chudford wrote:
My Daughter has just bought an old house with oak beams that have been
coated in thick black paint/varnish.
Is there any way that they can be stripped back to the original wood
surface in situ without wrecking the surrounding ceiling?

Depends on how thick and hard the paint is. I had thick distemper, paper
adhesive and other paints on several large oak beams. I used a scraper.
The best one I found was a large wood chisel used as a scraper, held at
about 75 degrees to the surface and pulled so that the bevel was on the
trailing side. Yes, it was hard work but the finish showed good grain
and was slightly polished. You can apply pressure in the right places
and tilt the scraper to follow the surface where needed. I used an old
1.5" chisel, but a 1" would be OK.


Peter Scott