Admiral's Cabinet - Preserve, Conserve, or Restore?

[VintagePC]

I have to agree with Bill here-

You should at least re-finish it, as it will have more significance for you, and possibly even add a plaque to it with "in memory of" and make it a family heirloom. What's more, if the end result looks great, and is your own work, then you'll have something to be extremely proud of.

If that's veneer, and a surface stain or varnish, (looks like varnish from the damage), I'd go with some good cabinet scrapers - If you have a Lee Valley near by, see here:
http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/pag...at=1,310,41069

Practice a bit on some scrap wood until you get a feel for them; you can make very thin wood "curls" (long, long shavings much like you get with a hand plane, only even thinner) with them if you do it right.

The advantage here is they will take off very little of the surface, preserving most of the dings and scratches (and their memories), unless you want to remove them.

If you work with the grain of the wood, you can get an extremely smooth finish (smoother than sanding!).

Once you've scraped off the old paint, you can re-finish with stain, shellac, or varnish; I'd recommend varnish as it brings out the natural colour and design of the wood- this is extremely rich, especially for aged wood.

Three to four coats of varnish (thin it slightly on the last coat to get a smoother coat and reduce brush stroke lines), or you can try with a model airbrush set - but practice first!

Also a note: If that cabinet is made of maple, it will do a number on those scrapers; Maple (and latex paint) contain silica (and quartz, respectively) which dulls the sharp edges faster than on other woods... so you may want to pick up a scraper sharpening kit too.
- particularly this file holder so you can get a perfect 90 degree edge:
http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/pag...=1,43072,43089

and this (or another burnisher): http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/pag...at=1,310,41070

I'm currently doing the same thing with my Fleetwood 4068 cabinet- (in the middle of veneering right now) but I should be finished in a few days, at which point I'll post pictures of the finished result so you can see for yourself.