Removing Last 1% of Paint

[JohnPlatou]

Restoring an 1960 wood boat, previous owner used oil based paint over stained mahogany. 99% has been removed, but some old paint is in grain. Goal is to restore to original stain.


How can I get the remainder out. Dental tool? How about a airless spray gun shooting water or MEK, and use it like a mini pressure washer?

Also mahogany by helm is stained with grease or sweat from previous owner's arm. Anyway of removing grease stain remaining stripped mahogany? Even MEK does not touch it.

Ideas??

Thanks

[C. Ross]

John-
This topic is being discussed over here...Refinishing Bright over Painted Mahogany (http://woodenboatvb.com/vbulletin/upload/showthread.php?t=72979)

[JohnPlatou]

Thanks

[pipefitter]

What about color matched fill sticks to fill scratches and such. Maybe a little artistry with a graining pencil perhaps. What about wet sanding the paint filled scratches with Watco colored danish oil so that the stained slurry fills the scratches and covers the paint? Seems it would work for at least the subsurface scratches and cracks.

[Peter Malcolm Jardine]

Heat gun and a tooth brush...or perhaps a brass bristle brush but be careful with it.

[Lew Barrett]

Be careful using sharp pointy instruments or metal brushes in an effort to pull paint out of the wood grain. I'd be tempted to try careful local staining or a variation on Pipefitter's techniques to hide the deep stuff if
it didn't come along with some gentle probing. If you scratch the area up too much and make deep divots, you'll be in for a lot of sanding or scraping; just what you were hoping to avoid. Dental picks are a standard trick for cleaning fussy areas, though; just don't get too aggressive.

[Bob Cleek]

Used to be bronze wool was the ticket for this sort of job. (NEVER steel wool!) I don't even know if they make it anymore. Seems most are using burgundy Scotchbrite pads now. I like the pads a lot better, but they don't hold up to solvents like the bronze wool does. Take it easy and don't wear all the soft wood out from between the grain. You're gonna have to sand a bunch anyway. There isn't much worse than mahogany when it comes to refinishing, but you have to dance with the girl you brought.

[Peter Malcolm Jardine]

Yep Bronze wool is available at West Marine in several grits

[bettyd]

If that's a veneer, you want to be careful not to burn through it by being too aggressive. A handful of planer chips rubbed over your stripper of choice works great, without damaging the wood's surface.
As for the grease, try a little dish soap and water scrubbed with a scouring pad. Use the one in the kitchen, just don't tell your wife.
Seriously, soap and water.

[Wild Wassa]

If the stain was porus and allowed the oil base to penetrate the timber, you will probably be getting what is called 'sweat-out' happening, where after you have taken off the stain, oil keeps coming to the surface. I wonder if that is the oil that you mention near the helm or a previous owner attacked bad sealing/paint with linseed oil in another uneducated choice of medium in an attempt to do quick repairs ... and you will pay for it for the rest of the boat's life.

I allow a few weeks for the sweat-out to happen, then I clean the timber again before applying any sealants. The best way to deal with sweat-out is scraping and sanding as often as you can.

Sometimes sweat-out takes little to deal with, just allowing a bit of time ... at other times it can be a life sentence.

If you are getting sweat-out and you don't deal adequately with it, your new skin will be blotchy in parts and can have a tendency to break down quickly.

Those painters who strip oil based paints from timber and then go the epoxy route, no doubt know exactly what I'm talking about. Epoxy doesn't like sweating-out happeming under it.

Good luck.

Warren.