How do you clean dirt and wax off a 150 year old wood rocking chair?
You'd better research that. Do you have an antique dealer near you to consult? I say this because more often than not the worst thing one can do to an antique is to clean it up.
exactly! much of the value is in the old finish.
why would you want to do that? anything over 100 years is an antique and to clean it like you want to would ruin it and ruin it's value. That chair has lots of memories as well so you should be able to accept that. If that chair didn't come to you from family then there are wood cleaners, but I certainly would never take the varnish off of it and if you try to take any wax buildup off of it you will also remove the varnish and then will have to have all of it removed to have it restained and recovered (with plastic or varnish). So I'd say leave it alone. I know because I've always thought things had to be clean and sparkling clean and ruined everything I had.
