I found this old stuff in my attic, and decided to give it a little lift :D

It has really rusty handles and some agglo is screwed on it for some reasons, but the wood is still ok.

it had some cobwebs on it and it was overall really dusty, so i first used a vaacum cleaner.

I then used some wipes to remove superficial stains and else on the wood.

Step 1: Unscrewing the Agglo/taking the Drawers Out

Once it was clean enough, i unscrewed the agglo ut it left some holes in, and i found out that the wood was only partially vernished.

I took the drawers out and unscrewed the handles for some cleaning.

Step 2: Rust Removal and Varnish Removal

I used a sanding machine to remove the varnish on top of the table, no pictures here, too dusty :p

I dipped all the handle parts into a rust removing solution for about 4 hours.

After rincing and quickly cleaning, i saw that there was some rust left so i will try to use something else to get rid of all that rust :p

Step 3: Second Layer of Varnish

After a bit of sanding i applied another layer of varnish everywhere.

I also saw online that a bath of hot vinegar and salt was good against rust, so after some big cleaning i dipped all of the handle parts in it for around 3 hours.

To be honest it worked ok, but there was still some left, so i used a toothbrush and some car polish to try to get rid of the remaining stains.

I quickly rince the parts in water and put then in a towel, and i let the varnish dry for one night.

Step 4: Finished!

There it is, clean and finally useful!

Doing this made me understand a few things that i listed on the last step.

Step 5: Mistakes!

I realized after appyling the second layer that i had some drops of varnish on the legs, but it was already hardened :/

When i hand sanded the plate i also scratched the bottom of the plate wich was not intended, so i had to put a thin coat of varnish here too even tho it wasn't sanded off wich ended looking kinda ugly, thankfully nobody ever lifts this :p

Maybe if i do such things again i might put more than 2 coats, but i did not want it to look too shiny so i settled down with two layers.

If you have a wood that doesn't have any old varnish/finish on it, do not sand it too much, but put a good coat of natural oil on it and let it soak in before varnishing.