if you leave the varnish on the wood finish, get HUTS polish off of the internet and with a 100 percent cotton cloth start rubbing the varnish finish out to a extremely high gloss. it will almost vanish it will become so clear. then you can see the wood and not the finish. if you strip it and oil finish it rub that oil finish out with HUTS polish also. it will give it a soft furniture glow. i come from hundreds of years of french that were furniture makers, it is in my blood. if i can do it so can you. you just have to have the right way to do it and now you do. i did a gun stock sticky on another site and it has over 50 thousands hits to this day. a lot of gun owners have made their gun stock very very nice from that sticky. i love to share info, why hang on to it?