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About 15 years ago I started a maple blanket chest. Got it almost completed when a job a long ways away interrupted the project. Last fall I came back home, went down cellar, turned on the lights, brushed down the cobwebs and there was the nearly completed chest sitting on the work bench. I had stored the boards to be glued up for the lid and the boards for the cedar lining in one stack. Oops! The oils in the cedar had migrated to the maple. The resulting stain/finish actually looked pretty good, except that the coverage was incomplete.

Here’s my question. What are my options here? Should I just varnish over the cedar oil, finish the chest with a penetrating oil, sand down the maple to remove the cedar oil, or get some new boards to make the lid?

The front and side panels are already finished with what I think was a plastic varnish.

Thanks for your advice.

Mark Goodridge