I got roped into refinishing(stripping, etc) a friend's old upright piano that belonged to his mother and had been in the family for years. It had the usual alligatored opaque varnish, but he swears it was once beautiful mahogany. Anyway, I started experimenting with the big board that the music sits on -- stripped it using Strypease & after each of two coats (so far ) of stripper, washed it down with a strong TSP water solution. Each time I am getting a nearly-black rinse water, and the wood is still very dark, I can barely make out the grain. It is almost as if it had been ebonized. Is there anyway to quickly remove this dark stain? Each rinse with the TSP solution removes a little more dark stain, but it far from the nice grain my friend expects. Since the veneer is held on with the old water-soluble hot-glue, I am afraid to get it wet too long. Might a different brand of stripper work better? Can I bleach it and get the black out?
TIA