What should I do about old, blackened varnish?

[Kolesar]

The varnish on the doors, openings, stairs and trim of this 1915 house has become very deep brown, almost black. We want to refinish these. I have heard that old, old varnish gets black with age. I don't really like the look.

I imagine stripping the varnish off and revarnishing with modern varnish. Do you think I could get the dark color out of the wood so that I can go with a color I like? Or am I going to have to compromise and restain it with something dark?

I have never done chemical stripping. I would hate to sand and kick up dust in the hallway outside of the bedroom. Gets in the lungs, too. What would you folks recommend that we do?

[nedbal]

1. If it is shellac

then it can be striped or re flowed by applying denatured alcohol and allowing it to soak in before wiping off. use a fine paint (artists?) brush on an hidden spot TEST TRY A SPOT


denatured alcohol is as harmless as strippers get, the dark black color is actually dirt that has blended in with the shellac over the years,

re coat with amber shellac for a warm original fine finish, or these day most will use polyurethane (plastic)

[Stinky The Clown]

2. The Homer Formby line had some good products for this job

Homer sold the company a lot of years ago, and it seems hard to find these days.

That said, it worked great on exactly the job you describe. I **think** the active ingredient was plain old denatured alcohol. I've used a good bit of the stuff over the years and it never fails to amaze me. You rub it into the old finish and it disolves it, but, unless you wipe it off, the finish just reflows and hardens again. With a dark finish (really just a layer of embedded dirt and grime and air pollution) you probably want to wipe it off. This still leaves some of the old finish, not enough to protect the wood, but just enough to retain the patina.

Once the old finish is wiped off, if you're going for an authentic, old fashioned look, I'd actually recommend tung oil varnish instead of shellac or even poly. You can apply tung oil with a rag instead of a brush and it dries very hard. You can get it in matte, semi-gloss, and gloss. Maybe 25 or 30 years ago I refinished some antique screwdrivers (of all things!) with it. I coated the wooden handles and the blades. To this day, only the very tips of the blades have lost their finish, even though the screwdrivers just rattle around in my woodworking tool box. I've exercised NO particular care with them. The tung oil varnish is, in my mind, pretty damned good stuff.

[yy4me]

3. A few comments from someone who has refinished tons of

furniture and woodwork and stripped all the paint from a 200 year old house. Be prepared for a lot of work. The net result will be will worth it. First advice, do one room at a time, one door or window at a time. If you spread the job all over the place, you will end up discouraged and with a mess on your hands.

Work in a well ventilated area--Prime rule. No matter what method works, all that stuff is bad to breathe.

If the alcohol methods do not work or are too time consuming, you may have to resort to paint and varnish remover. We use 5F5, it seems to work best for us. Paint it on with one of those cheap bristle brushes, allow to sit until surface bubbles, then scrape the mess off. First use some kind of scraper to get the bulk of the "goo" off, then wipe with '0" steel wool until clean. Clean indented areas with an old toothbrush to get in the cracks and crevices. Sometimes the old varnish-stains are gummy to get off but keep at it. When you get an area down to bare wood, wipe off the dry, clean wood with some kind of solvent. Mineral spirits or denatured alcohol will do. This will remove the paraffin from the surface. All strippers have paraffin and this stuff seals the pores of the wood and will not allow any new stain to penetrate the wood. This method should get some of the old color out, you will not really know what color you are dealing with until you get at least one section done. Rubbing cleaned areas with finer steel wool should lighten your woodwork somewhat, you will just have to see if the color is in your wood or is the old finish itself.

Of prime importance, always work in the direction of the grain. Scraping and steelwooling across the grain will scratch the wood. When the job is done, you might want to consider a light sanding with a palm sander. They are great and do not raise too much dust. This type of a job can be exhausting but the net result is worth it. Any other questions that I could answer, just ask. Good luck.

[Kolesar]

4. thanks for the advice, yy4me and others

Now I will go test a bit of the closet trim with some isopropyl or methyl alcohol that I happen to have around.

[Kolesar]

5. Slightly lighter after methanol

I scrubbed it with a paper towel soaked with methanol. Brown stuff came off on the paper towel and a bit more on the towel I wiped it with. I don't know if I am dissolving shellac or what. Funny is that the area around where I was working looks deeper and glossier. My hunch is that I reflowed the finish and cleaned it up a bit so it looks nicer.

I think I need to try again with a Scotch-brite (R) or a paint scraper.

[nedbal]

7. shellac was the finish used in those years, yes you reflowed the finish

denatured alcohol is what is used to dissolve the shellac

[nedbal]

6. tung oil , danish oil, Watco , boiled linseed oil are similar

Watco is regarded highly, all I believe are based on boiled linseed oil. all of these are self combustible, so any rags used put in a metal bucket outside to dry.

I like shellac flakes for my furnature finishing

[mopinko]

8. my 2 cents

the last time i did this, i got a garden sprayer for the alcohol. it evaporates so fast that applying enough to get the job done can be really annoying. probably not a good way to apply something more toxic, but they sell deck sprayers that are coated to resist solvents....

i wholeheatedly concur with nedbal about shellac chips. i did my grandma's sewing machine with it about 30 years ago, and it has taken a huge beating without so much as a drink ring.