This is an interesting old-school (19th century) book with lots of info on how they finished wood back in the day. A couple of caveats: some ingredients may be uncommon and hard to locate today (or go by different names now), and some of this may not meet modern ideas about safety. But it's an interesting book about techniques that have gone by the wayside in favor of polyurethane sprayed on particleboard...

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/17935