Furniture, Wood and Cabinetry Finishing - Looking to Refinish a Dining Room Table

Hi. I am very new to the "do it yourself" world and would like to resurface my wife's dining room table. The set is from the early 50's and has great sentimental value to her.

It is mahogony and has many scratches and bare spots on the table top and leaves where it looks like the stain and "shine" was taken off. I think the top should be resurfaced. Is the best way to remove the finish to redo this by sanding or stripping? Also, It probably should be stained. Lastly, what kind of finish should I use? I read poly is good.

Obviously, I need some help here, so any information or links you can suggest before I do this will be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!!!

Welcome to the forums

Since the top is likely a veneer and not solid wood care must be used with both stripping and sanding. Once the surface is ready for stain the hard part is over. Poly would be a good durable finish choice.

I don't do much refinishing but hopefully some of the others that do can give you more info.

Sanding and stripping would be a LOT of work. If it was me, I would light sand, degloss and clean the table. Find a pretty close polystain and blend out the bad spots, then recoat the who table with polyurethane. Or you could use a wipe of poly, or old vanish to get a more antiqued look. But, without seeing the table, that is hard to say.