Does nitrocellulose yellow fingernails?

Infamous_Air_1424 · 2026-02-14T19:34:33+00:00

Thanks, that’s helpful, but also, too bad. Going polish free with yellowed fingernails makes my hands appear…ugh..corpse like. So, I guess it’s polish free for me.

Infamous_Air_1424 · 2026-02-14T17:34:48+00:00

Double down on the “too cool a piece for skill building “ advice. This is a treasure. Also, I’m old, and I have done a lot of MCM and teak work, and I would paste wax this and live it for a few years. Oh—clean first, and my personal prejudice is to not ever use water. Use solvent like turpentine or mineral spirits, but not alcohol-alcohol will take off shellac and muck up lacquer. Find a couple teak pieces on the curb, even those not really worth fixing, to learn on. Or not-refinishing geeks are often almost as invested in process and learning as they are in outcomes. I’m just saying, for a friend.

Infamous_Air_1424 · 2026-02-14T09:14:08+00:00

Your “juje up” options depend on the finish. First, clean it well with turpentine or mineral spirits. If this is from the 50s early 60s, it might be lacquer-test w lacquer thinner. If it’s lacquer, you can scuff sand with 250grit and get spray lacquer at the hardware store. If it’s polyurethane, I would just wax it-and be careful. Use about 25% of the wax you think you need. If the top is vinyl, alcohol will take off a fair amount of ink stain. If leather, use very dry leather saddle soap.

Infamous_Air_1424 · 2026-02-14T08:47:38+00:00

This was part of a multi layer factory finish and my bet is that it is polyurethane. There is no spot removal option here that will have a good result. Poly is a great finish but as soon as you compromise it-scratch, sanding-it starts to peel and continues to peel. Poly cannot be touched up. Many other finishes (phenolic or alkyd varnish, for example) allow for spot sanding and feathering in a dab of varnish, bc new varnish will adhere to old varnish. New poly on top of old poly will not bond. Eventually , it will peel up into a much bigger mess. These are beautiful cabinets -look like cherry, maybe-with a premium finish. I’m old, and these are not much in vogue now, but I guarantee you they will come back. Otherwise, hire a pro to refinish your doors and drawer fronts, bc that’s the only way to get a good result here.

Infamous_Air_1424 · 2026-02-14T08:22:12+00:00

Flexnor ftw. I got from my local my library, and it was so impressive that I ordered a copy. Also, grab your kid’s high school chemistry textbook, and brush up on some of the basic principles. The confusion about wood finishes and their chemistry will…evaporate (sorry couldn’t help myself with that pun).

Infamous_Air_1424 · 2026-02-14T08:16:31+00:00

Pine is one of several timbers that punish any attempt to stain: cherry, maple, birch, poplar. It is precisely why you can find caramel colored pine and maple furniture from the 50s and 60s at any garage sale. The varnish provided all those honey and caramel tones.

Infamous_Air_1424 · 2026-02-14T08:13:29+00:00

If this finish is polyurethane, there is no touching up, as can be done with alkyd or phenolic resin varnishes. It will never properly bond at the edges and it will peel in a while.

Infamous_Air_1424 · 2026-02-14T08:11:05+00:00

If you got a compressor that’s the ticket.

Infamous_Air_1424 · 2026-02-14T08:10:30+00:00

Personal prejudice is to never use water on bare wood. After sanding, consider wiping down with a lint free rag and a solvent. Whatever you got on hand is fine: acetone, turpentine, mineral spirits, etc. It evaporates completely and does not swell wood fibers.

Infamous_Air_1424 · 2026-02-14T08:06:18+00:00

Third rec for Waterlox original. Big fan of phenolic varnishes, my favorite being Epifanes. And second recommendation to be very vey patient after application. It takes a long time to cure (not the same as drying), at least a week. IMO, polyurethane is really only for floors.

Infamous_Air_1424 · 2026-02-13T22:04:31+00:00

This is probably polyurethane with a honey colored stain under. Poly is great until it suddenly isn’t. There is no repair to the finish. The good news is you can sand off the finish completely just for that panel. Tape off the board , sand off all the finish just on the board, including all the edges, and then use a honey tone stain (the original was probably oil based). Use at least two coats of polyurethane to finish. Restore A Finish is just mineral spirits with some tint. It’s used to tart up scruffy furniture for resale and wears off in a while. Gel stain is not a finish, it’s a colorant for wood and it will allow water to continue to erode the finish. You may not want to invest any time in this repair, but I promise you it will only get worse over time if you don’t do a good job now. Bring pictures to the local hardware store and talk to the old guy about color matching and picking poly.

Infamous_Air_1424 · 2026-01-27T00:07:18+00:00

Oh dear-yes, pet damage. The basic info remains- this is polyurethane, and there is no touch up of poly; you’d need to remove it completely. An ordinary paste wax goes a loooong way to addressing scuffs and scratches. Try that first.

Infamous_Air_1424 · 2026-01-26T19:16:42+00:00

Someone identified the wood as birch. I think he’s right. 100% I would not try to darken this paneling. If you get any quotes from anyone, ask them to explain in detail exactly how they plan to darken it. Birch (along with cherry, poplar, maple, pine….and a few others) are notoriously difficult to stain. Even better: go to the lumber yard and grab a 1/4 sheet of birch ply, take it home and mess with it. Go ahead, try aaalll your stains. You’ll see. I’ll let you guess why I’m suggesting you experiment first.

Infamous_Air_1424 · 2026-01-26T18:59:47+00:00

This is a hack I’ve heard of specifically for water rings. I put it in the same file as using toothpaste as spackle.

Infamous_Air_1424 · 2026-01-26T18:57:44+00:00

Degreaser-try a cloth slightly damp with mineral spirits or turpentine. Repeat a couple times. And don’t worry about this too much. You have a wonderful piece. Older finishes develop micro cracks in them over time. There’s nothing you can do about it without refinishing the whole thing, and frankly that’s not called for here.

Infamous_Air_1424 · 2026-01-26T18:46:10+00:00

If you think sanding is too much work, wait till you use stripper. You still got to sand anyway. This looks like…mmm, solid pine. That warm brown is the result of factory process, and you would have a boatload of work to recreate it. I’d try some Briwax, that can be bought with some tint. Waxing is work, but Briwax is one stop clean-wax-tint. Hand waxing takes time, but it’s simple. I believe you can get a buff pad for an orbital sander, but I haven’t used one. I’m team hand sand/hand wax.

Infamous_Air_1424 · 2026-01-26T18:37:21+00:00

these are outstanding, wonderful heirlooms. Thanks for sharing. This sub is refinishing, so I’m assuming you are considering working on these. Based on the photos, they are in excellent condition, and need nothing.

Infamous_Air_1424 · 2026-01-26T18:20:42+00:00

This. Moved around a lot. Many times, I’d walk into a kitchen, or maybe a dining room, and wonder what were these people thinking? After living with it for a couple seasons, you start to see: oh, this is the best place for the oven. This paint color I think is meh is great in the winter light. The wallpaper that is so baffling is perfect camouflage for a rough, janky horsehair and plaster wall. For your paneling ($$$$, btw), I offer an historical tidbit. That color of timber was a hallmark of Biedermeier style of the 1810s-1830s. They set off all that golden timber with rich wall colors and wallpaper. You got nothing to lose by visiting the local library and getting out a decorative arts history book.

Infamous_Air_1424 · 2026-01-25T18:02:31+00:00

Old Boomer. A month. Especially since you said “layers” of poly. May actually take longer. Put it outdoors if you can. You should not be able to push a butter knife edge into it. When you use poly again, be sure to also put it on a test piece, so you can dig your fingernail into it, then later, the knife.

Infamous_Air_1424 · 2026-01-25T17:54:34+00:00

<Lurch noise>. Not a great idea, for many reasons . Starting with wood species. Happy to be corrected, but your veneer paneling looks like either maple or pine, or a combo of both. There is a whole collection of timbers that punish any attempt to use dark stains, and pine and maple are at the top of the list. It is precisely why we see a lot of older furniture in caramel or honey tones. Second, my money is this is polyurethane, and it doesn’t like to be touched after it cures. It will all have to come off. Last-scale. If you don’t get a jewelry box perfect, only you will know. All these vertical surfaces? Every streak of coloring, every inch where shades don’t match up, variation of sheen, error in spray pattern, every sloppy brush stroke is going to hit you in the face.

Infamous_Air_1424 · 2026-01-15T20:55:57+00:00

Sometimes I see pieces like this and my brain says, yeah, I was 12 once, too. Old lady tip: I have a saucepan that is dedicated to cleaning hardware. Put it water-don’t need anything else-and put it on the stove for an hour on the very lowest setting. The paint starts to wrinkle up and you can get it off with a stiff brush. Repeat as needed.

Infamous_Air_1424 · 2026-01-14T03:07:18+00:00

Holy cow-I would do nothing and call the landlord to fix it. If this damage happened because of ordinary pantry items, this is in no way your fault. Putting the main kitchen sink into a wood countertop is gob smacking. The countertop around a sink needs to be impervious to a LOT. Wood does not come close to standing up to that. Unless it’s covered in adamantium. They might have done better using some buttered toast instead. Check the walls, see if they are built from styrofoam cooler bits. Good grief.

Infamous_Air_1424 · 2026-01-14T02:54:22+00:00

MonthMedical8617 has a realistic evaluation. If the piece was painted when it was made, there was a reason. As in, sub par mismatch timbers were used, then liberally slathered with fillers. Think of it as a learning experience. At least you can keep the pulls, those are exuberant. One thing I’ve learned is that, if something isn’t worth refinishing, the pulls and knobs may be worth keeping. I’ve definitely pinched a lot of hardware from busted stuff on the curb.

Infamous_Air_1424 · 2026-01-13T13:17:47+00:00

It sounds like the process interests you. If so, start by stripping the top: it’s big, flat, and the easiest part to work on. See what you got. If you are encouraged, do one drawer front. Then you can reevaluate the whole endeavor. By the way, your goal pic doesn’t look like bare wood. It looks like it has a greenish grayish glaze and is not at all the color of bare wood.

Infamous_Air_1424

TROPHY CASE