Hi,

I read the following in a howto on refinishing furnitu "Again, keep
the surfaces moist while you are working, to avoid drying out the wood"
when talking about using semi-paste and liquid strippers. When they say
"moist", do they mean "moist with the stripper" or just dampening the
surface with a wet rag or something?

Also, I don't quite understand the need to remove *all* of old finish.
If there's a sanding step there anyway, and sanding is bound to take of
a little bit of wood, but not let it take of the 5% of the old finish
with it?

Thanks!

Aaron Fude

Sounds to me like you are confusing "resurfacing" and "refinishing". If you
are "resurfacing" or just wanting to add another coat of varnish or poly
or,,,, you just need to scuff up the surface with sand paper and then
recoat. Stripper is not used.
If you "refinishing" then you need to remove all the old finish down to
the bare wood and start over at the beginning. When using stripper, it only
works when it is wet. Therefore you have to keeping adding stripper or
covering the area with paper or plastic giving the stripper some time to
work before scrapping it off. You then have to sand the whole surface to
remove any stripper residue. JG

wrote:

Hi,

I read the following in a howto on refinishing furnitu "Again, keep
the surfaces moist while you are working, to avoid drying out the wood"
when talking about using semi-paste and liquid strippers. When they say
"moist", do they mean "moist with the stripper" or just dampening the
surface with a wet rag or something?

Also, I don't quite understand the need to remove *all* of old finish.
If there's a sanding step there anyway, and sanding is bound to take of
a little bit of wood, but not let it take of the 5% of the old finish
with it?

Thanks!

Aaron Fude

Thank you! That clarified a lot and explained why yesterday was such a
fiasco. Yes, I meant refinishing.

Thanks again,

Aaron

JGS wrote:
Sounds to me like you are confusing "resurfacing" and "refinishing". If you
are "resurfacing" or just wanting to add another coat of varnish or poly
or,,,, you just need to scuff up the surface with sand paper and then
recoat. Stripper is not used.
If you "refinishing" then you need to remove all the old finish down to
the bare wood and start over at the beginning. When using stripper, it only
works when it is wet. Therefore you have to keeping adding stripper or
covering the area with paper or plastic giving the stripper some time to
work before scrapping it off. You then have to sand the whole surface to
remove any stripper residue. JG

wrote:

Hi,

I read the following in a howto on refinishing furnitu "Again, keep
the surfaces moist while you are working, to avoid drying out the wood"
when talking about using semi-paste and liquid strippers. When they say
"moist", do they mean "moist with the stripper" or just dampening the
surface with a wet rag or something?

Also, I don't quite understand the need to remove *all* of old finish.
If there's a sanding step there anyway, and sanding is bound to take of
a little bit of wood, but not let it take of the 5% of the old finish
with it?

Thanks!

Aaron Fude

Sanding is really necessary if you are using a chemical stripper. Many
refinishing jobs that don't call for a water rinse can be finished directly
after a good solvent wipe down. The grain isn't significantly raised with
organic solvents. By not sanding, you can also preserve some of the patina
that is in / on the wood rather than in / on the finish.
Having said that, I like to go over a stripped piece lightly with 180
for softwoods or 220 with hardwoods.

Good Luck.

wrote in message
oups.com...
Thank you! That clarified a lot and explained why yesterday was such a
fiasco. Yes, I meant refinishing.

Thanks again,

Aaron

JGS wrote:
Sounds to me like you are confusing "resurfacing" and "refinishing". If
you
are "resurfacing" or just wanting to add another coat of varnish or poly
or,,,, you just need to scuff up the surface with sand paper and then
recoat. Stripper is not used.
If you "refinishing" then you need to remove all the old finish down to
the bare wood and start over at the beginning. When using stripper, it
only
works when it is wet. Therefore you have to keeping adding stripper or
covering the area with paper or plastic giving the stripper some time to
work before scrapping it off. You then have to sand the whole surface
to
remove any stripper residue. JG

wrote:

Hi,

I read the following in a howto on refinishing furnitu "Again, keep
the surfaces moist while you are working, to avoid drying out the
wood"
when talking about using semi-paste and liquid strippers. When they
say
"moist", do they mean "moist with the stripper" or just dampening the
surface with a wet rag or something?

Also, I don't quite understand the need to remove *all* of old finish.
If there's a sanding step there anyway, and sanding is bound to take
of
a little bit of wood, but not let it take of the 5% of the old finish
with it?

Thanks!

Aaron Fude