treating oak dining table

[huwy123]

hi there,
I've just bought an ex display oak dining table from a closing down sale of a local shop.
I've noticed a couple of "dry" spots on the finish - hopefully you can see them in the attached pictures.
I wasn't sure whether waxing/polish/oil would fix these and thought I'd seek advice before potentially ruining what is a lovely table!
Can anyone offer any advice on this?
Cheers,
Huw

 

[foxhole]

Looks like it's been waxed , something left on the table has removed the wax.

 

[chappers]

I would agree try a bit of neutral beeswax

 

[huwy123]

Thanks guys I'll get some beeswax

 

[matz]

if the dark colour has been created using wax then rubbing any kind of wax into the affected areas will just remove more of the colour. Same with using stain or dye. I would be very doubtful that this can be fixed by anything other than removing the finish and starting again. The potential for making things worse is huge!

 

[chappers]

I think that's a bit overdramatic, the finish on the table looks like a liquid was finish and as the Op and FH have said the area looks "dry" of wax . a similar thing happened to our table, when the wife decided to iron something on the table over a towel, she left it in one place too long and lifted the wax out of the table, fixed it no problem with patient building up of bees wax, admittedly if you look hard you can still see it, but I bet, if I could have been bothered to have waxed the whole table it would have become invisible. If your worried have a look at the underside of the table , theres a good chance that hasn't been finished to the same degree as the top and you could have a bit of an experiment there.
If all else fails you could always lift out any wax you use again with blotting paper and an iron

 

[matz]

the point is, its unlikely to be wax. If it is it'll rub off more with applying more wax because the solvent in the newly applied wax will dissolve the original...... few factory produced items are finished in actual dark wax only as its not a durable finish...so it it aint wax it'll be a finish and wont dissolve as wax would..

 

[chappers]

No solvent in natural beeswax, you are almost certainly correct that the finish isn't a pure wax product, but I bet it is a porous, breathable finish and will take a natural wax OK.
The colour of the untreated timber and the colour of the finished wood doesn't give the impression that there's any colour in the finish.
But as I said unless the table was mega expensive I expect there's some unfinished wood underneath, give it a try there first.
I have a friend who works for a furniture company, he does all the after delivery repairs, he would definitely know what's happened here and how to fix it, if you want me to ask him