Preventing ring marks on wood table

[Me!]

Can anybody tell me please if there is any non-destructive way of finding out if a specific wood surface will become ring marked by hot cups?
I have just bought a Victorian oak dining table which has a nice un-marked surface on it and I would like it to stay that way. I think the surface has possibly been stripped and varnished at some time, rather than being just wax, but I'm not a expert. The table will be used regularly, so it would be very nice to know if it will be OK without needing to be obsessive about coasters.

Thank you.

 

[Penners]

Can anybody tell me please if there is any non-destructive way of finding out if a specific wood surface will become ring marked by hot cups?

Any wood surface is at risk of marks from hot and/or wet cups, etc.

Use mats!

 

[jocelyn plummer]

Train your family and visitors to put cups etc down on coasters, or table mats-- all wood will mark. For wine glasses-- well silver coasters will do :!: :!:

 

[88v8]

If you only use pyrex cups & saucers you might be OK.
Also, the type of mug that has a foot, as these don't transmit the heat so much.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VINTAGE-CHURCHILL-POTTERY-PAULA-KNIGHT-FUNKY-SPIDER-MUG-/400497694223?pt=UK_Collectables_Kitchenalia_RL&hash=item5d3f85d60f
or this
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PINK-PIG-MUG-/111083342425?pt=UK_Collectables_Kitchenalia_RL&hash=item19dd154a59
Otherwise, as has been said, coasters.

Decent furniture requires decent behaviour, my grandma was fond of saying. She used to get very peeved when I emptied out my packets of crisps - remember the blue twists of salt? - and arranged them in order of size around the arms of the club chair.

Ivor

 

[jocelyn plummer]

She used to get very peeved when I emptied out my packets of crisps - remember the blue twists of salt? - and arranged them in order of size around the arms of the club chair.

oooo you naughty boy!

 

[LadyArowana]

Decent furniture requires decent behaviour, my grandma was fond of saying. She used to get very peeved when I emptied out my packets of crisps - remember the blue twists of salt? - and arranged them in order of size around the arms of the club chair.

Ivor

A good thing you were a child before child psychologists decided to medicalise and diagnose everything, nowadays doing something like that would probably have you tagged as suffering from OCD. Heaven forbid you should have gone out into the garden and run around screaming and play fighting with some other boys, that would have made you "hyperactive" and suffering from some sort of attention deficit disorder too!

 

[Nigel Watts]

The ring marks are usually of two kinds: white and dark. White marks indicate that the surface polish has been effected and can usually be removed with a mixture of linseed oil turpentine and meths. The type of wood plays no part in this process.

More serious are dark marks which indicate that the underlying wood has been stained. These are much harder to remove and usually require some kind of bleaching with oxalic acid.

My elm kitchen/dining table, which I made myself, was treated with matt polyurethante diluted with white spirit on the top and Tung oil on the legs. The top originally had a low sheen but after several years of heavy, daily use the sheen is wearing off and the appearance is improving. It has never sustained any marks from hot and wet items placed on it. As a precaution we usually put down mats for large items such as hot saucepans and serving dishes but even this is probably not necessary.

The alternative to polyurethane for a surface where you don't want to worry about marks is the scrubbed look. A rustic oak table with an unpolished top can simply be scrubbed. The hall tables at my Cambridge college were treated in this way and always seemed to look good in spite of the sloppy eating habits of the undergraduates. I tried this approach in a previous house with a pine table with less success. Scrubbing will make the wood go very pale.

 

[LadyArowana]

The alternative to individual mats is to get a table pad. I occasionally use the good dining table for cutting fabric or other things that might ding it and put that down first. There are places to buy them ( I didn't, it was a GWP of the table and not from UK anyway ) http://www.tablecare.co.uk/ or http://www.dunelm-mill.com/shop/dining/table-linen/table-protectors/ also fairly easy to make http://www.ehow.co.uk/how_5955924_make-table-protector-pad.html. They don't look as pretty as having just the wood, but like a robust version of a table cloth are easy to take off when you want the table to look good, and will guard against the inattentive moment when you casually rest the coffee cup and forget about it.

 

[Penners]

When I was in the pine furniture industry, we used to get regular calls from customers asking what to do about dings, scratches, rings and so on. If the damage was repairable I would suggest ways and means. If it wasn't my response would be: "One mark on the surface of your table is damage. A thousand marks are character."

 

[piper]

The hall tables at my Cambridge college were treated in this way and always seemed to look good in spite of the sloppy eating habits of the undergraduates.

The hall tables of the older colleges have usually had several hundred years of this treatment, probably originally wax plus years of candle wax and spilled food too - well rubbed in. Presumably 'Me!' can't wait that long.
MY Cambridge college is only 50 years old (10 years old when I was there ) and I think the hall tables are some sort of pine. No idea what they were finished with.

What I have never understood is why coasters are traditionally considered by snobs to be 'Non-U'. Can someone posher than me please explain? The rationale behind a lot of upper-class habits seems to be that the servants are there to clear up, but in this case they would hardly have the skill routinely to restore wine-glass rings on polished mahogany. I suppose one gets in a marvellous little man who does french polishing - either that or one's butler is so skilled at pouring the wine it never dribbles down the glass.

 

[Penners]

one's butler is so skilled at pouring the wine it never dribbles down the glass.

Quite so. A coaster suggests that one's guest might spill or slop their glass of wine, which of course could never happen in polite society.

 

[LadyArowana]

one's butler is so skilled at pouring the wine it never dribbles down the glass.

Quite so. A coaster suggests that one's guest might spill or slop their glass of wine, which of course could never happen in polite society.

I thought the idea was to prevent the condensation that forms on a chilled glass of bubbly from making a pool of water on the tabletop? I suppose that to be consistent with other advice on PPUK we should recommend a secondary glazed wineglass.

 

[Penners]

Or a secondary glazed table.

Actually a glass cover for your tabletop is not uncommon, and an effective protection.

 

[LadyArowana]

Or a secondary glazed table.

Actually a glass cover for your tabletop is not uncommon, and an effective protection.

I have them on my bedside units, because His Lordship likes a cup of coffee delivered in the morning and it's a bit early for coasters. Also have the same on the desk that I am using as I type this message. You need to put those little plastic cushions on the underside of the glass and "things" can get underneath but it does work well. I wonder if you would need several sections for a dining table so they weren't too unmanageable.

 

[Me!]

Thank you everyone for the advice. We will always have a cloth on it when it is used for a proper meal, and one of the table protectors that Lady A suggested is a very good idea as well. However, I bought the table because I loved the look of the wood surface, and I want to be able to see it each time I walk past. Nigel seems to suggest that a polyurethane surface is pretty tough, so I'll just have to hope that mine has been painted with something similar.

 

[Penners]

I'm afraid "pretty tough" doesn't mean immortal.

If the table has been finished with a modern, factory-applied lacquer it is probably going to be a melamine compound rather than polyurethane (which causes problems with H&S Regs in the factory). It will be - as finishes go - durable, but it still won't like hot and/or wet things to be stood on it for lengthy periods.

Hoping for the best will, I fear, result in disappointment, sooner or later.

 

[Lindyboo]

This has probably been posted in the past, but if you do get white marks on a wooden surface they can be eliminated by putting a clean dry cotton tea towel over the mark and running a hot iron over it a few times. It sounds a bit mad but it really works.

 

[Penners]

The same trick also works with brown wrapping paper or blotting paper. But you must be very careful about the temperature of the iron and for how long you place it on the table. In effect, you are evaporating moisture out of the table-top and soaking it up with the cloth/paper. If you get the table too hot, it will scorch.

 

[LadyArowana]

The same trick also works with brown wrapping paper or blotting paper. But you must be very careful about the temperature of the iron and for how long you place it on the table. In effect, you are evaporating moisture out of the table-top and soaking it up with the cloth/paper. If you get the table too hot, it will scorch.

If you are too lazy to bother with the iron then when the RH falls it will disappear without any effort ( don't ask how I know )

 

[Penners]

Possibly true in exotic climes - not so (in my experience) in the UK.