On Tuesday, December 18, 2012 1:53:52 AM UTC-5, Mike Marlow wrote:

Well - I disagree with what Martin and some others have said. I do not
believe it is beyond the reach of a beginner to take on a project like this.
It may not come out perfect and 10 years later you may even wish you had
done things differently based on what you know at that time, but that all by
itself should not be reason not to try now.

My bigger concern is the lack of responses from you to the posts that have
addressed your original post. There have been enough things said to you
that should have seen you asking more questions, or something. You asked a
lot of questions and made a lot of statements in your original post which
were either questioned or commented on by people here, but I haven't seen
anything back from you in response to those.

Maybe you are having second thoughts on this project? Not happy with the
responses you saw here?

--

-Mike-





Hello, Mike,

I have asked a couple questions. No, the answers did not scare me. Some have made me think a little bit. Like I said, I was unaware of them staining mahogany to make it look darker back then. That answers the question of why is the underneath of the tabletop and chairs are way, WAY lighter than the surfaces that are seen.

I looks closer at the dining set and I believe the wood everything seems to be solid wood--no veneer. So, there is a question: How do I figure out if anything is veneered? I really do not think the top of the table or buffet or china cabinet are veneered, just by looking at it. And especially since there are deep gouges on the top of the buffet, especially. I would venture to say that one of the three gouges, at least, is deeper than any veneer and there is no sign of anything bu solid wood there.

It was suggested to try Howard Restor-A-Finish. I need to look that stuff up. If it does what J. Clarke says it does, then it may be the thing for me, especially for the scratches on the table top. They are not deep; there are just a bunch of them.

Okay, here is another question: Since it does seem like the manufacturer may have used stain (as can best be seen by the stain wearing out around the top of the chair backs), how would you restore those using the steel wool and wax method? Or even the Howard Restor-A-Finish method? It would seem to me that there really IS stain involved here and a complete refinishing job is required? Or, maybe, just cleaning it up to get the old "Pledge" and fingerprints off and then using that Howard Restor-A-Finish stuff with steel wool may clean it up just enough. Then I can top it off with the wax?

I am not afraid to strip this stuff to bare wood. The furniture is okay but, like I said before, I do not think it is worth oodles of money. I bet the best I could ever hope for would be to recoup the money that I would spend on a new dining room set--probably less. This is not something like a Stickley dining set or anything. It was something that was bought in the corner furniture store back around 1943 or 1944. Don't get me wrong--it is a nice set, just now outstanding. It fits our needs but that is because it is SMALL. It would be completely out of place in a 3,500 sqft McMansion they build today.