A new neighbour wishes to restore the oak panelling in his hall - the house was once owned by a coffin maker. ;-)
When I first saw it many years ago it was stained very dark - near black. The next owner painted it white.
The present one wants it back to natural, but even after sanding there are traces of the original stain - and the intricate mouldings make sanding difficult without damage. Any tips?
Why do people who shouldn't have nice things always manage to get them?
Nitromorse.
He'll be lucky.
Same as any complicated stripping job - you probably have to use a number of methods in sequence. Try one of the "blanket" strippers if it's mouldings - something like the usual Nitromors recipe of methanol and dichloromethane, thickened with cellulose and laid on under a layer of thick polyethylene. Some of this depends on the stain - pigment stains will lift off the surface but not out of the pores, dye stains will be near impossible to shift from oak.
Sandvik also do some nice long-handled scrapers with carbide blades and a ball handle to apply pressure with,
As a final measure, try oxalic acid bleach to lighten aged oak.
You could try caustic soda, Dave. Although you will have to make sure you rinse every last crystaline trace of it off the walls when you're done unless you want to have visitors telling you how their clothes have developed holes after leaning on your friend's panelling (this will often occur after clothes have gone through the wash). See here:
And one last thing - a tad dangerous - but I've always found a good way of creating cheap razor-sharp scrapers is to cut convex pieces of scrap glass with a glass cutter. When the edge wears off, cut a new piece. Get your glass from a glazier's skip.
Andy reminded me: How come when I repeatedly mention how I'd love a big Skarsten scraper for Christmas no-one in my family ever takes the hint?
Dave - My dad used to have a Skarsten with a big knobbly handle like Andy mentioned and it made life so much easier.
It will be messy but you could also get it sand blasted. One of my customers is having this done to oak beams.
Dont EVER EVER use caustic soda on Oak you will open up the grain and ruin it!
Use Nitromorse!
This is an effective way to round off all the details, ruin mouldings and expose worm holing in beams. Not recommended.
NT
Would that be lses likely to scratch the glass than a steel scraper?
NT
If your other do it yourself efforts are anything like the use of caustic on oak then the answer must be that your family would prefer to have their surroundings adjusted less Buzbyly.
Agreed. Absolutely the worst thing to do is sand blasting. Next worst is any scraping or sanding. Nitromors or similar only, used gently with plastic brushes etc. Impossible to remove stain so you might as well learn to like it. Treat it with raw linseed/real turps half and half. Will be rich and dark but will polish up. If you don't like dark oak then paint it. If you've already done much sanding it will probably look a mess so you might as well just paint it and forget it.
cheers
Jacob
Inspector or code?
-- Sir Benjamin Middlethwaite
Hah! you've taken on a job you wished you hadn't now. :-(
For thr intricate Nitromors and a dremel drill or similiar, using the brass conical bit, this is so fine and soft it won't gouge the wood, put drill on slowest speed. Providing you have a dremel that is?
-- Sir Benjamin Middlethwaite
Oh and if you haven't a dremel a "brass suede shoe brush" is your best bet.
-- Sir Benjamin Middlethwaite
I'm not doing it - he is. I was just hoping to pass on some tips as he's a bit of a DIY newbie.
Sounds better to me - I'd be worried about the dremel throwing the Nitromors around.
Simple solution. Buy a Prion. They come with a rubber suit. Or you could borrow Dribble's....
Thats what batman suits are for. ;-)
-- Sir Benjamin Middlethwaite
The *only* way to make a good job of panelling is is to have it dipped, preferably by the non-caustic method. Dip 'n Strip used to have franchises dotted about. Scratching about in situ will do your head in, and give you the classic d-i-y 90% stripped look like all those staircases you've seen where people say, "Took us a year but we're *so* pleased with it". And you think, "Yeah, I can see how it used to be 'cos you've left paint in all the grooves". Caustic can work quite well on oak as long as you don't heat it (a lot of commercial outfits use heated tanks). Bleach it with peroxide to undo the greying effect.
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