See, way of topic. I have an odd ball question. My mother had a rocking chair under a covered porch for about 12 years now and it had seen better days. This rocking chair was brought to our home in August of 1979, when I was born and brought home from the hospital. I believe the chair was from the SEARS catalog. It is 40 years old like me. I don’t think it’s antique but it has nostalgic value to me. I like tinkering with stuff so I’d like to repair it too keep.
My question to yall is this. Would sodium bicarbonate, rinse, and oxalic acid clean this up like a fence?
What’s your end goal? Do you want to completely refinish it? New stain and clear coat?
It looks like there’s some stain that needs stripped so if you want it completely refinished you might be better off finding someone who refinishes furniture. They have dip tanks to where they can dip it to remove the stain. You could strip it yourself but those dip tanks do a great job. You could then sand, stain, and clear coat on your own.
Ide just give it a scrubbing with mineral spirits before I tried anything to serious. It will clean off old oil and dirt as well as give you a peak of what it would look like with either a rubbing oil or poly finish.
My end goal is to make it sound again and clean it up to add some stain and use it. It has a lot of loose parts where the original glue has weakened. I will probably end up taking the whole thing apart and cleaning it up to reassemble. I thought about looking for furniture refinisher to redo it but it will probably cost more than I want to spend.
Never thought about mineral spirits. I bet I have some around somewhere. Do you think it will rub off the mildew that is on it, the black stuff. The chair was originally very blonde in color. I’ll probably blow it apart, clean it up, sand it down, re-glue everything, and apply some stain. I was thinking the sodium bicarbonate because the engraving on the headboard. Seems like it will be pretty difficult to get in those nooks.
MS tends to remove oily residue and the like, it won’t “kill” mold or mildew spores, but it will remove surface funk, and give you a better idea what you are working with. Soda blasting is great for historic or delicate work if you are set up for it.
Stains of old were merely a mix of kerosene and tar of some sort. Just a fyi.
@DR45 we did about thirty benches for the mall that had them same looking designs on them. He said they come from Sam’s back in the day. Tried soda and sand went with sand because it was cheaper. Took 2 bags of sand per bench then sprayed with OA and rinsed. They turned out awesome it made the grain of the wood pop . Think they wound up not staining them just went with a clear coat because they liked the way they looked. I will see if I can find the pics for you.
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Murphy’s oil soap and a soft brush is the best thing to use. You will be surprised
Are you talking about a soda and sand blaster? Wouldn’t that be harsh on that wood?
My mom has some of that at her house. I will look into that. I will probably try this and the mineral spirits under the seat to test.
Soda blasting is used to restore historical pieces so with a light hand it’s fine, sand on the other hand is faster and much cheaper BUT It can remove wayyyy to much if you aren’t super careful, I personally wouldn’t try sand unless your trying to distress the piece.
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Rocking myself to sleep son 
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