Regarding your irons, what do you want them to look like? Do you want them to look restored? Or to show their age but just be cleaner? You could remove loose paint with a metal bristle brush of some kind, and could repaint, making sure you keep paint out of areas of moving metal on metal (e.g. the pivot points on the pedal).
I used Howards Feed N Wax on some irons for somebody, and the first thing out of his mouth when he saw the table was, "You painted it." Which I did not. Wax won't cover up your bare spots, but again, it depends on what you want to have at the end.