refinishing frustrations

[Greg Newell]

Mark,
         Thanks for the reply! Now, how do I get myself out of the current 
situation I'm in. I have stripped as you say but some of the pieces were 
blotchy. I never did do the TSP rinse which I now know I should have. In 
any case the main case is quite a bit darker than the rest of the pieces 
and I've tried to use the aforementioned dye and shellac to color down to 
that level. It's all too dark to my tastes. I'd like to have everything 
lighter so I guess I have to re-strip. Thankfully this will only require 
denatured alcohol on the parts as they only have shellac on them now. My 
question comes in fixing what I should not have done and that is sanding to 
remove color. This time I haven't sanded through anything and I really 
don't think I'm even close to that. I only used 220 grit on a random orbit 
sander. Even the edges don't seem thin to me. Anyway should I re-strip all 
those parts with all three steps and then go after the case with same? In 
my mind I need to get this all down to some level of relative sameness 
between the parts. Does this sound like a plan?

Greg


At 05:47 AM 4/27/2005, you wrote:
>Hi Greg -
>
>When you say the wood seems to end up darker than you would like when you 
>try to even out the color are you referring to evening out the color from 
>one piece to the next (i.e. - making the legs the same color as the 
>fallboard), or evening out some color 'blotchiness' you may encounter on 
>an individual piece?  If you are referring to blotchiness, I would say you 
>are inflicting this on yourself in the stripping process by being more 
>aggressive in some areas than in others in either scrubbing or sanding.
>
>In my experience, if you just let the stripper remove the finish to the 
>point where a putty knife will easily scrape it off, that avoids pitfall # 
>1 - scrubbing real hard in stubborn places to remove finish still 
>adhering. Then if you lightly scrub/rinse WITH THE SAME EVEN PRESSURE 
>THRUOUT using either a water/alcohol, lacquer thinner, or TSP rinse (or 
>combination of all 3)with #1 steel wool or maroon scotchbrite pad, you 
>should have all pieces stripped clean, free of any blotchiness.  I am not 
>a big fan of inflicting further aggression on the wood after achieving 
>this state other than a light sanding with 150 - 220.  My personal opinion 
>is that bleaching robs the wood - especially mahogany - of some depth that 
>is not retrievable. Just my opinion, FWIW.  Nor have I found it necessary 
>or desirable to go after the old filler with scrub brushes, but to each 
>his own.
>
>As far as keeping the color as light as possible, I will generally pick 
>the darkest piece of the lot, and only dye as necessary to get the rest of 
>the pieces to that shade. I would consider this then to be the lightest 
>this wood wants to be.  I prefer to take what the wood is giving me and 
>work with it, rather than to impose a completely different color regimen 
>that is much lighter in tone and requires bleaching to get there.  Seems 
>to me this is like "askin' for a fight".... ;-)
>
>I will say that of the three common liquids I use for cleaning after 
>stripping - alcohol, lacquer thinner, TSP - the TSP removes the most 
>color.  FWIW.
>
>Mark Potter
>
>Greg Newell <gnewell@ameritech.net> wrote:
>list,
>I wonder if you all (as many opinions as I can get) would
>enlighten me on what you do in the stripping process. I'm specifically
>interested in everything that comes before repairs and coloring etc.
>Perhaps more to the point is whether or not you are seeking to make the
>wood as bare as possible i.e. devoid of any color, or are you simply
>removing topcoat, then repairing, even out color and re-topcoat? It seems
>that my attempts seem to bring the finished product darker than I would
>like by attempting to make everything the same color. I have only removed
>finish in the past but am contemplating bleaching. Is this necessary in
>order to get the lighter colors I'm after? Would you be kind enough to
>describe exactly the steps and materials and tools you use in the stripping
>process? Thanks in advance.
>
>Greg Newell
>Greg's ! piano Forté
>mailto:gnewell@ameritech.net
>
>
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Greg Newell
Greg's piano Forté
mailto:gnewell@ameritech.net