However, you may want to use a paint or varnish remover to strips off the finish from a table leg or back
of a chair.
When you go to a hardware or paint store, you'll see a lot of good paint and varnish removers there, and
most of them are slightly different. Be sure to read the labels on them as sound are hazardous to use
unless you take precautions to ventilation and fire hazardous.
You'll find that none of them will really removers the finish. They will soften the finish for you to remove
with very little effort. Be sure to read the caution labels that are now required on products that are
flammable or toxic, or produce toxic fumes. If you use a paint or varnish remover that has either a high
flammability or a high toxicity rating, use it only outdoors and avoid breathing the fumes as much as
possible. A good safe rule is to never use any remover in a badly ventilated area or an area where it
vapors could be ignited by an open flame such as the pilot burner of a hot water tank or furnace.
Many of the day or gel-like removers has a wax or paraffin in it to give them the body, which makes them
so desirable to use on vertical surfaces. The paint or varnish remover that you should get will be based
on methylene chloride, methyl ethyl keyton, or one of the other chemicals that has both a low toxicity and
a low flammability quotient. To be on the safe side, use these outdoors if possible, or in a well-ventilated
room away from an open flame.
BLEACHES AND FILLERS
Wind stripping, the method of stripping and the type of remover you have chosen, you may need oxalic
acid to bleach certain spots which are remover has turned gray. Or, a stain or paint from an earlier finish
that has penetrated too deeply. Another bleaching agent is ammonia, so all are a number of powdered
household cleaners such as Gold Dust and Ajax, and liquids such as Clorox or Purex.
To neutralize, use vinegar as a neutralizing agent following the use of bleach. One or more of the above
you may need to try, depending on the success of your stripping work and type of job that you're doing.
If the woods that you're working with have an open grain, you need to get a filler. Most wood such as
oak, soft Mahogany, ash, Chestnut, and Hickory will require a filler. Some of the other open pored
woods are Elm and Sycamore, which are seldom used today in furniture making. When you get these
fillers, use a thick filler for all of the above woods. Then fillers should be use on soft straight grain Maple,
Walnut, Beach, and a very fine grain Mahogany's. On very close grain woods like curled grain maple,
Birch, Cherry, and Gum you do not need to use a filler. Fillers come in various colors to match the tone
of all the different furniture woods, and the colors can be adjusted with pigments if you like.
STAINING THE WOOD
If you plan to use staining, they have several functions. They will high slight imperfections in wood, bring
out the grain beauty, and produce an exact color that will match other pieces of furniture or contrast with
them. When you buy a stain, all of them are made by dissolving a coloring agent, powder, paste, or