How to use paint and varnish removers when refinishing

RESOURCES

There are certain liquids that a finisher can use to remove paint and
varnish, such liquids as benzol, wood alcohol, caustic soda and water
solutions, ammonia, etc., but as a general rule you will find that it is
more economical to use the factory prepared patented liquid and paste
removers. The cost may seem high, but it also costs money to mess
around with mixing solutions with which you are not entirely familiar
with and which seldom work as effectively as the patented removers.

There are two or more grades of patented removers on the market.
They are made in thin liquid form for flat surfaces and in thin paste
form for vertical surfaces. The cheaper grades of removers depend
upon wood alcohol and benzol largely as the solvents for action, while
the more expensive and better removers use acetone as the principal
solvent.

Most of the removers sold now are made under the same license patents
which cover the use of wax in the removers to prevent the very volatile
solvents from evaporating too rapidly and before they have dissolved the
old varnish or paint.

It pays to buy the best quality patented removers as a rule. When they
work too fast on large surfaces to allow scraping off the old varnish before it gets hard again, add more wax to the remover. Place the can of remover in a pail of boiling hot water and when the liquid is hot shave into it a few ounces of paraffin wax. Then it will remain wet longer and permit you to do a cleaner job. Also it is better to not to coat a large surface at a time when the remover permits the varnish to get hard again.

Removing Shellac.

To remove shellac from floors and other wood brush on denatured or
wood alcohol and scrape up the soft gum as rapidly as possible. Then
wash over the whole surface with the alcohol as a final clean up. The
denatured alcohol is cheaper than wood alcohol as a rule. Benzine will
not do for the final wash-up. Turpentine does not dissolve shellac.

Repeated applications of the alcohol may be necessary to remove all of
the shellac. When the patented varnish removers are used to remove
shellac be sure to wash up well with benzine or benzol later to remove
any wax left on the surface from the remover.

Removing Wax from Varnish.

In order for a waxed surface to be successfully re varnished or painted the wax must be removed. The new coats do not dry when spread on over wax. The wax must all be removed including what has lodged in the seams, cracks and pores of the wood.

The waxes usually used on floors and trim are soluble in benzine, benzol, turpentine and denatured alcohol. If you want to remove wax without injury to the varnish or shellac under it do not use alcohol; the benzine used freely will probably take off all of the wax if you scrub hard enough with it and sandpaper the surface well.

The wood finisher has occasion to use bleaching solutions for the
purpose of removing stains from woods to be finished or refinished,
such as rust stains, water and weather stains. He also needs a
bleaching solution occasionally to bleach large surfaces