1. Wash piece with Murphy's Oil Soap, thoroughly dry

2. Use finest grit steel wool and rub in the direction
of the grain of the wood - you will be removing
old wax not the finish. Go over every inch of the
wood with fine steel wool until you feel you have
gotten the old dirty wax off.

3. Wash again with Murphy's Oil Soap & let dry.

4. This is the most amazing of the steps - Use
Howard's Restor-a-Finish in Mahogany stain on
your piece - it will transform the wood.
Follow directions on the can. It will fill in
water stains and other imperfections - the patina
of the old wood will be intact, and your piece
will just glow.

5. Use Howards Feed N' Wax as a final step following
directions on the bottle.

I guarantee you will be amazed by who well this regimen works. Make sure you don't wax your furniture more than a couple times a year - otherwise, you end up building up wax and dirt. Just dust and buff lightly with a soft, dry cloth.

Here is a picture of a really horrible old chest I bought years ago - the wood was completely dead and dull looking - it was filthy and my husband could not understand why I bought it....after following the process listed above, here is how it turned out.

Good luck!