With furniture there are lots of different techniqes for restoration. Some are more along the lines of Glenn's menthod, and some work with pure shellac, brush on, sand down, buff with that powdered lime stone they use for high gloss finishes, and repeat it all several times. Maybe you could sand down the cracks just a bit with a super fine tool, then fill in the cracks with a black glaze and apply shellac on top. It would be a project with buffing and applying shellac repeatedly to get the finish all smooth again. I can't recommend it for your RAF, but if you had a beaten up machine to test it on, it should be possible (in theory at least). I have been thinking obout much the same, I have an old 1920s or 30s table with damaged veneer, worn feet and more that needs a bit of care too look nice again. It's always different with wood than these cast irion beauties.
Last edited by Mickey2; 12-02-2015 at 02:25 PM.