Wood on plane restore.

[Dave Lehnert]

I have a plane I picked up on a Trip to Sugarcreek Ohio. It is a Sargent 3411. After a quick clean up I found the Japanning is in good shape with only a few chips. No need to repaint. The wood has some issues. How would I restore that? What is original? The way it has chipped, it almost looks like paint, but sure it's not.

[Johnny Kleso]

Colored Shellac or Varnish is my guess that they used..

I use a dark stain with heavy solids and shellac but vasnish might cost less...