New Life for an old table...

I'm about to make a recommendation, but it is for a product I have been buying for decades, not for any freebies, as I have never received any.  

I'm still working on my list.  Since the promised delivery date of the glass top I ordered for the kitchen island/table is almost here, I decided to tackle cleaning the finish on the table top so it's ready.  I don't want to have to move the glass any time soon after it is in place.

I can't remember exactly when I found New Life Furniture Masque, but it was probably almost three decades ago.  I used it on the custom built cabinet fronts in the entire kitchen of a previous house to try to clean off twenty years of use and second-hand smoke build up of the former owners.  The cabinets looked FABULOUS when I finished.

It is more of a liquid than what one would expect of a masque.  It has a pleasant orange scent, and says you can apply it with your fingertips.  When I did the entire kitchen job, I did not think about ventilation or wearing gloves, and I think my hands were in it so much that some was absorbed through my skin.  I felt rather nauseous the next day, though quite possibly that was from absorbing nicotine from the smoke stain build up that I was cleaning off and not from the product itself.  (No kidding.  All surfaces in the house looked so bad that my Avon lady couldn't be budged from her opinion that there must have been a fire in the house at some time.  There wasn't, but that's how bad the smoke stains were.  That's what three adult chain smokers can do by not taking their smokes outside.)

Anyway, today I wore gloves since this was kind of a big job.  

This table is one that was my parents' when I was growing up, and it belonged to my great aunt and uncle before that.  Carey and I have had it and used it since our kids were little.  It has also been in storage some over the years.  See the dirt and grime that started being dissolved immediately?

I used an old diaper to wipe the masque off after five minutes.  (Yes, these are the diapers my children wore as babies.  I've still got a stack of them in the linen closet.  Nothing's better for cleaning.)

After the first application, I repeated the process.

 These photos were taken from one angle.

And these photos were taken from the opposite angle.  

Does it look perfect now?  No, it looks like the antique that it is.  But now it looks like a much cleaner antique.  I'm thinking I may go pick up some very fine steel wool and go over it (as recommended on the product container for heavy build up) one more time, as there is still some build up in places.

I didn't do the legs as they don't have the damage that the top did.  I probably will use a wood moisturizer made by the same company to go over the legs.

Ahhhh.  Another chore marked off the list!