Any tips for buffing up beeswax floor polish (oak floor).

[Gareth Hughes]

You mean, I've quoted the bit that doesn't agree with Mr Knowall's opinion? Honestly, you're nearly as bad as me :roll: I did consider cutting out the bit about doors out from the quoting of a continuous passage, as it's not really relevant to a discussion of flooring, but glad you decided to pick up on that one bit anyway...
Of course, in the 99% of places where Chippendale or Adam weren't being employed in the mid/late C18, you made do with what you had, and doors were frequently painted softwood (even if sometimes painted in imitation of hardwoods). From the early C19, and especially after the defeat of Napoleon during the Regency made them more available than ever before, hardwoods suitable for public exposure did become the standard for the majority of people with the means to commission a new house for themselves, but who were not the very wealthy minority who had previously been able to afford such luxurious finishes. So I see little to criticise in the article I posted.

 

[Toby Newell]

Correct! It is quite an informed opinion though, I had to study furniture and architectural history for my Antique restoration City and Guilds, or and a little for my French polishing City and guilds and I did a fair bit of back ground reading of my own, have a lovely booked dated 1898 New York of Chippendale etchings by Clauston that my late Granfather borrowed from Shoreditch library and never returned. But basically I am Toby Knowitall! Guilty.

 

[Gareth Hughes]

Correct! It is quite an informed opinion though, I had to study furniture and architectural history for my Antique restoration City and Guilds, or and a little for my French polishing City and guilds and I did a fair bit of back ground reading of my own, have a lovely booked dated 1898 New York of Chippendale etchings by Clauston that my late Granfather borrowed from Shoreditch library and never returned. But basically I am Toby Knowitall! Guilty.

This is a discussion about floorboards though, isn't it, not Chippendale furniture?

 

[Toby Newell]

but chippendale begat Robert Adam one of the single greatest ever property developers and interiors designers.

Furniture and interior architectural modelling are inextricably linked don't you know? what one stains one's furniture with, one stains ones floor with! The fashions and styles of the period are reflected in both and are coexistant. Many of Chippendale's designs were taken from architecture, even more so with Robert Adam whose furniture and architectural interiors would match each other. I finish my floors in exactly the same way as I finish my furniture and architectural items, sometimes I even use exactly the same preparation and the same finish.

One cannot fully appreciate furniture history without a brief knowledge of architectural history and vice versa, it is why I took an antique restoration City and Guilds course. I don't actually 'restore' i.e. do major cabinet making repairs or upholster any furniture at all, I simply did the course for my own satisfaction to learn more about the history and about traditional ways of working, as a finisher it is good to appreciate exactly what the cabinet maker or upholsterer can actually do and how they do it. I would say over 50% of the course was based around history of that around half furniture, half architectural. I found it much more interesting than my wood finishing course.

Toby