Old varnish

oldfrank

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Today I'm an Epifanes man. I used to be a Spinnaker man (October Gloss!). Both are fairly easy to strip when you have to - and for this reason (amongst others) I never touch two-pack.

I think most proprietry varnishes available today have a bit of polyurethane added - but I've never found a sensible answer to stripping old pre-war varnish, which I suspect must have been produced almost entirely from linseed. If you have to strip it today, hot air guns aren't awfully effective - it all congeals into a nasty mess. Once you've cleaned the surface and it looks about time to sand, every abrasive put anywhere near it immediately clogs. I've never found a better way than the hard way - but someone on this Forum may have.

Does anyone have any experience of the walnut shells loved by furniture restorers? or soda blasting? I never rated the sand blasting technique, which is so aggressive it just seems to raise the grain on softawood. Grateful for your advice. OF.
 

Lyulph Hesling

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I used paint stripper, which worked well, eventually (three of four treatments), but it is costly. You are still left with residual varnish in the grain, but it is weakened and less cloggy, especially if you start at a 40 grit.

I used standard Nitromors and, inside, their new low odour gel type, which stays wet for a long time, so gets old varnish moving.
 

KINGFISHER 8

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I use a Bahco scraper ... the one with a knob on the top which is good for applying extra pressure ... the replaceable blades are ever so slightly convex so the corners don't dig in. I've got other cheaper scrapers but this one beats all .. highly recommended!
(no connection etc)

Just looked on Amazon & E-Bay ... around £20 on both - worth the extra money I promise - and remember to get the one with the knob on top! Search box = BAHCO SCRAPER.
 
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Gordonmc

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All of the interior cladding, all walls and deck-heads on Farewell are cherry tongue and groove which has been loaded with Deks Ojlie only tired in heavy wear areas, such as capping on the galley fiddles. Glasspaper immediately clogged and a heat gun made an indescribable mess with goo dropping all over the place. I suspect stripper would be the same.
A Bahco (I have one with a new blade) was too much for mouding detail.
Eventually I found stainless steel wire wool was the most effective varnish getter-offer. It clogs, but by turning it regulalrly it gets the top surface off, which is enough.
 

xtiffer

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Probably heresy to any carpenters reading this
but I use small chisels as scrapers for all those fiddly bits.
I still haven't found a normal scraper to beat my old
French coopers' scrapers: Cheap, simple and all you need is
to file the edge every now and again.
But all that sanding I do; I should go into robbing banks as I have no fingerprints left!
Does anybody else have that problem of being unable to open plastic bags at the supermarket ?
Cheers,
Chris
 

Lyulph Hesling

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Oh yes, old chisels are by far the best scrapers I have found, though the Bahco is very good on large flat areas. You can get a lot of pressureon a chisel. Trouble is my best half inch one (now half its new length) has vanished, must be somewhere, but where? Quarter inch and three quarter inch are also useful in places.

They are all short because I sharpen them frequently on a grinding wheel, probably another heresy, but it works.

In self defence I do have a set of "real chisels" in a wooden case and kept oiled!
 

oldfrank

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Not really my query. Not Deks Olje and I do know how to get decent varnish out of corners - it's the pre-war gunk that I don't know how best to address. Hard pressure with a scraper doesn't seem to work either - and you do have to be very careful with a scraper. They'll do a huge amount of damage to a piece of wood. I'm fairly confident it's linseed based varnish. has anyone tried any of the alternative methods of removing varnish - walnut shells for instance?
 
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sammie

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blastings

walnut shells are normally used in the polishjng proses for metal parts it would still compress or remove softer parts of the wood.if u r going to go up this road u could use graphite.however having been in the paint and varnish removal buisness fot the last 25 years and i have stripped pretty much every form of finish , i still dont think u can beat a scraper and stripper wire wool and a lot of applications and rub till ur arms fall of then do some more
 

prv

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Probably heresy to any carpenters reading this
but I use small chisels as scrapers for all those fiddly bits.

I have both a carefully-looked after set of good woodworking chisels, and a handful of "bodging chisels" that I use indiscrimately as chisel, scraper, prying bar, and general hacking-about tool. They get a rough whizz on the grinding wheel when they've been belted against too many unseen screws etc.

No heresy in having bodging chisels, provided they're never, ever mixed up with real ones, and they were B&Q cheapies (or similar) to begin with.

Pete
 
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