Looking after carved wood

Most of the damage done to carved wooden furniture is done by someone trying to look after it. The short version: dust it dry, keep it out of direct sun and out of a heating draught, and do not put anything wet or oily on the carving.

Dusting

Use a dry, soft brush. A clean paintbrush about 25 mm wide is ideal, and better than any cloth. Carved surfaces have undercuts and recesses that a cloth bridges over and a brush reaches into. Work downwards so the dust falls clear of the section you have just done.

A vacuum on low with a soft brush head is fine for the flat surfaces and for the floor around the base. Keep the nozzle off the carving itself; a hard nozzle catches a fine edge and takes it off.

Do not use a microfibre cloth on deep carving. It snags on the points, and on a finely cut crest it will lift fibres and, eventually, fine detail.

What not to put on it

• No furniture polish, no spray wax, no silicone. They build up in the recesses of carving where they cannot be removed, go cloudy, and hold dust worse than bare wood does.
• No oil, unless the maker of your piece has told you which one and how often. Oil on a finish that was not built to take it sits on top and stays tacky.
• No water, no damp cloth, no "just a wipe". Water into an end-grain recess raises it, and raised grain in carving cannot be sanded back without losing the cut.
• No household cleaner of any kind. Ammonia and alcohol both attack most furniture finishes.

If something needs more than a dry brush, ask whoever made the piece before you do anything. A mark left alone is a smaller problem than a mark that has been treated wrongly.

The two things that cause damage

Direct sunlight. Over a few years, strong sun will fade the finish unevenly, so the lit face goes pale while the shaded side does not, and it will dry the timber past where it wants to sit. A north or west window in an Australian house is enough to do it. If the only wall available takes direct sun, a sheer blind solves the whole problem.

Dry heat. A ducted heating outlet or a reverse-cycle unit blowing onto a piece will dry it out far faster than ambient conditions ever will, and timber that dries unevenly moves. Moving timber is what opens a joint. Redirect the vent rather than moving the mandir.

Both of these are slow, which is why they get ignored. Neither is reversible.

Lamps, diyas and incense

Soot is oily and it accumulates. A diya or incense burned regularly in a closed bay will darken the wood immediately above it over months, and that discolouration is in the finish rather than on it.

Practical measures: burn them on a metal or stone plate, not directly on wood, leave a door or the bay open while anything is burning, and if the piece has a fitted light, use that rather than a flame for everyday.

Moving it

Lift, never drag, and never lift by the carving. Spires, crests and pierced panels are the thinnest sections of the whole piece and they are exactly what a hand reaches for. Take the weight under the base.

For anything large, take the removable parts off first (steps, canopies, plinths and doors) and carry them separately.

Marks, knocks and small losses

Carved wood picks up marks. A piece that is used every day for thirty years will look like one, and that is not a fault to be corrected.

If a piece of carving does break off, keep it. A clean break in a carved element can usually be re-glued invisibly; a lost fragment has to be re-cut by hand, which is a different and larger job.

Humidity

Solid timber moves with the seasons. It takes up moisture in a humid summer and gives it back in a dry winter, and small gaps opening and closing at a joint across the year are the material working as intended. Nothing needs doing about it. What is worth avoiding is the extreme: a piece stored in an unventilated garage over an Australian summer, or one standing next to a heater all winter.

For what the timbers themselves are and how they differ, see saag or sevan.