restoring painted iron fireplaces in situ?

[Jim]

I have a couple of lovely ornate victorian iron fireplaces in 2 bedrooms and would very much like to restore them.

They've already been painted a long time ago, and it seems like some of the original detail has been lost by the paint. The paint is now faded, and we have 2 options: paint over them with new white paint, or try to restore them to their original iron look (which I would prefer).

If we paint over them, we'll lose even more of the nice ornate patterns.

Obviously, taking them out of the wall to acid strip them (I'm guessing) would be the best option, but can anyone suggest any way to try to strip the existing paint in situ? the rooms aren't decorated yet, so we wouldn't be ruining anything else. just taking them out seems a bit too extreme.

any ideas, please?

thanks :)

[dom]

The good news is that all the detail of the castings is likely to be as perfect as the day they were cast behind all that paint. Very best results would be shot blasting, but in situ you're probably best off with (the fairly horrible) Nitromoors. I did some victorian cast iron doorfittings recently,with patience the results are fab.

[John Stumbles]

Gah! don't go near that stuff :-(

Use some sort of caustic soda in paste stuff - either the stuff Max Bone of this parish does (google: I think his company is Decorating Direct) or Ronstrip. Put plenty on, give it plenty of time, scrape/wash off, put plenty more on ... etc

If you do take the fireplace off (maybe less hassle in the long run) I know someone who had brilliant results putting it on the bonfire to burn it off. It was early November so he didn't even have to make the bonfire specially!

[Martin Pentreath]

I'm halfway through dealing with this exact problem. I've been using Peel Away

by a quick going over with some of these then a polish with some black lead easy really and they look so much better than when they're painted.

[Guy King]

The message from "Martin Pentreath" contains these words:

Just don't do what Dad did in the late 1920s and decide that since blacklead made grates come up black and shiny it must be good for school shoes too. It isn't.