Steve Austin writes:

Well, here are three items. The camera flash really makes them look

worse than they look in person. The vanity and the chest are going

back to another refinisher, who doesn't strip, so, I'll be going over

both of these with lacquer thinner to clean them up a little, as I

would for any other "just strip" customer.

If I were refinishing them myself, I would deal with those places as I sanded them.

The vanity is walnut veneer, restripping it is out of the question and unneccessary.

The chest is mahogany veneer with a red dye stain. The frame is

probably a maple, sanding it with anything but the lightest touch

will make it go white. If you sand the dickens out of the veneer it

will probably go to a tan, if you can do it without going through the veneer.

It is totally foolish on this piece to do anything more than give it just

enough of a sanding to feel smooth, and then, work with the color that's left.

What I would tell a customer is that they have three choices,

mahogany red, a medium walnut with a touch of red in it, or dark

walnut. Those are the only three places it's going.

The drawer is another matter. This is a big bedroom set, factory

painted on maple, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if the top and

sides were some kind of cheap mahogany. This set would be

considered unstripable by most shops.

She wants to go clear with it, it'll be butt ugly, and she'll love it.  Some

people like the bland look. She paid $200 for the whole set, but, it stinks.

The stripping is tough, white paint on white wood, very difficult to

see during the stripping process, and it requires brass brushes to

remove. I do, however, have high hopes that using Besways new

"mamacass" stripper will reduce the work considerably and do a

better job. An ideal test for this new stripper.

I've done a lot of work for this lady, and we've agreed that if

worse comes to worse, we can go with a white pickling on the

set, and it would be very acceptable to her.
 

Steve Austin-NY