Liming wood

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Liming wood.

A few hundred years ago wood was treated with a caustic lime mixture to protect it from the attacks of insects and worms. Later on the the effect of the lime residue on the wood grain became fashionable so eventually it was used for solely decorative reasons. Courtesy Liberon Limited

Start with bare wood.
Only lime open grain woods such as Ash and Oak.
Mix up a liming wax, from beeswax polish and white pigment or buy it ready-made.
With a small stiff brush work the mixture into the grain using a circular motion.
Leave to dry off for 10 to 15 minutes.
Using a firm pad of cloth rub off the surplus paste, again using a circular motion.
Leave for 20 minutes, then polish surface with a clean cloth.

Limed Oak.-The procedure in this treatment, which consists in filling the grain of the wood with a white (or, occasionally, a colored) substance, will vary according to the quality and price of the work. At its cheapest, liming can be carried out by applying distemper or a lime and water mixture to the bare oak, wiping off the surplus and wax polishing or varnishing; the result, however, is not to be compared with that obtained if better materials are used and a little more time and trouble are taken.
For the “lime,” a good paste distemper can be employed, but the best medium is one of the proprietary liming pastes which usually consist of a mixture of white pigment and wax. The oak may either be stained in the usual manner or left natural, and must be free from moisture. In good quality work, two coats of spirit varnish should be applied to seal the wood:
the first should be well thinned out to a consistency hardly thicker than that of water and the second only a little less thin. When these are dry, brush or rub the liming paste well into the work over the whole of the surface, leave for a short time and then, well before it hardens, rub across the grain with a clean coarse cloth so as to remove as much of the paste as possible, leaving the grain cavities filled. Allow the work to harden for at least twelve hours and then seal with a further coat of spirit varnish, this time of normal consistency.

Instead of white, if desired, a coloured effect can be procured by substituting for the liming paste a flat paint or distemper of any required tint. This is treated in the same way as described above. Alternatively, gold, silver, bronze, or other metallic powder, bound with gold size or mixing varnish, can be employed to give attractive effects. Care must be taken to rub off before the coating has taken on too hard a set and it may be necessary, after it has hardened, to clean up by rubbing lightly with fine- grade sandpaper on a block or pad. Dust off and seal as indicated above.

As a general rule, oak treated in this way is finished with wax polish or flat or egg-shell flat varnish; if either of the two latter is used, it should be: preceded by a coat of gloss varnish to supply the necessary body.
Should it be desired at any time to remove liming paste from oak treated in this way, the existing finish (i.e. the polish or varnish) must first be stripped. In all probability the liming paste will come away with it, especially if the surface of the wood is scrubbed with a stiff nail brush. If it does not, this is because the work has been sealed before being finished and the solvent used for removing the polish or varnish has not affected the sealing coat. If the latter is a spirit varnish, it will yield to methylated spirit, but if it should be a cellulose lacquer (frequently used for this purpose on furniture) it will be necessary to employ cellulose thinners or a good spirituous brand of varnish remover.