Painting a banister

[bullethead123]

I got a badly chipped banister which I want to restore. I like the brown colour but am unsure about what to use to get it back to looking good.
Should I just undercoat and use a brown paint or would I be better off using a coloured varnish or maybe a paint with a top coat of clear varnish?

 

[Wayners]

Has it that black wax like grime on. Many do as it's skin oil.
Clean that off with cif or citrus cleaner.
Sand.
Paint.

Waterbased paints can soften with skin oil so stick to oil based paint