Antique wood is not delicate, exactly. It is simply older than the products now sold to clean it. A Georgian mahogany chest and a modern veneered sideboard can look much alike under a layer of dust, yet the wood underneath has spent a century swelling and shrinking with the seasons, and the finish on top might be shellac, wax, oil or a later varnish. Each one reacts differently to water, alcohol, heat and grit. Most damage to good furniture happens not through neglect but through a well-meaning Saturday morning clean. Here are the habits worth breaking, and the gentler methods that keep a finish and its patina intact.

Water does more damage than dirt

A cloth that leaves a wet sheen on the surface is a problem. Water raises the grain of bare wood, softens old hide glue at the joints, seeps under veneer and lifts it, and leaves cloudy rings in shellac. On oak and fruitwoods it can react with tannins and leave dark marks that sit deep in the timber. Water is also very good at carrying dissolved dirt into open grain, where it settles and darkens.

Spray bottles make this worse. A fine mist drifts onto carving, inlay, hinges and brass mounts, and you rarely notice until the damage has set. If you like using a spray, spray the cloth, never the piece.

Use two cloths, not one

Wring the first cloth until it is barely damp — no drips, no shine — wipe a small area, then dry it straight away with the second. Work in sections rather than sweeping across the whole piece in one go. Around handles, hinges, stringing and veneer edges, keep water well away and use a dry brush or a barely damp cotton bud instead. If the wood is bare and unoiled, don't use water at all; dry methods only.

Skip the silicone polish, and be wary of "feeding" oil

Silicone-based polishes and aerosol shine products leave an oily film that grabs dust within days. Worse, silicone is genuinely difficult to remove. A restorer has to strip it before any new finish will sit flat, because it causes the fresh finish to crawl and separate. Many "lemon oil" products contain little or no lemon oil — mostly mineral oil and fragrance — and they feed nothing. They simply add another layer to the crust.

The same logic applies to oil on finished furniture. If the surface is shellac, lacquer or varnish, oil sits on top, turns tacky and holds dust. Oiling makes sense only on bare, previously oiled wood, applied thinly and rarely.

A word on linseed oil. Rags soaked in boiled linseed or tung oil generate heat as the oil cures, and bundled rags have been known to catch fire. Spread used cloths flat to dry outdoors, or soak them in water before binning them.

Kitchen-cupboard remedies are often too harsh

Vinegar, lemon juice, baking soda paste, cream cleaners and green scouring pads all appear in well-meaning cleaning advice, and all of them are risky on antique wood. Acid dulls shellac and blooms French polish. Abrasives scour away a top layer that may be only a few microns thick. On bare timber, acidic solutions bleach and stain.

For sticky rings or grubby edges, start with the mildest option available: a drop of pH-neutral washing-up liquid in warm water, applied with a nearly dry cloth, then dried immediately. If that doesn't shift it, stop rather than escalate. Match the cleaner to the finish — a wax-based cleaner on waxed wood, a shellac-safe product on French polish — and always test on a hidden spot such as the back of a leg or the underside of a rail.

Dust, sunlight, heat and how you move a piece

Feather dusters are a favourite and a mistake. They flick dust into the air and drag grit across the surface, which is how fine scratches appear. Use a soft brush for carved areas and lint-free cotton cloths — old T-shirts are ideal — for flat surfaces. A vacuum on its lowest setting, with the brush attachment held just above the wood rather than pressed against it, is useful for deep carving.

Where a piece lives matters as much as how you clean it. Direct sunlight fades timber and dries out finishes. Radiators, woodburners and underfloor heating draw moisture from the wood, lifting veneer and opening joints. A stable room is better than a humid one, so avoid moving a piece between a cold garage and a warm sitting room without letting it acclimatise. And when you move furniture, lift it. Never drag it, and never lift a table by its top — take the weight at the apron or the legs, ideally with two people.

Not every mark needs fixing

Dents, darkened edges, fine crazing and the soft sheen of aged shellac are patina, and patina is a large part of what makes an antique desirable. Stripping and sanding a piece back to "like new" removes the evidence of its age — the dirt settled in the grain, the polish in the recesses, the wear along the edges where hands have rested for two hundred years. Cleaning is reversible. Refinishing is not.

Learn to tell a mark on the surface from damage in the wood. A white water ring in shellac often responds to gentle waxing or a conservator's care. A gouge, a split or a lifted patch of veneer will not be improved by anything you have in the cupboard.

A safe routine, start to finish

1. Clear the surface and work in good light, out of direct sun. Photograph the piece before you touch it.
2. Dust from the top down: soft brush in the carving, cotton cloth on the flat.
3. For general grime, use a barely damp cloth, small sections at a time, drying as you go.
4. For sticky patches, mild soapy water on a cotton bud, then dry immediately.
5. Wax sparingly — once or twice a year is plenty. Apply a thin coat of a good paste wax with a cloth, let it haze, then buff with a clean cloth. Never wax over dirt.
6. Keep the piece away from radiators and strong sun, and shut the curtains in a south-facing room during the middle of the day.

When to stop and call in a conservator

Some jobs are not for a cloth and a tub of wax. Lifting veneer, loose joints, wobbling legs, active woodworm, bleached or flaking finishes, and anything valuable, insured or inherited all warrant professional advice before you do anything at all. In the UK, look for a furniture conservator on the Institute of Conservation's register. Ask what they intend to use and whether the treatment can be reversed. A good conservator will happily tell you which marks to leave alone — which, more often than not, is most of them.

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