1 tablespoon white vinegar. 3 tablespoons olive oil. Mix together in a jar. Using a rag, apply small amounts of the solution to the furniture, gently working off the dirt and grime and restoring the polish to your walnut wood furniture.
Lightly scuff sand. Fix any dents/problems. Re-stain to enhance color and to match the "new" with the old, then apply new finish.
Use a branded acrylic, polyurethane, water-based, or polyester polish to get the best possible finish. While repolishing may seem like a simple task, it is strongly recommended that you hire a professional to take good care of veneer surfaces.
Boiled linseed oil and tung oil are two of the most popular types of oil used for veneer wood, although if you are installing them into the kitchen, mineral oil is probably the best option as it more food safe.
The Best Way to Clean Veneer Furniture
If you want to repair small scratches, you can apply oil polish and rub the area with a soft microfiber cloth until the scratch is no longer visible. Otherwise, avoid the frequent use of wax products to avoid build-up and simply dust the surfaces regularly.
Conclusion: Chemical stripping is your better option for a veneered piece. If you have sanded veneer and feel comfortable doing, it can certainly be done, just be patient, start at 100 or 120 rather than a 60 or 80 grit. Don't press hard with the sander, let it do the work. Check your paper for finish build up.
Homemade Softener - There's an old veneer softener recipe of consisting of 3 parts water, 2 parts yellow glue, 1 part vegetable glycerin (which can be found at most pharmacies), and 1 part denatured alcohol. This combination will soften veneer but it's sticky, messy, and hard to dry.
We recommend using a gel stain product for restoring the colour of the furniture. They are a perfect solution for your purpose because they are easy to apply, and you don't have to remove the coating. Besides, it won't hide the underlying texture of the wood.
We recommend using tung oil for walnut. This type of oil will darken the grain, enhancing and protecting the wood.
If you like the look of an oil finish, consider trying tung oil varnish. This finish gives walnut a dark yet warm color, and if you choose to apply it by wet-sanding, this too can fill the grain as above. The appearance is only slightly different – but different nevertheless.
Tung oil is ideal walnut finish; it gives an attractive dark brown lustre to the wood grain. Walnut has open, porous grain structure that requires multiple coats of tung oil to fill and achieve a smooth, even finish.
Compared to the most common and used wood types today, walnut wood is expensive and high in demand. For its price, it has higher quality due to its strength and versatility.
The first step is to clean it with lemon-oil or orange cleaner, like Murphy's Oil Soap. Avoid using furniture polish – it is not effective enough. Let the cleaner sit on your furniture for 10-15 minutes before removing. Then make an oil and vinegar mix of 3 parts oil to 1 part vinegar and rub it on your furniture.
Melamine and PU polish are two of the most preferred veneer coating solutions, however, they have different settling times, which are as follows: Melamine polish dries in 20 to 30 minutes, and requires a polish mixture to be applied within 8 hours.
How to Sand Veneer. Practice patience when hand sanding small veneered pieces. For most veneer types, we recommend starting with nothing coarser than a 100-grit and slowly working your way up to a 220-grit or finer, depending on the piece and desired outcome. All increases and changes should be gradual.
Use Vinegar
In cleaning your veneer wood floor, you can also use it by pouring it into a spray bottle, mixing it with water, and shaking the bottle vigorously for a proper mix. Since it's abrasive on its own, you have to mix it with water before using it to clean the veneer.
Use a damp, lint-free cloth
For the best results, wipe in the direction of the wood grain and if you are trying to tackle those more stubborn marks caused by food and drink, apply a dab of mild washing up liquid to your cloth and again wipe in the direction of the wood grain.
Steel wool is especially useful for veneers or delicate inlays, where the surface being refinished is very thin and could be damaged by sandpaper. The one area where it can't compete with sandpaper is in smoothing down a rough surface.