[Electrothaumaturgist]

Well, I dragged the cabinet out to the balcony a couple of days ago to see what could be done with the ancient refinish job. Someone in the past re-did the top, or rather, applied some kind of stain of a darker color- pretty sure it wasn't toner, or I'm not exactly sure what was used, but the coating on the top was insanely thick (thicker than any coating I've ever seen, aside from polyurethane bar tops) and scraped almost down to the wood in spots- fortunately not to the veneer itself- and was about as hard as a rock. The rest of the cabinet had a "wash" of the darker stuff, to match the top, but in a very light coat. Had to take it down in layers, finding an old ring in the original finish near the bottom (probably why they coated it so thick) and wound up sanding it pretty much down to the wood. Time for grain filler, toner lacquer, clear coat, waxing, buffing etc...right?  WRONG!!! I decided that I'm not laying down any more money for more "products". Just can't do another 50-$100+, nor do I have the facilities here, SO, I went with what I had... Howards' Walnut Restor-a-Finish and Feed & Wax. I first applied the muck as per the instructions. HAHAHA. Didn't seem to do anything at all. Spent a few hours applying and wiping, repeating over and over till it got dark outside, with nearly no results. The wind that day was strong and steady, and increasingly so towards the night. This would either work, or the whole project would come to a standstill. The directions clearly state: DO NOT POUR DIRECTLY ONTO SURFACE. Having not much to lose, I dumped about 1/2 the can directly on the top, and paddled it on, taking care to make sure it didn't run down the sides. Temps that night were in the low-mid 50's with a constant 10-20 mph winds, and gusts. I really didn't want to leave it out there overnight, but the humidity was low, and I took a chance. Next morning, I was surprised and pleased to see that it appeared to take the pigment, and was virtually dry. Did about a hour touch up and waxed it. The results went far above my expectations of the day before... Pictures to come