I've just joined the Ask Me forum because of a plumbing problem. In exploring the site I've found that I "need" to ask the experts here about some of my own furniture questions.

Several years ago I rec'd an old hope chest that seems to be made entirely of cedar. (The wood looks like the lining of my own Lane hope chest.) The top has what looks like copper bands. I refinished the top and made the copper shiny again and sealed it. (It was pretty grungy.) But after a few years the copper & nails started to tarnish. What would you recommend I do to make this look nice again?

Also I rec'd a dining room table that I think is made of pine. The top is pretty beat up. Some marker, some ball point pen carving and misc. stains. I tried sanding it but there are still many recognizable blemishes in it. Would you recommend planing it? Or should I stick with sanding? If so, what grit would you start with and graduate to? It is a rustic looking table and I 'm fine with some random gouges (distressed look). But I'd like to remove obvious "graffiti". I'd appreciate your opinions.

If you need photos I could post some later today.
Thanks,
Inky Di

Did you seal the copper banding and nails with a clear coat of some kind? If not, I would suggest shining them up again and sealing them with a clear gloss or semi-gloss lacquer like Deft. It is a low-solids lacquer that comes in a spray can. You can also buy it in quart or gallon cans from which you can then use a brush. But, for your purposes on your project, I would recommend using the spray cans. If you would need to seal the copper and nail heads that way, you could mask off the areas that you don't want the spray to get on.

For your dining room table, I would recommend apply a liquid, paste furniture stripper by following all of the directions on the can. That should lift most of the stains out of the finish. Then I would sand with 80 or 100 grit abrasive (sand) paper using a palm sander. I just get full sheets of abrasive paper and cut them to size for the palm sander. I would final sand before applying a finish with 150 grit abrasive paper. 220 or 240 grit abrasive paper is good to use between coats of finish.