Expert: Jamie Yocono - 4/4/2006

Question
Jamie,

We have had a china cabinet for 25 years and it still has a wood smell.  We never thought about it until one of our friends noticed the smell when he was drinking out of one of our wine glasses that we keep in the china cabinet.  How do you get the wood smell out of a China cabinet?

Thanks
Ron

Answer
Hi Ron,

While I don't doubt that your china cabinet has a smell, I am not sure it's wood that you're smelling. Wood is an organic material, and when it's 25 years old, I am not sure there is much "smell" left in it. What you might notice, however, is the lasting smell of whatever finish is on the wood. So the question is more about eliminating the finish smell, than the smell of wood. That's just a guess, but it's my best one and I'm sticking to it!

There are two types of wood finishes - a surface finish, such as varnish, shellac, or lacquer, and a penetrating finish, such as Danish oil, tung oil, or even linseed oil. Their names describe how they lay on the wood. Surface finishes dry on the surface, coating it and covering all the pores of the wood, while penetrating finishes soak in, so there doesn't appear to be anything on the wood. I would have to believe that both can cause the smell you are mentioning, but perhaps oil finishes are the worst culprit.

I primarily use oil finishes, and I know that if I have a chest that's not been opened in a long time, it's going to smell like the oil finish when I open it. Eventually, surfaces finishes dry out and lose their smell, usually after 30 days, when polymerize into their final state.

Anyway, all this is to say that a good airing out will do wonders for your cabinet. If it's possible, can you leave the doors open and let some air circulate through the interior?  Sometimes, humidity can be a culprit, so there's a chance that it could be a mustiness that you're smelling. Once again, if you can get some circulation into your cabinet, it will help.

Another thing I've heard that people do is put a small bowl of kitty litter inside the cabinet, to absorb odors.  Clean kitty litter. (Just joking!) Another suggestion I've seen is to try a small bowl of baking soda, like you would do in a musty refrigerator.

Unless you can actually get some permanent circulation in there to clear out the continually occurring smells, all these solutions will only be temporary fixes. Sorry I can't give you a permanent solution, but perhaps these temporary fixes will help. This business of woodworking is often frustrating, and your problem illustrates just some of the problems we face. As the late Gilda Radner used to say- it's always something!

Good luck, I hope this helps. Feel free to write back with any other questions you might have after reading this.

Jamie Yocono
Wood It Is! Custom Cabinetry
www.wooditis.com
Las Vegas, NV