If your irons aren't in bad enough shape to need sandblasting, you can use a fine steel wool to scrub them down. I used that with a mixture of dawn (the blue kind) dish soap and warm water, then wiped them dry, and repainted mine with rustoleum appliance paint. They look brand new. I haven't reassembled them yet, waiting for the (consistent) warm weather to pull it out again and get working on them. I used this for one set of my Davis irons, which are not very ornate. I have 2 other sets of irons that are more decorative and will require a little more work. One singer set, and one National set. I'll do some close hand painting on those I'm sure to restore them as close to original as I can.
I've got one treadle cabinet (Davis) that is a full restore as well. It came to me already stripped and partially sanded so I'm just finishing up where it started. My Singer 24 chain stitch treadle, however, has been painted a caramel color and its really ugly, so that has got to go. I'm not sure yet how I'm going to fix it....stripping with all those intricate woodworking shapes on it may prove beyond my capabilities so I haven't decided what route to take on that one. I may have some fun with that one. I'm open to suggestions!
as for magazines, I'll have to PM you with a list of some of my favorites.