Soap Finish

What it is

In Denmark and the rest of Scandinavia, pale floors, tabletops, and furniture in white oak, ash, beech, and pine are often finished with nothing but soap. The result looks almost like bare wood: no shine, no added color, no yellowing, and a soft, dry, slightly silky feel. The soap fills the surface pores and repels water and stains surprisingly well for how little is there ¹.

Bob Flexner, who wrote the standard American reference on wood finishing, describes it as a finish that is “beautiful, inexpensive, environmentally friendly and extremely easy to apply,” but high maintenance ¹.

The soap

Use natural soap flakes, pure soap, not detergent. Detergents and modern “soaps” with additives don’t work. Ivory Flakes, once the American standard, is gone; Scandinavian soap flakes or other pure soap flakes are sold for the purpose. Special white floor soaps from Scandinavian makers are the commercial version.

Mixing

Flexner’s method: about two tablespoons of soap flakes to a quart of boiling water ¹. Whisk until dissolved and let it cool; it sets into a soft gel or thick cream. The exact ratio isn’t critical.

Applying

From Flexner’s procedure ¹:

1. Sand the bare wood to at least 150 grit.
2. Spread the soap gel thickly with a cloth or sponge.
3. Let it stand a couple of minutes, then wipe off the excess with the grain.
4. Let it dry completely, then sand lightly with 220 or 320 grit. The first coat raises the grain.
5. Repeat. Three to four coats total; more coats don’t add stain resistance.

On a floor, the soap is mopped on with a soft cloth or mop and the excess picked up, then buffed when dry.

Living with it

• Clean with a damp cloth only. Don’t use furniture polish.
• Renew often. Plan on weekly or every-other-week recoating at first, and as often as monthly on high-use surfaces like a dining table. Each recoat is quick: wipe on, wipe off ¹.
• Stains: sand lightly and apply fresh soap, or scrub with a gray abrasive pad and soap. Boiling water dissolves soap, so very hot spills can lift it locally.
• Because the finish is soap, a soap-finished floor is also cleaned with the same soap, which renews it as you clean.

Where it fits

Soap is ideal for pale woods where you want the look and feel of bare wood and don’t mind regular, easy upkeep: a white oak or ash table, a pine floor, a beech bench, Scandinavian-style chairs. It’s a poor choice on dark woods, where it deadens the color, and on surfaces that see standing water or heat. For more protection with a similar look, a thin oil or hardwax oil finish on light woods is the usual alternative ².

What to take from this

Soap finish is pure soap flakes whipped into boiling water, about two tablespoons per quart, spread thickly on bare light-colored wood, wiped off, dried, and sanded, three or four coats. It keeps pale woods looking unfinished and resists stains, but it needs frequent quick recoating and only damp-cloth cleaning.