Restoring an old cedar wardrobe

[growler Peter^11452]

G'day
I have an old Australian red cedar wardrobe that is about 100 plus years old. It has been in the family all that time, and it needs cleaning up. I do not have the time nor the inclination to do a complete restoration number on it, but I would like to improve it's appearance. It appears to have originally been coated with shellac, and has probably had some wax applied, but who knows? Coating is quite thin.
It has some stains, and I would like to tidy it up, and probably put some new wax finish on it. Tried to clean some mould off using Metho, but that seems to just spread the muck. Any suggestions for an easy clean and polish. I wish I had the time to do the job thoroughly by going back to bare wood, but I have a whole house to paint, and life is to short for perfection in this case.
I would appreciate any helpful comments. Thanks

[toolbagsPLUS]

G'Day growler,

Keep on with the metho only try using it with #2 steel wool and that will clean it up a treat.

Steel wool and metho rub along the grain. then rinse of with clean metho, repeat unit the metho is clean with the steel wool.

Going across grain is tempting but will cut the wood fibres and show up as scratches when you do the final finish.

Re-apply shellac with a soft brush unless you want it French polished then that's a whole new ball of wax.

Speaking of wax the one I use on all restorations is Black Bison which when applied with 0000 steel wool and buffed leaves a wonderful patina that looks as if it's been there for 100 years instead of yesterday.

Cheers, all the best with it if you get stuck by all means email me and I'll see if I can help out further, I'm at Burleigh on the Gold Coast.


Steve

[growler Peter^11452]

Thanks Steve
I will get some more #2 and #4(have run out), and 4LT of metho.
I have some Gilly Stephenson Waxes which should do the trick.

Growler