas until the entire staircase has been cleaned. You should know in a short while if it is working by looking at your water in the bucket as it will start turning dark from the cleaning process.

Should this not work with any success then more drastic measures may be taken but, not to the extreme that you would ruin the patina of the original finish.

Respectfully,

Ralph Jones

Thank you very much, Ralph, for the great advice.

Just a question, though: What kind of cleaning medium should I use? Microfiber cloths? Brillo pads? (there is alot of stuck-on surface dirt from probably about 30-40 years.) What method is not too harsh, but has some scrubbing power? Thanks again!

Hello Friend,
I like to use the 3-M imitation steel wool pads they can be bought at most hardware stairs. Starting with the #3 pad and then work down to the #000 if necessary. Sorry for being so long answering your question.

Good luck in your cleaning chores.

Respectfully,

Ralph Jones

Hello, we are looking after our gumwood trimmed house, all original, none repainted. I think it is shellac as well. We need to care for this wood and we don't know what to do.

This is what we know,. When the house was built n the 1930's a bit a transient worker came by the construction site and said that for food and lodging, he would finish all the wood in the house, by hand. One of of elderly neighbors told us that they remembered that happening. He said the old man was living and polishing on the construction site for weeks and weeks. The wood IS beautiful but we need to clean and restore it. We have been here 17 years and I have buffed with some lemon oil a few times, not everywhere and definitely used very sparingly and I have only used Murphy's soap on the banister. I am afraid to put the wrong thing on this.

Do we even scratches and general wear and restore the luster using shellac? thanks I found a website called www.shellac.com and they are selling a reproduction of a Book on French Polishing that looks very good. Do you have any advice? Thank you