I recently inherited (pinched, I mean) a beautiful antique wooden bread kneading bowl from my mother. I've recently begun to start making bread, so the timing was fortuitous. My mom tells me it's very old, she and dad got it for a wedding gift (40 years ago!). She used it when I was a kid for salad and serving. It's in good condition, without splits or cracks from drying out... except for the worm holes....

The bowl has been in storage for at least 10 years because at some point something burrowed into it and created wormholes... This was before the all-knowing internet, so mom tried to repair it the best way she could. She filled the holes with some kind of wood filler. It didn't work so well. When I got it, the glue was sort of chunky and seperating. I scraped it off the best I could using warm water, vinegar, my fingernails, and the side of a fork (gently).

I'm left with what you see now. It's pretty smooth in texture, but there's a lot of discoloration remaining. Much of the lightness at the bottom is the wood coming through... that's fine and will fade with more use, cleaning, curing. The other lightness is from the glue/filler itself. The worm holes are the distinct squiggly things. The wood flller/glue (of unknown origin) is really hard to get off. Vinegar barely makes a dent. I've scraped off all i can, now i'm just smearing it around. I read that laquer thinner and steel wool will remove it promptly, but I'd like to remove all the glue in a foodsafe fashion. If it comes out of the wormholes that's great (character, you know) or not... whatever! I'd just like to polish it up and use it for whatever i can, even if it's just a centerpeice. Ideas?