Removing tung oil finish to restain a project

[jason mowery]

Good morning-

I need to darken the color of some nightstands I made in order to match a bed we just purchased. The original finish is a Minwax gel stain topped with several coats of Formsby's Tung oil, and then a couple of coats of Johnson's paste wax. What is the most effective way to remove finish so I can apply a darker stain to the tables? Thanks in advance for your help.

[Harvey Pascoe]

I presume you're taking ALL the old finish off, stain and all. If so, I'd use lacquer thinner as someone else suggested on another thread. The old stain poses the problem of streaking and typically I've not been able to get all of it out short of taking it down to new, uncontaminated wood. Scraper time . . . !

[Prashun Patel]

If it were me, and I really want to remove the color, I'd use a chemical stripper and then sand to smooth. Sanding/scraping alone will often work, but sometimes the color embeds deep enough to cause problems. Also, removing all of the binder/varnish is critical to getting even penetration of the new color.

My question is how much do you want to alter the color? If you just want to go a little darker, you can apply a gel stain or even dyed shellac as a 'toner' right on top of the Forbsby. I would, however, first use some MS to completely soften and remove the wax layer first.

[Howard Acheson]

The most effective way to remove all the finishes is with chemical paint stripper containing methylene chloride. Follow the directions on the can.

BTW Formby's Tung Oil Finish is a varnish. It contains no tung oil at all.

[jason mowery]

Thanks for the info, all worthwhile suggestions. Also good to know that Tung oil isn't Tung Oil. I had no idea.

[Harvey Pascoe]

The most effective way to remove all the finishes is with chemical paint stripper containing methylene chloride. Follow the directions on the can.

BTW Formby's Tung Oil Finish is a varnish. It contains no tung oil at all.

Will that get all the pigment (or dye) out of the grain?

[Howard Acheson]

>>>> Will that get all the pigment (or dye) out of the grain?

A chemical stripper with methylene chloride will remove most pigment based stain. I use a water rinseable paint stripper and a stiff plastic brush to remove the gunk. Any residual color is generally a dye. To remove or greatly reduce the coloring from dye stains, use a chlorine bleach. A mixture of 6-7 parts distilled water to one part fresh Clorox laundry bleach applied to the surface and kept wet will remove most of the color.

[Prashun Patel]

With due respect to Howard and the other pros, you might be going thru a lot of trouble. I think yr best to start by posting a pic of your current table and the target color you want to hit. If the colors are similar, it may be unnecessary to get ALL the color off, and like I said, you might be able to color right on top of the existing color to get a better match.

[Harvey Pascoe]

I think the issue was raised at the outset, that unless you remove all the finish and stain, you run the risk of some rather nasty streaking and/or blotching when applying a new stain.

[Scott Holmes]

To make a guess at how well a chemical stripper will remove the existing stain it would help a lot to tell us the type of wood.

A good cleaning and a toner may work out best... If you know how to do that. Learning a new technique on an important project is not a good idea.