altering stain colour
- Thread starter simonsix
- Start date
What type of wood is it, or what are the objects you wish to change and how ol is the wood?
In general to make it lighter you will have to bleach it by using say, oxalic acid, then you can restain it.
If it is old pine in a Victorian, or similar, house I would just remove the majority of the stain/varnish with meths and wire wool, then leave it or put a coat of shellac varnish on it. ie don't try to change the colour too much.
In general to make it lighter you will have to bleach it by using say, oxalic acid, then you can restain it.
If it is old pine in a Victorian, or similar, house I would just remove the majority of the stain/varnish with meths and wire wool, then leave it or put a coat of shellac varnish on it. ie don't try to change the colour too much.
Thanks for your reply oilman. It is softwood.Doors,skirting,architrave etc.
Our idea is to revarnish(the modern type with colour included) with an antique pine finish.
We consider that just putting on the new varnish wont do the trick to lighten it & wondered what professional decoraters do to achieve the desired effect.
Some of the woodwork dates back to the 30s & some to the 80s .
Simonsix
Our idea is to revarnish(the modern type with colour included) with an antique pine finish.
We consider that just putting on the new varnish wont do the trick to lighten it & wondered what professional decoraters do to achieve the desired effect.
Some of the woodwork dates back to the 30s & some to the 80s .
Simonsix
If it's early thirties, it could be good quality wood by today's standards, so go carefully. Try meths to see if it dissolves the existing varnish, you will need to keep it wet for a minute or two before it gets soft. Shellac varnish was used extensively, and we removed the paint from our stairway using meths and wire wool, revarnished, including the hand rails with shellac (french polish) about 15 years ago and it's still shining and it hasn't been re-done since. Modern stuff will be camparitively difficult to remove later.
Wood work used to have the grain painted on to look like oak or elm etc. when it was really pine. They put on a light undercaot and then applied the darker colours on top, and it was near impossible to tell if it was real in some cases.
You could perhaps remove the older wood and take it to someone who does pine stripping. The stripper has the effect of lightening the wood.
Wood work used to have the grain painted on to look like oak or elm etc. when it was really pine. They put on a light undercaot and then applied the darker colours on top, and it was near impossible to tell if it was real in some cases.
You could perhaps remove the older wood and take it to someone who does pine stripping. The stripper has the effect of lightening the wood.
