Anyone refinish the Veritas chisel handles?

[Dave Mills]

While I love these chisels, the finish color on them has never done much for me. I've always wished they were a deeper reddish-brown. What would be the recommendation for removing the existing finish, so I could stain them and probably use a hard wax oil on them?
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[glenn bradley]

I believe the handles get their color from being cooked.

"The hard maple handle has been torrefied, a heating process that changes the structure of the wood at the cellular level, stabilizing it against swelling and shrinkage caused by humidity changes."

I don't know if there is additional color added but, you should certainly be able to color them if you like.

[Dave Mills]

Thanks Glenn. But would I need to strip the existing finish somehow before staining? I'm just not familiar with the whole "re-finish" process. Do I just try acetone, try paint thinner, try sandpaper, until they look like they'd accept a new finish?

[Mike Henderson]

The other option is to just make new handles in the wood of your choice. You can keep the old handles around in case you change your mind.

Mike

[Phil Mueller]

When stripping a piece for refinish and not sure what the finish is, I usually go with lacquer thinner. Seems to remove anything.

[glenn bradley]

Thanks Glenn. But would I need to strip the existing finish somehow before staining? I'm just not familiar with the whole "re-finish" process. Do I just try acetone, try paint thinner, try sandpaper, until they look like they'd accept a new finish?

Sorry, wandered off for a bit. Looking at my handles I would suspect lacquer. I would try lacquer thinner if you have it. If you are going to go get something I would just get a stripper meant for stripping furniture. Formby's comes to mind but, there are citrus based (lower VOC) versions out there. For this small of a job my environmental concerns are minimal and I am California-born, dyed in the wool environmentally correct ;-) There is so little going on for this process I'm just not too concerned.

If you're going to full-on strip the handles anyway (be sure to be watchful of the metal components and the stripper) it could be worth simply sanding with 220 or 320 grit sandpaper to see where you end up. You can check for how the absorption will look by wiping the sanded handles with mineral spirits and looking for any trouble spots. If the mineral spirits look uniform and acceptable I would just take a shot with my colorant of choice. BTW, Watco is stupid-easy to use, pretty predictable and accepts many top coats.

I have a habit of wiping any wood handled items with still-wet shellac pads when using it in finishing. That is, if I am done with what I am doing and the pad is still wet I will wipe it on a hammer or chisel handle. I only mention this since most of my handles look fine and have more than enough protection from this random action. My PM-v11 chisels were acquired right before I shut things down to move so they are still factory. It is looking at these that makes me suggest the Lacquer thinner or sanding.

[Dave Mills]

Great, thanks for the details, guys. I've got lacquer thinner, will give that a shot.