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i have recently dismantled a very old (100 yrs ? ) cedar wardrobe and used some of the wood to make boxes . i tried several methods to finish but the wood seemed to soak up everything and i was left with a dull and rather dark box . the side i was working on had previously been ,i assume , french polished . this had badly deteriorated and i scrubbed it off with metho . any advice pls
Very old Aus red cedar will go very dark no matter what you put on it. That's the nature of the timber. If oiled it will go so dark that it will almost be like some black has been added to it. Shellac was the finish of choice for most cedar furniture.
If you want to see the lightest finished colour of the timber wet it down with water or methylated spirits after it has been sanded and is ready to finish. White Shellac won't darken the timber any more than wetting down with water neither will Hard Shellac. Almost everything else will darken the timber more than the wet look apart from some waxes like Traditional Wax or any other wax that doesn't have an oil content. The waxes will darken initially but lighten back to the dry look of the timber after they are fully dried especially those with little or no beeswax. However most waxes can be marked reasonably easily, especially with heat, alcohol, water, etc.
Hope this is of some help.
Cheers - Neil :U
PS The lighter almost honey colour of some old Aus Cedar is usually because of light exposure, or sun bleaching / exposure (UV).