madamekelly

Please, after using something that strong on the cabinet, please try some Old English furniture oil to reseal the wood. You will be glad you did since the wood won't get dry and tired looking.

Skratchie

Absolutely. It's always been my intention to re-seal the wood and make it lovely again. I think it will be beautiful once all the tar is off of it!

Christine-

Actually, Old English doesn't seal wood. It's temporary, at best. All it does is color the wood, and you'll notice within a week you need to reapply again. Instead, get a container of Bri-wax. That will do the trick! I promise!

Christine-

I bought a gross and disgusting sewing machine like this a couple years ago from a thrift shop. The dark orange nicotine covered every surface. I washed it with Murphy's oil soap, took the machine apart and used q-tips to reach every nook and cranny I could find. But the smell was hard to get out of the wood, yes. Here's what I did to block the smell. I cleaned the wood until no more dark orange yuck was coming off the wood. I let it sit in the garage for a couple months to let the ozone/fresh air do it's work. Afterwards, I used Bri-wax and coated every surface, inside and out. This sealed the wood, and the odor as well. It's been in my house for 5 years now.

I was in fire restoration work when I was younger so I have a little understanding of what it takes to clean wood. Smoke is a gas that gets into porous surfaces. Once you clean the particles off, it is difficult to get rid of the smell. In fire restoration, they use a pressurized gas to neutralize the odor.

I probably gave you too much info... sorry! I do blather on sometimes...