Furniture Woodworm

[Jeffc]

Just bought wardrobe from auction. Later noticed loads of small holes, in clusters, but only on outside polished surfaces. Nothing at all on the inside, back or top. Is it possible this is artificial/authentic look woodworm or does it sound like I have a problem and what can I do about it. Cheers

 

[Jeffc]

Forgot to mention, this is a five year old pine wardrobe in the style of a victorian one.

 

[anobium]

Difficult to say without actually seeing the wardrobe.
Check the holes with a magnifying glass and if the inside of the holes are discoloured with the varnish or polish they are more than likely to be artificial holes put in to try and replicate the old effect.
However if the inside of the holes are clean and bright and the edges are sharp you probably have active woodworm.
My best bet would be that that they are artificial holes.

 

[JohnD]

are the back and sides also pine, or are they ply or something?

I believe that woodworm does not live long in a modern centrally heated house, because the humidity is so low and the wood dries out too much for them.

 

[Jeffc]

I can't see into the holes, even with a magnifier, but they are all black. Since my post I have removed a small, narrow trim strip which has several holes on the polished face, but there is no wood damage on the back where it was attached (only about 3/8 inch thick). I have also pushed a pin in lots of holes and they are very shallow. The whole wardrobe is pine, bought as Ducal, but there is no Ducal label.
Thanks for helping by they way.

 

[JohnD]

rub it over with a hard wax polish, the wax will go into the holes and plug them so they don't show.

 

[big-all]

lateral thinking here
i wonder if someone has been pinning pictures to the wardrobe !!!!!!

or had a dart board or simmilar !!!

 

[Jeffc]

The reason it was being sold is cos of a married couple splitting up, so I suppose its possible they were throwing darts at pictures of each other. Any more thoughts

 

[RF Lighting]

Could you try and poke a very thin bit of wire into the holes and see how deep they are?


If the holes are for effect, they will probably only be a couple of mm deep, but if it is real woodworm then most of them will be deeper (although they do turn corners so not all will be very deep)

 

[Jeffc]

Yep, tried that on at least 50 holes with 5 amp fuse wire and not one was deeper than 2mm. I'm so confident now that I am going to wax it and bring indoors. Thanks for all the help gents.

 

[Deluks]

They are more than likely to be artificial holes put in to try and replicate the old effect.

I didn't realise this was a common practice.

Whatever next? Should we stick cotton wool to our joists to replicate that sought after 'dry rot' effect? or sp**k up our brick walls for realistic efflorescence?

 

[anobium]

anobium wrote:
They are more than likely to be artificial holes put in to try and replicate the old effect

Deluks wrote

I didn't realise this was a common practice.

Some manufacturers do this in picture frames etc to give the oldie world effect.
However there are some unscrupulous antique furniture dealers who have been known to form ww holes in so called antique furniture, in order to increase the value by means shot gun pellets.
There was a famous court case many years ago regarding this particular scam.