Put your palm flat on a soaped oak tabletop and it feels like bare timber that has been handled for years. Dry, smooth and faintly cool, with nothing sitting between your hand and the wood.
Soap is one of the oldest finishes in Scandinavia and one of the least understood in Australia. It suits a narrow range of timbers, it needs regular attention, and it will not tolerate neglect the way a lacquered top will. In return it gives you the palest, most natural surface a solid table can have, and it is one of very few finishes that gets better each time the table is cleaned.
What a soap finish actually is
Soap is made by combining fats or plant oils with an alkali. Pure soap flakes are exactly that and nothing more: no detergent, no fragrance, no brighteners.
Dissolved in boiling water and left to cool, the flakes set to a soft paste. Rubbed into bare timber, the paste works into the open pores and the top layer of fibres. The water evaporates and a fine deposit of soap stays in the wood. Nothing builds up on top, so there is no film to chip, peel or wear through where plates slide back and forth.
That deposit is soft enough to mark with a fingernail. It is still enough to slow a spill down, so water sits on the surface long enough to be wiped away rather than soaking straight in. Because the protection is soap, every wipe with a weak soap solution puts a little back. On a soaped table, cleaning and finishing are the same job.
Two things set it apart from oil. Soap does not turn amber, so oak and ash stay close to their raw colour instead of yellowing. And soap does not deepen the grain, which is why it flatters some timbers and does nothing for others.
Where it comes from
Long before anyone spoke of Danish design, there was scrubbing. In Danish and wider Scandinavian households, timber floors, benches and kitchen tables were scrubbed with water and soap, sometimes with sand for grit, until they came up pale and clean. Nobody thought of it as a finish. It was housework, and the timber was better protected for it.
Floors are where the habit is easiest to see today. Soap-treated floorboards are still common in Danish homes. Pine and oak boards are often treated with a wood lye first, to lighten them and stop them yellowing, then mopped with soap flakes dissolved in hot water and kept up with a weaker version of the same mix. On pine floors, whiting is often added to the soap for a paler, limed look.
When Danish furniture design turned to solid, pale timbers in the 1940s, soap came with it. Børge Mogensen, who trained under Kaare Klint at the Royal Danish Academy, designed the J39 chair in 1947 for FDB, the Danish consumers' co-operative, as sturdy and affordable furniture for ordinary homes. It became known as the People's Chair, and Fredericia still makes it in soaped beech. Hans J. Wegner's CH24 Wishbone chair, made by Carl Hansen & Søn since 1950, is still offered in soaped oak and beech. Carl Hansen primes its soap-treated solid tabletops at the factory and supplies a care kit with them, on the understanding that the owner will keep the finish going.
That detail says a great deal about the thinking behind it. A soap finish assumes the person who owns the table will look after it, with a cloth and a bowl of soapy water, for as long as they have it. It belongs to the Danish idea of furniture made from solid timber, bought once and kept in use.
It is worth being clear on one point. The teak and rosewood sideboards, dining suites and cabinets most people picture when they think of Danish mid-century furniture were generally oiled or lacquered at the factory, not soaped. Soap belongs to the pale, solid timber side of Danish design: oak, beech and ash chairs, tables and benches, and the floors they stood on.
Which timbers suit soap
Good candidates. Solid oak, ash, beech, maple, birch and pine. Pale timbers are the rule. Soap keeps them bright and clean-looking, without the yellow cast oil gives them over time.
Poor candidates. Teak, rosewood, walnut, cherry and other dark or oily timbers. Soap flattens their colour rather than drawing it out, and the natural oil in teak works against it. These timbers look their best under oil, which is how we finish most of the teak and rosewood that comes through the studio. Our guide to caring for oiled timber with Oli Natura explains why we use hard wax oil and how to look after it.
Australian hardwoods. Pale timbers such as Tasmanian oak and Victorian ash are worth trying on a test board first. Despite the names, they are eucalypts rather than true oak or ash, and they do not always behave the way European oak does.
Veneer. Soap goes on wet, and repeated wetting can lift veneer or swell the board beneath it. Keep soap for solid timber. Much mid-century case furniture is veneered, which is another reason soap is mostly found on chairs and solid tabletops.
Existing finishes. Soap needs bare, clean timber to soak into. It will not take over oil, hard wax oil, wax or lacquer, so any of these has to come off first.
A word of caution before any sanding. If a table still carries a good original factory finish, think carefully before stripping it. On a collectable piece, the original surface is part of its value, and once it is sanded off it cannot be put back. We are always happy to look at photographs first.
What you need
- Pure soap flakes. Unscented, with nothing on the ingredient list but soap. We use Guardian Soap Flakes, which are pure soap made from palm kernel oil and coconut oil, and we make our own wood soap from them, so there is no need to buy one ready made. Many flakes sold in Australia for laundry contain essential oils or fragrance, so read the label if you buy elsewhere. A grated bar of pure, unscented Castile soap works too. Check the label on anything sold as wood soap: some, including the Oli Natura wood soap we stock, are cleaners made for oiled and hard wax oiled timber rather than a soap finish.
- No dishwashing liquid or spray cleaners. Detergent does not thicken and harden the way true soap does, so it cleans the surface without leaving anything protective behind.
- A kettle, a large bowl and a whisk. A whisk fitted to a cordless drill, or a stick blender, saves your wrist.
- Clean white cotton cloths. White so no dye transfers to the timber, cotton so the cloth holds the paste. Old T-shirts are ideal.
- Abrasives. Sandpaper in 120, 150, 180, 240 and 320 grit, a sanding block and a fine sanding sponge.
- A bucket of hot water and a spare cloth for wiping off.
The soap we use
Pure soap is harder to find in Australia than it should be, so we stock Guardian Soap Flakes, made by the furniture care company Guardian in Vejen, Denmark. The flakes are all you need to make wood soap. Whisked with boiling water, they become the thick paste that builds the finish. Dissolved in warm water, they become the weak solution for everyday cleaning.
Guardian Soap Flakes: pure soap made from palm kernel oil and coconut oil, with no perfume, colour, optical brightener or bleach. For the thick paste and the everyday solution.
How to soap finish a table, step by step
1. Take it back to bare timber
Remove any old finish completely, then sand the whole table with the grain through 120 and 150 grit, finishing at 180. Do the top, the edges, the underside of the top and the base. Vacuum off the dust.
If the table was previously oiled, keep sanding until the colour is even and a few drops of water soak in quickly everywhere. Where water sits in beads, oil is still in the timber and soap will not take there.
2. Raise the grain before you start
Soap goes on wet, and water lifts loose fibres. It is easier to deal with that now than halfway through the coats. Wipe the whole table with a damp cloth, let it dry for an hour or two, then cut the raised fibres back lightly with 240 grit. The surface will stay noticeably smoother through the first coats.
3. Mix the soap
For the first coats you want a thick paste. Put one cup (250 ml) of soap flakes into a large bowl and pour about half a cup (125 ml) of boiling water over them. Whisk until the flakes dissolve, adding more boiling water a little at a time until the mix looks like stiff whipped cream with no dry flakes left. It grows as you whisk, so use a bigger bowl than seems necessary.
Leave it for about an hour to cool and firm up. Published recipes vary widely and the exact quantities are not critical. A stiffer mix builds the finish faster; a runnier one goes on thinner and needs more coats. Keep what is left in a sealed jar. It stores well, and you will want it for touch-ups.
4. Apply the first coat to every surface
Take a palm-sized amount of paste on a folded cotton cloth and rub it into the timber along the grain. Work it in until the surface is evenly wet and slightly foamy, with no dry patches and no heaps of paste left on top.
Coat the underside of the top, the edges and the base in the same session. This matters more than it sounds. Solid timber takes up and gives off moisture constantly, and if only one face of a top is wetted, the two faces move at different rates and the top can cup, warp or crack. Carl Hansen & Søn gives the same instruction for its own tables.
On a large table, work one section at a time so no area sits too long before it is wiped.
5. Wait ten minutes, then wipe off
Leave the soap to soak in for about ten minutes. Then wipe the whole table along the grain with a clean cloth wrung out tightly in hot water, until there is no lather, no streaks and no film of paste left anywhere.
Do not rush this on oak. Oak is rich in tannin, and soap left behind in concentrated streaks can react with it and dry as dark marks that are hard to shift.
6. Let it dry, then cut it back
Give the first coat several hours, or overnight if you can; later coats need at least an hour. The grain will probably feel slightly rough again, especially after the first one or two coats, because soap lifts fibres the same way water does. Rub it back lightly with 240 grit or a fine sanding sponge, always with the grain, and dust off.
7. Build up the coats
Repeat steps 4 to 6. Three to five coats is a good target for a dining table. Somewhere around the fourth, a soft, low sheen starts to appear and the surface begins to shed water rather than drink it. Move up to 320 grit between the later coats.
Once the final coat is dry, buff the whole table with a clean, dry cotton cloth. Let it sit overnight before it goes back into use.
8. Give it extra attention early on
A soap finish takes several rounds of treatment before it is fully established. For the first few months, re-soap a little more often than you think it needs. Carl Hansen & Søn recommends a fresh soap treatment on its factory-primed tabletops before they are used at all, for exactly this reason.
Living with a soaped table
Everyday cleaning. Dissolve a heaped tablespoon (about 25 ml) of soap flakes in one litre of hot water and let it cool to room temperature. This is the solution Carl Hansen & Søn gives for its own soaped furniture, and Guardian's own ratio for its soap flakes, 1 dl to 5 litres of warm water, works out at much the same strength. Wipe the table with a soft cloth dipped in it and wrung out hard. The timber needs the soap, not the water, so never pour the solution straight onto the table.
Full re-treatment. When the surface starts to look dry, pale grey or tired, or water no longer beads, give it another coat of the thick paste, following steps 4 to 6. On a dining table in daily use, expect that roughly every two to three months, which matches the four to six treatments a year Guardian recommends. It becomes less frequent as the finish builds over the years.
Spills. Wipe them up straight away. Soap slows liquid down; it does not stop it. Red wine, coffee, beetroot, oil and felt-tip pens mark a soaped top more readily than an oiled one, and a spill left for ten minutes can leave a distinct mark.
Heat and light. Use trivets under hot dishes, as you would on any timber table. Soap gives no protection from UV, so the timber will still deepen slowly with light, and oak looks a shade darker after each re-treatment. That gradual change is normal.
What to keep away from it. Dishwashing liquid, multi-surface sprays, furniture polish and silicone products. Detergents clean the soap away without replacing it, and polishes leave a layer the soap cannot get through.
Fixing marks and stains
This is where soap earns its place. With no film on the surface, there is nothing to colour-match and no edge line to hide. Any owner can take a mark out and rebuild the finish at home, with the same jar of soap.
- Light marks and grubby patches. Scrub along the grain with hot soap solution and a white non-scratch pad, wipe off, let it dry and re-soap.
- Stubborn stains. Sand the area lightly with 180 or 220 grit until the timber is clean, feathering well beyond the mark, then re-soap.
- Uneven colour after a repair. Give the whole top a light sand with 240 grit and a fresh coat, so the repaired patch and the rest of the table wear in together.
Soap compared with oil and lacquer
- Soap. The palest, most natural-looking and softest to the touch. The least resistant to stains and the most frequent care, but also the easiest to renew completely at home. No solvents, and soapy cloths carry no fire risk.
- Oil and hard wax oil. Warm and deepen the colour, and turn pale timbers gradually more amber. More stain resistant than soap and typically refreshed once or twice a year with a care oil or care wax. Still a penetrating finish, so worn areas can be patched. Cloths used with oil can self-ignite, so lay them flat outside to dry or seal them in a metal tin.
- Lacquer. The most protection against spills and the least upkeep. It feels like a coating rather than timber, and serious damage generally needs a workshop to repair.
For oiled, waxed and lacquered pieces, our care guide covers the routine for each, and our guide to caring for oiled timber with Oli Natura covers hard wax oil in detail.
Why it is worth the effort
A soap finish asks more of its owner than any other. It also gives back something the others cannot.
It keeps pale timber pale. It leaves nothing between your hand and the wood. It never needs stripping, because there is nothing on the surface to strip. And it does not wear out in the usual sense. A lacquered top is at its best the day it leaves the workshop and declines from there. A soaped top is at its thinnest on the first day and improves with every clean, every year it is used and looked after.
It is a very Danish way to own a table: solid timber, used every day, and cared for by the people who eat at it rather than replaced when it shows some wear.
A note on our relationship with Oli Natura. Fox & Wedge is an official Oli Natura ambassador. We are not paid by Oli Natura, and we are not paid to endorse its products. We have used Oli Natura on our restorations for many years, long before the partnership began, and we recommend it because it is what we trust on our own work. In return for being an ambassador, we buy our stock at a discounted trade price. The care products in our store are sold at Oli Natura's recommended retail price.
Common questions
Can I soap finish a teak table?
We would not. Teak is naturally oily and its colour comes alive under oil. Soap dulls it and does not take well on the surface. If you are not sure what your table is made from, send us a photo and we will tell you.
Can I put soap over my existing finish?
No. Soap has to go onto bare timber. Oil, wax or lacquer needs to come off first, and oiled timber has to be sanded back until water soaks in evenly.
Will the table feel soapy or lather when it gets wet?
No. Once the excess is wiped off and the finish has dried, it feels like smooth, bare timber. A spilt glass of water will not foam.
Can I change from soap to oil later?
Yes, and that is the easier direction. Scrub the soap out with hot water, let the table dry fully, sand back to fresh timber and oil it. Going from oil to soap takes far more sanding.
Does a soap finish suit a family dining table?
It can, with the right expectations. It marks more easily than oil, and those marks are easier to remove than on any other finish. Households happy to wipe the table with soapy water after meals tend to get on with it very well. If you want a table you can leave alone, choose hard wax oil or lacquer.
Is it safe to use indoors?
It is soap and water. There are no solvents, no driers and nothing to air out, and no need for a mask while you apply it.
If you have a solid oak, ash or beech table and are not sure whether soap is right for it, send photographs and we will tell you honestly what it needs. More on how we work is on our restoration page, or get in touch.
