Restoring a wooden tool box, help needed

Brian,

I hope the toolbox restoration has gone well - little late to add to the good advice given above but I had a similar problem with my late fathers tool chest. It had stood around for a long time and I knew it had a bit of history as it was made for him in the carpenters shop at COW Red Lane (COW = Coventry Ordnance Works) during the Great War. It was blackened with oil and age, but inside had beautiful rose wood draw fronts. I had advice from a furniture restorer to use meths and wire wool to clean it and to keep repeating the process until the wood came clean. The setting fire to a 'float' of meths was scary but finally brought the last vestiges of oil out of the wood. The cabinet was made from a beautifully grained 'quarter sawn' rich dark oak. I was advised to let it stand for a week or two to stabilise and then to treat it with gun stock oil, lightly rubbing it in over several coats. Gun stock oil is a linseed / rape oil base with beeswax added. After 4 or 5 coats it came up like a venerable piece of cherished furniture. It now has pride of place on my work bench and is where I keep my most treasured tools.

The moving part of the story was when I found on the inside of the back panel an inscription by the maker to my father, wishing him luck for the future and dated November 1916.

QED O/R the mystical recipes still work.

Regards Ian.