nice old wood and getting paint off

[JHZR2]

Hi,
I posted yesterday about some oddball sockets in my parents' home - a North, NJ home dating to c. 1919, which has been in the family since not much after that.

This house, like most others in town from that era have beautiful woodwork - brown doors coated with some clear shellac or similar, and the same around all mouldings, windows, door frames, etc.

Im not a woodworker, but thanks to the wealth of information and knowledge from forum members, Im hoping that some folks can give me suggestions, sight-unseen (I can post pics in a few weeks if necessary), of what was likely coated on all the wood. It gives it a slight shine, and is very hard coating type. It does not chip or scratch - at least none of the wood doors, etc in our home have evidence of breakdown of the coating, the way you'd see if things were coated with polyurethane, etc.

One interesting thing about the coating, mainly seen on the doors, is that some spots its a little thick, and in these thick spots (very tiny, look nice), the coating is very dark - nearly black.

The wood looks great - a lot of homes in the area have similar wood.

One issue is that in out home, due to changine styles, etc through the years, the doors are all perfect, but the door frames and window frames are all painted over - with 3+ coats of paint. In some spots, weve been able to chip off paint to see the beautiful wood underneath - but thats hard to do all over.

So, can anyone suggest a way to remove paint from antique wood in a home, without destroying the finishes that are original and directly on the wood underneath?

The only things we'd like is to maintain the original wood finish underneath as much as possible, and minimize the exposure to what very well may be lead paint.

Thanks in advance for any info/insight.

Merry Christmas,

JMH

 

[Pablo]

Now that is indeed a tough nut. I cannot guess what the nice finish is (nor what kind of wood), but is the finish soluble in (try in a hidden spot with a q-tip):

Alcohol?
Lacquer thinner?
Mineral spirits?

Remove paint and not touch lowest finish is impossible, IMHO. Best to strip and match old finish. Nearly impossible but the results will be stunning, IMHO.

 

[michaelc80]

I agree with Pablo, removing top layers without harming the original finish may well be impossible. It will probably be easier (and the results better) if you simply strip it down and refinish it.

 

[andyd]

UHHMN, it sounds like shellac which is alcohol solvable. Formbys used to sell a refinishing kit for shellacced furniture . The process is pretty simple and can be done with denatured alcohol. The darkness is yrs of dust and furnitue polish. Clean it off with alky, and then use a clean cloth dipped in alky to reflow the remaining shellac. The trick is to leave enough shellac to re-flow once the cleaning is done. If you mess up remove all the shellac and then add more.

 

[Amkeer]

You will need to strip and sand to the bare wood then start over to do it right.

 

[1sttruck]

Have you tried heat ? Maybe you get it the paint to soften and blister, enough to make stripping it easier. A portable torch should work for experiments, unless you already have access to an electric heat gun. Don't get distracted :^)

Chemical stripping sounds like it's worth experimenting with. Some friends back east said that in the Boston ? area there use to be a thriving business due to all of the old house renovations, called 'Jack the Stripper'. You'd bring your stuff in and he'd soak it for you in stripper.

 

[andyd]

if you want to preserve the patina of age, you dont strip ,sand and refinish a stained piece. Doing so will destroy the patina. Ruin the patina and you reduce the antique value substantially. If it is just painted , its not such a big deal, use a lye based stripper like Peelaway, neutralize it afterward sand and repaint.

 

[Bob Woods]

I used some citrus based paint remover on a table last summer, no dangerous fumes, and it didn't eat my skin off.

 

[drm7]

I've only stripped a piece or two of furniture painted in the 70's so I can't give much advice. A word of caution: if you try to sand some of this old paint it's probably got lead and you don't want paint (lead) dust floating around so check on this before you sand.

 

[moribundman]

Probably its a shellac finish. I'd apply a little denatured alcohol on a hidden spot to see if the varnish gets tacky quickly. If so, it's shellac.

 

[kreigle]

Sounds like what is on the woodwork in my house, also. I have also thought about stripping the paint off the original finish, as it looks very beautiful still.

The paint on the door frames does not seem to like to stick to it either, so I have a lot of spots where the (as many as 5 layers) of paint has fallen off due to banging things against the wood. If I work at it, I can strip large flat areas with a razor blade, but groves and prior damaged spots don't clean off.

I would also be interested in any method to remove the overlaying paint without damaging the original finish.

 

[keval85]

My hobby is buying old dressers,chairs etc and refinishing them.The best way I found to remove old finishes off wood without damaging the wood itself is to sandblast with baking soda,you can buy large bags at most feed mills for around 5 bucks....GOOD LUCK

 

[labman]

In many cases leaded paint is a bogeyman. Lead has not been a cost effective white pigment since the 30's. Hardly any of the latexes after W.W.II used much. However that house does go back to the true lead based paint. Don't breath dust, and don't get liquidfied paint from stripper on you. The stripper isn't very good for you either.

 

[Schmoe]

I was going to say, I deal with this stuff on a daily basis out at Fort Sill. We have lots of buildings from the WW1 and WW2 era. If it chips off easily, it's lead paint. Try water blasting it and collect the chips. Put them in a trash bag and haul to the local landfill. Disposing of lead paint on a residential house is exempt from EPA laws. We have our lead paint abatement contractors do this. There is non-toxic strippers available, but there is substantial waste and time from that. If you sand, wear a respirator with a PM10 filter. Lead in itself is a heavy atom and it will settle on the floor. Make sure you throughly clean that up with a mop. Remove all dust that you can.

 

[kreigle]

I don't know if JHZR2's original question has been answered:

quote:

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So, can anyone suggest a way to remove paint from antique wood in a home, without destroying the finishes that are original and directly on the wood underneath?

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I am also interested in removing paint from nice old woodwork.

I've seen several people mention strippers; however, can anyone recommend a brand or type of stripper that won't damage the original finish (assuming that it is shellac)?

quote:

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If it chips off easily, it's lead paint.

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Then I can safely assume that all the woodwork is painted with lead paint? Underneath the topmost layer of latex, all the underlying paint layers are brittle. The paint does not stick well to the original (shellac?) finish and the backside of the paint chips has a shiny yellowish coating. I originally thought that maybe the woodwork had an oil finish, like linseed.

I tried stripping one door sill by hand with a razor blade, the flat areas the paint came off in fragile sheets but it is stuck fairly tight into the grooves that are cut into the wood and the razor blade does not get the grooves very well.

 

[Kestas]

I've refinished dozens of pieces of wood furniture. Heat stripping can scorch the wood. I always use the harsh chemical stripper. I look for the stuff that has methylene chloride, if it hasn't yet been banned. Use a putty knife that is not too sharp so as not to gouge the wood. For stubborn areas I use Scothbrite and chemical stripper.

I know I'm gonna curl up in a corner and turn blue from these chemicals and die a horrible death someday.... but I have pretty furniture.

 

[mormit]

Infrared paint stipper (aka. silent-paint stripper) is the best. I refuse to go back to citrus, MeCl, heat guns, caustic, etc. Light sanding I use as a final finish prep.

http://www.letsdoit.com.au/?e=74&p=stripper

These things sell at a jacked up price of over $400 but you can build your own with 40 dollars worth of materials. Details here: http://www.oceanmanorhouse.com/paintremover.html

I built mine last spring using heat shrink wire insulation to protect from contacting the wire terminals.

An important advantage to the infrared stripper is that the temperature produced is lower than a heat gun. This prevents volatilization of lead paints.