what to use to remove a Deft poly finish.

[Tim Mahoney]

I made a maple violin stand for a customer who just wanted a gloss/poly finish, no stain. No he wants me to "strip" the poly spray finish and then stain the maple to match his violin. I'm not sure what to use or if it's even the way to go. I don't want to spend more time taking the finish off then just making him a new stand. I don't want to experiment on his stand so thought some of experts would know.

[Dale Cruea]

Depending on how time you have in the stand and what the design is I might look at building a new stand.
How hard is it going to be to sand all of the stand well enough to get the old finish off?
I find maple hard to stain myself. If you don't get all of the finish out of the grain then the stain will not soak into the wood well.
I am not a finishing expert just my option.

[Scott Holmes]

Is his violin maple? Matching maple to a mahogany violin is going to be a real challenge.

If you plan to color maple, use a dye, rather than stain, it will give better results.

What color do you need?

[John Coloccia]

The violin should have maple back/sides and a spruce top.

Personally, I would be very tempted to slightly rough up the poly and spray tinted shellac to match the instrument....then recoat with poly. I would tint with Transtint. To match the typical deep red varnish on a violin you will probably need to combine a couple of the tints.

[Bill White]

John,
I think the TransTint toning idea is gonna be the best. Why not just tint the final finish?
Bill

[John Coloccia]

Only because Shellac is soooo easy to work with. You can put it on very lightly and sneak up on the shade you want. You can sit there with the gun and blow air on it to dry it quickly and then spray some more. You can wipe it off with alcohol if you don't like it. Spraying with poly is more of a one time deal, and if it's not right the next thread will be "how can I remove tinted poly from a violin stand?". LOL.

Now if it were me, I would top coat with shellac too and rub it out with steel wool. I think that makes for a beautiful, semi-gloss/satin finish, but I think this customer specifically asked for poly for whatever reason.

[Tim Mahoney]

Thanks for the replies, John, you are correct in that the violin has a maple back and spruce top. The customer liked my stand and just said to put a clear finish on it. I was thought it should be stained/dye to somewhat match the violin but he didn't think that was needed until I brought the stand back finished. I like the shellac idea as I use it for my french polished guitars. If I rough it up with steel wool first will the shellac penetrate the poly? When applying the dye to a violin it's just dabbed on by fingers a little at a time to get the correct shade so this sounds like something the customer could do also. Where do I get transtint?

[John Coloccia]

Thanks for the replies, John, you are correct in that the violin has a maple back and spruce top. The customer liked my stand and just said to put a clear finish on it. I was thought it should be stained/dye to somewhat match the violin but he didn't think that was needed until I brought the stand back finished. I like the shellac idea as I use it for my french polished guitars. If I rough it up with steel wool first will the shellac penetrate the poly? When applying the dye to a violin it's just dabbed on by fingers a little at a time to get the correct shade so this sounds like something the customer could do also. Where do I get transtint?

You can get Transtint at Woodcraft.
http://www.woodcraft.com/Search2/Search.aspx?query=transtint

You can also buy it from StewMac.
http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Finishing_supplies/Colors,_tints,_and_stains/ColorTone_Liquid_Stains.html?actn=100101&xst=3&xsr=460

It doesn't say "Transtint". Trust me...it's transtint. It just happens to be formulated in classic guitar colors. I don't know how this happened, but Stewmac's is CHEAPER than Woodcraft if you can believe that. It's really great to work with and is pretty much all I use at this point.

The shellac won't penetrate the poly but it will stick to it. Rubbing it on won't work very well, IMHO. I would really lean towards spraying it. Best would be to just setup a sample piece and see what works best.