Quote:
Originally Posted by ajgriff
Furniture restorers often use a mixture of white spirit and clear distilled vinegar rubbed in with fine steel wool for removing thick grime of all kinds. Alan
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You need to exercise caution when using wire wool and vinegar as depending on the level of tannin in the actual wood it can significantly darken. Wire wool and vinegar (iron acetate) reacts with tannin and is used extensively as an ebonising solution to darken timber. As oak has a high tannin level, it will turn it black, just as will steel screws when used in oak - not that oak was used much as veneer for radio cabinets. For woods other than oak, where it's desired to darken the wood and the extent of darkening is insufficient (beech, sapele, iroko), tannin is often added to the solution (eg, tea).
These videos show the effect, which is often used to good advantage:
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q...47&FORM=VDRVRV
This shows the effect on several types of wood:
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q...9&&FORM=VDRVRV
I do quite a lot of woodworking and woodturning, mostly in hardwoods. I never use wire wool for preparation or finishing and I don't know anyone who does.
I often use U-pol pads, as used extensively by bodyshops for flatting down primer etc, which come in two grades: fine, and super-fine:
http://www.u-pol.com/uk/en-uk/produc...finishing-pads
Hope that's of interest.