clear treatment for oak

[Pseudo341]

Hope noone minds me joining up just to ask one question, I really need some advice from someone who knows what they're doing.

Is there any treatment I can put on oak that won't change the colour at all? I've got a collection of 1930s oak dining chairs that I've just had professionally stripped and I love the colour of the bare wood but the second I put anything on it it goes darker. I've tried liquid beeswax and danish oil so far and am very dissapointed with the results. I have an old testing chair to experiment on so any suggestions are welcome and I'll try them out.

Thanks.

 

[Pseudo341]

Thanks for that, I'll give it a try.

 

[foxhole]

I would ignore that, just a dumb yank advertising.

 

[joinerjohn]

Probably, any treatment you use will slightly darken the oak. I've just done a solid oak beam above a fireplace for a client using beeswax paste, in natural colour. It didn't significantly darken the timber. Looks very nice and a joy to use.

 

[Pseudo341]

Thanks for the warning foxhole, I'm not very observant at the best of times!

Thanks John, I think you're probably right about all treatments having a slight darkening effect. I'm guessing beeswax paste will have the same effect as the liquid beeswax which is also rather pleasant to use. I think I'll have to resign myself to slightly darker chairs than I'd hoped for.

 

[furnitureinfashion]

Thanks

 

[stillp]

I've just used Rustin's clear acrylic lacquer, which didn't darken the (new) oak and allegedly doesn't yellow with age. It's water-based, and I had a little trouble avoiding brushmarks, but I was working in the hot weather.

 

[Pseudo341]

Great, thanks for the suggestion, I'll give it a try. I also now have some oxalic acid to use first aswel, my testing chair won't know what's hit it!

 

[Pseudo341]

I honestly didn't swear! Apostrophe s followed by the word hit has offended an automatic censoring filter or something, sorry about that!

 

[elaineuk]

no space between the s and the h is why it was censored

what did you find the best i am trying to do the same stipped the chairs and table but not sure what to do next for the best

 

[Pseudo341]

I haven't found anything that doesn't darken the wood so I'm bleaching it first and then plan to use the liquid beeswax in the hope that it ends up more or less the same colour it started. I've only done the bleach stage so far so I can't tell you if works yet.