Furniture, Wood and Cabinetry Finishing - what finish can I use

I am refinishing a dinning room set, it is from the late 40's. I am not sure as to the original finish but it desolves quickly with acetone. I have used steel wool and old english on a couple of the chairs and they look great but would like to put a finish on them to protect them. I would like to use a polyurethane if possible but am unsure if this would work. Thank you for your time and information.

The original finish was lacquer. You can use polyurethane to refinish after you remove all the lacquer, of course. I would suggest buying the brush on lacquer for the first 2-3 coats, in the sheen you want. Buy An aerosol in the same sheen from the same mfg., to put the final coat on after you've sanded everything down smooth - gives a much better, mar-free look.

You might try a high gloss tung oil. It will not be a durable as the original finnish, but if built up enough will be a nice finnish. If kids are going to be eating at the table.. well I might stick with the original finnish, I like the idea of using brush on for the first coat or two and then spraying the third. Brushing on a finnish that dries so fast is hard to get a quality finnish with, but this seems to be the best of both worlds, well unless you can get your wife to buy a HVLP sprayer for you..