Hi,
~
What do people use to sand hard-to-reach areas, like engrave letters
on wood, and round surfaces?
~
Also, how can I check and test first what is the proper varnish I
should use on that type of very old wood?
~
I am a member of a very old church (well, at least for new-world
standards) (http://stmarysharlem.org/) and I want to make sure that I am
doing the least possible harm; if any
~
I need your advice please!
~
Thanks
lbrtchx

To get around those hard to get to areas, try pushing sandpaper strips
across the areas with a small wooden implement.

For small areas that you can't get any real movement that have finish
buildup, try your Dremel tool with the appropriates set up.

On the other hand, you can do some good removal with a homemade
scraper. Cut down an old steak knife into a thin, flexible shape
(grind off the cutting edge!) and use the tip to get into hard to
reach places. These can be found anywhere and can be ground easily to
a useful shape.

To see what kind of finish you have on the wood, you can use the old
"rule of thumb" on a place where you won't see your test. Make sure
you do this in an area that hasn't been waxed, oiled, preserved or
anything else as it will screw up the test.

The following is considering you were talking about clear finsihes.

This works pretty well, but isn't a perfect test: On the wood, put a
large drop of anhydrous alcohol. Next to it, put a large drop of
lacquer thinner. You may need to add a drop now and then to keep the
surface wet. Give it a couple of hours to work on the surface.

If the shellac drop gets gooey, you have shellac for a finish. You
will have further proof if the drop of lacquer thinner does nothing.

On the other hand, if the lacquer thinner side gets gooey, you have a
lacquer finish. If both sides get gooey, some wise guy got cute and
mixed them.

In any event, both of these finishes are easy to sand down and can be
easily top coated with more of the same.

If neither of those dissolves the finish, you may have varnish or
possibly polyurethane. If the piece is old, you probably don't have
polyurethane.
If you have varnish you can Google "varnish repair" and "varnish
removal" and you will get all you need to refinish.

Robert

On Thu, 04 Sep 2008 22:33:36 -0400, Albretch Mueller
wrote:

Hi,
~
What do people use to sand hard-to-reach areas, like engrave letters
on wood, and round surfaces?
~

If I could not remove the letters, I'd use small pieces of sandpaper
and magnifying glasses. May want to avoid steel wool. This may be
very tedious and time-consuming.

Also, how can I check and test first what is the proper varnish I
should use on that type of very old wood?
~

Test on the underside of the piece.

I am a member of a very old church (well, at least for new-world
standards) (http://stmarysharlem.org/) and I want to make sure that I am
doing the least possible harm; if any
~
I need your advice please!
~
Thanks
lbrtchx

Albretch Mueller wrote in news:1220582012.901689
@nntp.acecape.com:

Hi,
~
What do people use to sand hard-to-reach areas, like engrave letters
on wood, and round surfaces?
~
Also, how can I check and test first what is the proper varnish I
should use on that type of very old wood?
~

You don't say why you are doing this, but if refinishing is what you're
after, sanding may not be the right way to go at all. A lot of carvings
get their look from the tools that were used to produce them. If you sand,
particularly if you sand incised lettering, you will round over the nice
crisp edges that were left by gouges and chisels.

I would suggest that you look into stripping the finish chemically - an
unpleasant, tedious process, but one that won't remove any wood (if you are
careful!). There will be many hours of painstaking work involved, but it
will leave the details the way the original craftsman intended.

You will have to find out what the original finish is first - if you're
lucky, it will be shellac, and you won't need anything nastier than
denatured alcohol to strip it. If it is truly varnish, it gets more
difficult and messy.

You have some homework to do before you start - good luck!

Scott