Dear fellow Conch-Lers,
 
Recently I have bought a set of drawers to stor my shells. They come
from the well-know Swedish furniture store IKEA (no publicity
intended...) and I see on the label that the surface of my furniture is
finished with a thin oak layer (about 2,5 mm thick) and coated with a
red-brown laquer from unknown composition.
 
I've heard many times that oak is bad for shells but I would like to
know why. What components from the wood are dangerous and in what sense
? Is there something I can do to protect the shells if I want to keep
them in these drawers ? Does this problem occur with all kinds of oak,
or only with massive oak furniture...
 
Also, if this has already been discussed earlier on Conch-L, could
someone point me to the right subject headings in the Conch-L archives ?
 
Thanks in advance from a worried collector...
 
Jan Haspeslagh
Belgium