Door conundrum

[geraldthehamster]

OK, I have a stripped pine door. The only one of several that I bought, that fits my bathroom doorway.

I copied what I'd done in the last house, and put some raw linseed oil into it. In the last house it turned the doors a lovely golden colour. This one, however, has just gone dark. Anyway, when dry I wax polished it.

I've now decided that I want a natural wood colour door there, to match the others I've now put in, which are plain stripped pine, waxed.

I've tried sanding the door back, but of course it's covered in wax, and impregnated with linseed - raw, not boiled, so it hasn't gone really hard - but it clogs the sandpaper and will take forever to do.

Can anyone suggest a way to remove this finish and get back to natural pine? I thought of sending it to be dipped, or blathering it in caustic soda.

The alternative is to use another door, but this will involve not only restoring another knackered old stripped door from my stock, but bastardising two other doors for panels for it.

Regards Richard

[Frank Erskine]

The difference is probably in the type of wood - red, yellow, Scots, pitch pine - there are numerous varieties, which will behave differently because of their resin content et.al.

Personally (and this is only my opinion!) I don't really like stripped pine, at least in an older property. My brother has SP (internal) doors throughout (I think) his Edwardian town house, and I think they're awful, bluntly :-)

[Steve Firth]

We don't have any stripped doors in the house. It would be a sacrelige. The doors are all, with one exception, 280 years old and have always been painted. A bit of paint archaelogy revealed that the original finish was a creamy colour on one floor and an acid-yellow on another and that's what we have used. There were some other possibilities in the palette but the ones we used worked well.

[Bob Mannix]

How do you know they were painted 280 years ago? They may have been plain for 180 years and then painted. Unless, of course, you have carbon dated the paint, in which case I retire and marvel at your attention to detail :o)

[geraldthehamster]

Well, if it makes you fell better, this isn't an old house - it's a relatively new place that I'm treating as a blank canvas. And if you're feeling sorry for the doors, don't - I bought them as a job lot from a bloke on a farm at the top of a hill. Originally they were from Leeds University dorms. They'd been stripped years ago and left in the damp to grow mildew. Those I have used I have partly dismantled, mended, sanded, reassambled and waxed. All were too "rustic" in condition to look good under a coat of paint.

You haven't given me much by way of suggestions ;-)

Regards Richard

[Mungo "Two Sheds" Toadfoot]

280 layers. They're 5" thick now.

Si

[stuart noble]

Have it re-stripped in a caustic tank. When it's dry, give it a coat of wood bleach (peroxide). When that's dry, a clear wax. Now it will probably end up paler than the rest :-)