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I recently bought a filthy oak victrola. I'm not sure if it's fumed or weathered oak or some other finish. It's not dark enough for flemish and too dark for golden. My question is what would be the safest way to start cleaning it. I don't want to do anything stupid to the original finish.

My golden-oak VV-XI had languished in an attic for many years, and was loaded with black coal / attic dust.

I cleaned it by first vacuuming with the soft brush attachment, then a wiping-down with a strong solution of Murphy's oil-soap, then once that had dried, I liberally brushed the cabinet with mineral-spirits ( one side at a time ), letting it soak for about 15 minutes, applying more as needed to keep the surface wet, then wiping-off with soft paper towels, repeating until the towels no longer came away black. Let it dry for a few days, then treated it with orange-oil, then some paste-wax.

Mineral spirits will not raise grain, and shouldn't bother any original finishes. It will dissolve old polishes and waxes, which often have a lot of dirt trapped with them.

I have used GOJO that was suggested in the Forum, and it works great in cleaning off years of dirt and crud. It will not harm or do any damage to the finish.
Harvey Kravitz

Kotton Kleaner or the non-pumice gojo is what works best. Most dirt on cabinets is dirt embedded in years of wax and oil as well as cooking grease from many years. I use Kotton Kleaner and paper towels (a lot) and soft tooth brush to get into the nooks a crannys. Once I get most of the dirt off, I will apply more Kotton Kleaner and use #0000 steel wool with a VERY light tough WITH the grain. After you get it cleaned and all the cleaner removed, allow the cabinet to air dry for a day.

Brad wrote:Kotton Kleaner or the non-pumice gojo is what works best. Most dirt on cabinets is dirt embedded in years of wax and oil as well as cooking grease from many years. I use Kotton Kleaner and paper towels (a lot) and soft tooth brush to get into the nooks a crannys. Once I get most of the dirt off, I will apply more Kotton Kleaner and use #0000 steel wool with a VERY light tough WITH the grain. After you get it cleaned and all the cleaner removed, allow the cabinet to air dry for a day.

I will get right in that amen corner.

I use Kotton Klenser. (Amazon has it.) It is just amazing stuff; won't damage the finish, and is super easy to use. I put in on fairly thick with a soft paint brush, let is sit for 5 or 10 minutes and wipe it off with paper towels. The crud comes off with it, but not the finish.

A lot of folks here swear by GoJo too, which I understand works in a similar way, but I haven't tried it myself yet.

When the surface is clean and given a day or so to dry, I really like Howard's Feed-N-Wax, an orange oil & bees wax compound, to finish things up. Kotton Klenser's Lemon Oil & Beeswax polish is pretty good too, although I seem to get a little better result with the Howard's product.

Clay

Thanks for all the suggestions. I finally got a good look at it today, and it has been varnished in the past so it looks like I'll need to strip it gently. One side is already stripped, or never got sprayed. It looks like the lid got the worst of it. It's also been modified at one time to add what looks like an old lid lock from a music box. I don't think Victor ever put locks in the spider legged victrola X. I'll probably leave that in place.

I think that a lot of people had coal or oil heat and as a result these machines accumulated that grime not to mention the oil and grease from cooking in unventilated homes. I just started using GoJo and it is pretty good at getting rid of the accumulated dirt and grease.

Thanks for all the tips. I ended up stripping the parts that were varnished, and cleaning the rest as Frank De Soto recommended. I've never tried orange oil, and I really like the results. I've never been able to find non pumice GoJo.

Beautiful! What nice graining in the oak, too. You have something really special there.

GOOP without pumice works great and is available in the automotive section of WalMart. It's cheap and works for a lot of things...