.

If the back of the dresser is also finished...

I would melt the same wax in a spot nobody can see and use that a as testbed for finding a method that is least damaging to the finish.

.

I use an old credit card as a scraper on stuff I don't want damaged, on a regular basis.

quote:

Originally posted by Poacher:
Moist towel and an iron. Warm it slowly until the wax melts and the towel picks it up.

^This - except instead of a moist towel, use a dry brown paper bag. With the iron on low, put the paper bag over the wax and iron that spot gently. As soon as the was reaches melting point, the brown paper bag soaks it up. The melting point of wax should not be hot enough to damage your furniture...

I had a similar issue occur with a 100 year old desk. Instead of wax, I had my desk top pad backing delaminate and fuse to the wood surface. I was devastated. The man I bought it from would have been able to strip it and refinish it, but it was at a cost I didn't want to bear at the time.

I figured at this point, "I can't make it worse!" I used a small plastic scraper and removed some of the looser parts. My thought was to try the least harmful methods first.

I next applied a lot of plain old Lemon Pledge. It softened the rest of the debris and I was able to remove it. After wiping it clean, the surface was discolored from the damage.

I next used an application of Kramer's Best Antique Restorer and 0000 steel wool. It evened out the finish and brought it back to an even sheen.

For the final layer, I applied a couple of coats of BriWax and it looks like nothing ever happened.

If you don't want to use plastic, try bamboo chopsticks. They can be sharpened in a pencil sharpener or with a knife to get into fine detail and pick out debris.

Good luck with it! It's probably a lot tougher that you think it is.

^^^^
Thanks, I'm going to carefully Scrape out the crevices then try the hair dryer method first and go from there. Thanks everyone.

quote:

Originally posted by ArtieS:

I would go very gently with a NEW razor blade scraper

I'd go with a plastic scraper or even an old credit card first