CARING FOR YOUR FURNITURE

Natural Beauty

Recommendations for cleaning and maintaining your new piece of furniture is listed below for some of the finishes I currently use. Sources include the manufacturer and other wood finish experts are included and linked.

General Finishes Waterborne Polyurethane

Cure First
You have just finished applying a fine furniture finish. Treat gently until the paint or topcoat have fully cured. Allow 21 days for a water-based finish to cure and 30 days for an oil-based finish to cure before cleaning.

Regular Cleaning and Maintenance

Remove dust with a water-dampened cloth. Dust can build up over time and may scratch or dull finishes if not removed regularly.
Remove fingerprints, cooking fumes and smoking residue with mild soap and water. These contaminants will not harm the finish, but they accumulate on surfaces and dull the original luster.
As with all fine furniture finishes, avoid using furniture polish, cleaners or dusting sprays that contain silicone, alcohol, ammonia and anything acidic. Exception: We have successfully cleaned with Clorox wipes for occasional cleanups.
Clean up water, alcohol and food spills in a timely manner and use placemats & coasters to protect the finish.
Future finishes or touch-ups may not adhere properly or perform as desired over a contaminated surface. Some contaminants, such as silicone, seep through finish into the wood and often cannot be removed.
Avoid excessive exposure to direct sunlight, high temperatures or high humidity. These can damage furniture and finishes.
Source: General Finishes

Rubio Monocoat Oil Plus 2C

Rubio Monocoat Oil Plus 2C is a natural and environmentally friendly oil. It creates an extremely durable finish and enhances the natural beauty and grain of wood furniture.

Caring for your Rubio Monocoat oil finished surface is simple, and when done properly, keeps your furniture looking beautiful for a lifetime.

There should never be a need for a re-coat or a messy re-sand and refinish.

The only reason you would need to re-sand your furniture with a Rubio Monocoat finish would be if a color change is desired. This provides a major advantage over the polyurethane finish maintenance process, which is messy, lengthy, and requires re-sanding between applications.

Cleaning

Keeping your oiled furniture clean is the first step to caring for your oil finish.

Once your furniture piece is finished with Rubio Monocoat Oil Plus 2C, you should allow at least 5 days for it to fully cure before cleaning with liquids.

Keeping dirt and grit off of wooden furniture will greatly extend the life of any finish.

There are 2 options available for cleaning your oiled furniture.

Damp rag
Use Rubio Monocoat Soap or Surface Care Spray

Clean using a damp rag

Using a damp rag with clean water is sufficient for the regular cleaning of your oiled furniture. Remember that wood and water do not mix, so using a damp rag means your rag should not be “dripping wet” when cleaning a wood surface. Clean using a damp rag with water as needed but avoid doing so daily. Clean water will not always get your furniture clean.

Source: Rubio

Cleaning and care for your wood cutting board

Your Three Trees cutting board was made with select solid wood with an end grain cutting surface. The wood was glued with food safe glue and oiled with food safe mineral oil and waxed with beeswax. Wood is naturally safer than plastic boards don't dull your knives and with proper care and occasional oiling, will last for decades.

Clean with mild dish soap and hot water.
Towel dry
Occasionally oil and wax

Don’t

Do not soak your cutting board.
Do not place your wooden cutting board in the dishwasher.

Wood is naturally anti-bacterial.

A study at the University of Wisconsin's Food Research Institute* found that wooden cutting boards kill food-poisoning bacteria that otherwise survive on plastic cutting boards. In the study, when plastic and wooden boards were purposely contaminated with organisms like Salmonella, Listeria and Escherichia coli that are common causes of food poisoning, 99.9 percent of the bacteria died off within three minutes on the wooden boards, while none died on the plastic cutting boards.

Source: *Wooden Cutting Boards Found Safer Than Plastic, New York Times, February 10, 1993.

Care Products