Best way to remove varnish?

scrape

Bernard R

Use a heat gun to soften up the varnish, and take it off with a very sharp scraper.

Tom Dacon

You may want to consult with local paint vendor about using a few more coats of tinted varnish to neutralize existing color. For example, a tint tending toward green will tend to neutralize the orange.

Tri-nitro-toluene is rumored to be extremely effective.

It removes everything in a flash, and, as a bonus, could make you eligible for a Darwin Award :)))

Here's a site which tells you how to make it...

You can:

1. Fine tune the color with toners.
2. Sand off the existing finish.
3. Scrape off the existing finish.
4. Strip off the existing finish.

I would use 1. but without experience, you could make a bad situation worse. Point 2. removes a lot of wood and is time consuming. A power sander would help but you are still removing wood. I find 3. time consuming and it still removes some wood but not nearly as much as sanding. Point 4. will bring you back to something you have seen before, raw wood, but is messy and can be very time consuming if you don't have a system.

You might as well try 1. If you mess up, you can always try scraping or stripping.

Good Luck.