In the 1940's and 50's ish, varnish was often used on furniture. A common varnish was made with some kind of natural resin or some form of an early acrylic polymer mixed with a drying oil, usually linseed. The downside was that it was slow drying which made it inefficient for mass produced furniture.
There was also a faster drying (and more versatile) varnish made by adding turpentine to the mix as the solvent would evaporate after it was applied which speeds up the drying process. I think this was the most frequently used varnish for commercial products.
Spirit varnish was usually more available and used by the general public. It is essentially a resin, often shellac, dissolved in alcohol.
You can sometimes tell if a finish is shellac vs oil based by applying denatured alcohol to a non-conspicuous spot. Shellac should soften and dissolve while oil based varnishes will be less affected.
From about 1970 to the mid 80's a fellow named Homer Formby who was a professional furniture restorer from Florida made and sold a furniture refinishing product. Here is a video clip of one of his advertisements:
Formby's Refinisher. Before he went commercial with his product line, he gave out the recipe for his furniture refinisher free during his tv programs.
I posted about it in a similar thread called
"Formbys finishes?" back in 2022. It had a best guess at his formula. The cool thing was that it dissolved about any kind of finish and could also be used to "smear" the dissolved finish into areas where the patina had been lost, helping to blend the color back into the raw wood.
Good Luck with your project. We are all anxious to hear and see how it turns out.
Dave
