On Jan 27, 5:48*am, Andy Dingley wrote:
On 26 Jan, 20:54, Sonny wrote:

Someone recently told me a formula for cleaning antiques (the finish
in good shape, but needed good cleaning) is equal parts mineral
spirits, linsed oil, turpentine and water. Applied with steel wool

Apart from the wisdom of applying it, I'm wondering how that mix is
even miscible ? *It sounds like a re-hash of the well-known and
infamous "mayonnaise" mix, which toned down the solvents and added
vinegar. It was used for years by some notable organisations,

Most notably the Winterthur Museum, from which it
gets its name.

until
they realised it was building up an opaque brown gunk that was hard to
shift properly.

Also apart from the idea of using steel wool at all, using steel wool
wet is an obvious problem. Even dry steel wool on new work is a
problem if it's oak, chestnut or soemthign with tannins, owing to blue-
black stain developing in the future.

As others have said, it's not a good idea and anything that claims to
be "one solution for all finishes" is unlikely to be.
Understand what you have, fix that as it needs, don't put your faith
in magic potions.