In article . com, wrote:
Hello, we have a kitchen island with several cabinets in our 25yr old
kitchen. The stain is in dark cherry. As it were, several cabinets
and part of the island have been faded by the sun. We would like to
restore those damaged parts as replacement is beyond our budget but was
unsure the most efficient way to attack this. I suppose the best way
would be to sand everything down to bare wood and restain (hoping to
get close enough for a match). Are there any other (faster) options?
Any specialized tools worth purchasing (especially for
sanding/stripping?).

Sanding is a lot of work (speaking as someone who recently
refinished a bunch of kitchen cabinets).

Some sanding tools may help but the choice of tool will
depend on the size and shape of the pieces and what kind
of moldings might be present. Making a sanding block that
is profiled to your specific moldings might help a lot.

Someone had mentioned a "scuff and restain"
option but I wasn't familiar with the term.

There are certainly some legit products like that -- often
used for finishing/repairing fine furniture. There are
other "wonder products" you should avoid at all costs.

"It's a floor polish AND a dessert topping".

If you don't sand or strip the old finish completely,
you'll need something that is compatible with the
existing finish. It would be unwise to proceed before
you have identified the existing finish to a reasonable
degree of confidence.

If you want maximum durability and certainty of outcome,
I'd completely remove the old surface by sanding or
stripping. In my case, I found sanding to be just as
fast (slow) as stripping and so I chose to avoid the
rather nasty chemicals.

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