apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I have this paste and use it on my antiques. It's great stuff and I think it is well worth the extra work once a year.

However, most of my furniture is more contemporary and probably has a polyurethane finish - which if fairly typical for modern furniture. It is my understanding that a wax coat isn't required for such a finish and may in fact be counterproductive. Does anyone know anything about this?

What a timely post! I just inherited a lot of wooden antique furniture and I've been trying to figure out how to make it a bit more polished and resilient without fundamentally changing it in any way. So will waxing work even when the finish is very light and old?

On a related note, does anyone have any advice about cleaning very old, very dusty wooden furniture? It's so dirty a dry cloth just won't cut it. Is murphy's oil soap with very little water okay? Or is there something even better?

I can't live without my Johnson's paste wax. I've found it works great on metal, too, and is currently keeping the raw steel of my stairs and railing framework from oxidizing and getting weird and filmy.

Jeez! I can remember my grandma on her hands and knees with this doing the hardwood floors. 'Course, being a cool grandma (as well as smart) she'd get worked in, then let the 5 of us grandkids put on my grandpa's old socks and "skate" on the floor. ;->

Moema,

I have gotten most of my furniture secondhand, some of it antique, and have successfully cleaned it with Murphy's oil soap. I just fill up a bucket with warm water and a little Murphy's and use an old piece of terrycloth or a very soft-bristled brush to wash the whole piece down. Once it's clean you can determine whether it needs refinishing or if it can just use a good polish, like the paste wax mentioned here.

I have been searching in vain for a can of Johnson's Paste Wax; Called SC Johnson who said they no longer make it.
Nothing on Ebay. Does anyone out there know where I can purchase one?

(Living in Canada, but willing to purchase in US)

I recently bought some of Johnson's Paste Wax at Lowe's Building Supply Store here in Michigan. I couldn't find it at Walmart. I cleaned some dirty hardwood floors with "Krud Kutter" and steel wool, and then used the paste wax and an electric buffer to polish them. They look good!